The inhabitants apply these natural fires to domestic purposes, by sinking a hollow cane or merely a tube of paper, about two inches in the ground, and by blowing upon a burning coal held near the orifice of the tube, there issues a slight flame, which neither burns the cane nor the paper. By means of these canes or paper tubes, from which the fire issues, the inhabitants boil the water in their coffee-urns, and even cook different articles of food. The flame is put out by merely plugging up the orifice. The same tubes are employed for illuminating houses that are not paved. The smell of naphtha is of course diffused through the house: but after any person is accustomed to it, it ceases to be disagreeable. The inhabitants also employ this natural fire in calcining lime. The quantity of naphtha procured in the plain to the south-east of Badku is enormous. It is drawn from wells, some of which yield from 1,000 to 1,500lbs. per day. As soon as these wells are emptied, they fill again till the naphtha rises to its original level.[36] [36] See Forster’s Travels, and Kinneir’s Geog. Memoir. Inflammable gases issuing from the earth have been used both in the old and the new world for domestic purposes. In the salt mine of Gottesgabe, at Rheims, in the county of Fecklenburg, there is a pit called the _Pit of the Wind_, from which a constant current of inflammable gas has issued for sixty years. M. Roeder, the inspector of the mines, has used this gas for two years, not only as a light, but for all the purposes of domestic economy. In the pits which are not worked, he collects the gas, and conveys it in tubes to his house. It burns with a white and brilliant flame, has a density of about O.66, and contains traces of carbonic acid gas and sulphuretted hydrogen.[37] [37] _Edinburgh Journal of Science_, No. xv., p. 183. Near the village of Fredonia, in North America, on the shores of Lake Erie, are a number of burning springs, as they are called. The inflammable gas which issues from these springs is conveyed in pipes to the village, which is actually lighted by them.[38] [38] _Edinburgh Journal of Science_, No. xv., p. 183.