There is a fireplace in the living room, with a cozy rocker next to it.
Even under the most advantageous application, that of evaporation of water in a steam boiler where the gases of the fire have to travel through a great length of flues bounded by thin iron surfaces of great heat-absorbing capacity, the temperature of the current at the chimney is generally much above that required to maintain an active draught in the fireplace; and other tubes containing water, often in considerable numbers, forming the so-called fuel economizers, may often be interposed between the boiler and the chimney with marked advantage as regards saving of fuel.
She dropped to the floor in front of the fireplace and crossed her legs.
The effect of this arrangement is that the great body of coal reaches a higher temperature than in an ordinary fireplace, and this, together with the reduction of the carbon dioxide formed immediately above the grate by the red-hot coal in the upper part of the furnace, leads to the formation of carbon monoxide which later on, on the spot where the greatest heat is required, is burned into dioxide by admitting fresh air, preferably pre-heated.
At one end of the room there was a big fireplace, where the mother did the cooking.