DOME, in chemistry, the upper part of furnaces, particularly portable ones. It has the figure of a hollow hemisphere or small dome. Its use is to form a space in the upper part of the furnace, the air of which is continually expelled by the fire: hence the current of air is considerably increased, which is obliged to enter by the ash-hole, and to pass through the fire, to supply the place of the air driven from the dome. The form of this piece renders it proper to reflect or reverberate a part of the flame upon the matters which are in the furnace, which has occasioned this kind of furnace to be called a reverberating one. See FURNACE.
DOME
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