American inventions and inventors . a time lumber mills were built and the logs weresawed into planks and boards. Many of the earliest NewEngland houses contained but one room with an attic. Thehouse was entered directly from out-of-doors, and was lightedby windows set wuth very small panes of glass or oiled one corner was the staircase, which sometimes was merelya ladder or perhaps a few cleats nailed on the furniture was meagre and most of it rudely made. Can we see any improvement in this rough cottage overthe Indian long house? It was more permanent; it wastighter an
American inventions and inventors . a time lumber mills were built and the logs weresawed into planks and boards. Many of the earliest NewEngland houses contained but one room with an attic. Thehouse was entered directly from out-of-doors, and was lightedby windows set wuth very small panes of glass or oiled one corner was the staircase, which sometimes was merelya ladder or perhaps a few cleats nailed on the furniture was meagre and most of it rudely made. Can we see any improvement in this rough cottage overthe Indian long house? It was more permanent; it wastighter and warmer; it was the abode of one family; it w^asa real home. In another respect the comfort of the log cabinwas greatly increased: it had an enclosed fireplace and achimney. Some years ago fireplaces were seldom seen in our dwel-lings. In many of the old houses, in which the fireplaces wereas old as the houses themselves, they were never used andwere either boarded up or carefully screened from view. But HEAT—COLONIAL HOMES. 27. more recently they have come into use again, and now seldomis a well arranged house built without one or more open fire-places. We are then—most of us—acquainted with this smallopening in the side or the corner of the room, in which smalllogs of wood burn upon the andirons or a bed of coals uponthe grate. However, this modern grate or hearth is veryunlike the huge fireplace of one and two centuries ago. In the houses in which your great-grandmother and hermother and grandmother and great-grandmother lived, thefireplace was not con-fined to a corner ofthe room, nor did itburn sticks fifteen oreighteen inches the oldest housenow standing inRhode Island the fire-place was nearly ten feet long and about four feet in depth. Its back and sideswere of stone, nearly two feet thick, and the chimney, thirteenfeet by six, did not begin to narrow, as it went upward, untilit reached the roof. This fire place made an excellent play-house when the fire
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