A small German stove, suitable for a room twenty-four feet by eighteen, will give an idea of the general character of this kind of close stove. The stove rests on a base about thirty-six inches by fourteen. The fire-place has a bottom to receive the fuel, but no bars, and is shut by a door which fits closely to its case. This door has a small wicket at the bottom, the aperture of which is regulated by a sliding plate, so as to admit no more air than will suffice for the slow combustion of the fuel. The flame and heated air ascend to the top of the fire-place, and pass into two hollow pillars or piers, which rise to a height of five or six feet, so that the heat is communicated to a large surface, before the volatilized products of combustion make their exit by a pipe into the chimney. The stove is supplied with fuel and with air by the front door. If it is desired to make the fire visible, and impart some of that cheerfulness which belongs to an open grate, the door of the stove maybe thrown open, for there is no danger of the smoke coming out after the current has once warmed the upper part of the stove. When the stove is of such dimensions that the body of it is about two feet and a half high, the fire-place may be furnished with a small grate in the English style. If the door is so hung that it can not only be thrown back, but also lifted off its hinges, it will approach still more to the character of a stove-grate. A cheap form of “German stove” is often made in this country, and used in workshops and small manufactories, where the body of the stove is an upright cylinder, of which the lower part is the ash-pit, closed or opened by a hinged-door, the middle part the fire-place, where the fuel rests on bars, and the upper part a vacant space, which becomes filled with flame, smoke, and heated air, so as to impart great heat to a flat iron plate at the top. There is a door at which the fuel is introduced, and a small flue or funnel of iron pipe, which conveys the smoke into a chimney or into the open air. Many forms of stove have been used more or less resembling this in principle; but there is one great defect pertaining to them all. The metal of which the stove is formed becomes so highly heated near the stove, that it acquires a _burnt_ smell, owing to the decomposition of animal and vegetable particles which are at all times floating about in the air. The air, too, in the room, becomes close and oppressive from another cause; for as only a small quantity of air is consumed by the stove, the air does not become renewed in the room so frequently as when an open fire is used, and thus it is respired over and over again.