FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 13 



teen gained, and perhaps direction of smoke is the first object sought. 

 It is observed, however, that some natives appear to be apathetic 

 toward smoke, and primitive appearing house fires among many- 

 tribes have little provision for carrying smoke away. In a sense the 

 aboriginal house may be conceived as a protection to the fire and the 

 structure itself a chimney. In pre-Columbian times there were no 

 chimneys in the Western Hemisphere. The chimney was early in- 

 troduced in America, principally from Spanish sources. There is a 

 chimney of brick in Gloucester County, Virginia, which is reputed to 

 have been Powhatan's; in any case it belongs to early colonial times. 

 The Pueblo Indians, being practical housebuilders and willing to 

 make improvements, adopted the chimney many years ago. In 

 post-discovery America the use of the chimney was sporadic. The 

 great mass of the population retained the time-honored open fire. 



In Europe the chimney is not very old, having been introduced in 

 the fourteenth century. The development of the chimney took place 

 with other developments of the fire for special purposes and better- 

 ments, and will be discussed under cooking, warming, etc. 



FIRE IN ARCHITECTURE 



Fire has had an important influence in arcliitecture. We may 

 regard the primitive house as circular and conical, and built to con- 

 tain one family. This type has the fireplace in the center and the 

 apex of the roof is left open to carry away the smoke. It is distrib- 

 uted wddely in the world among the less-advanced peoples. Ancient 

 references, inscriptions, and other such data show the beehive shape 

 house as probably the earhest form having definite architectm-e, an 

 advance over the simple windbreaks and lean-tos. We have sugges- 

 tions of the curved or softer type of structure design in natm-e. The 

 primitive circular house and its fire must be in conformity, and the 

 house is built around the fire for several reasons. The first reason 

 is that the house is built of inflammable material, and the fire can 

 not be safely laid to one side. Another reason is that the fire in the 

 center allows the greatest area of floor space at an equal distance 

 from the heat and light. Furthermore, the fire and smoke exit 

 must coincide, and one of the earliest observations was that smoke 

 goes upward and into the conical roof, which in this sense is a fore- 

 runner of a knowledge of draught, this conical roof exteriorly being 

 the form to shed water. The house has been spoken of as "clothing 

 for the family." It is suggested also that its earliest purpose was the 

 housing of the fire. 



The communal house is later, and evidently is the coalescence of 

 several family units under a more liiglily developed social order. 

 Here we have each family with its own fire. The style of arcliitec- 

 ture is changed to oblong, but the interior partitioning to separate 



