338 Mr. T. Pridgin Teale [Feb. 5, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, February 5, 1836. 



Sir Frederick Bramwell, LL.D. F.R.S. Honorary Secretary and 

 Vice-President, in the Chair. 



T. Pridgin Teale, Esq. M.A. F.R.C.S. 



The Principles of Domestic Fireplace Construction. 



If there be a place in the kingdom in which a lecture on the subject 

 selected for to-night could appropriately be given, surely it is the 

 theatre in which we are assembled. Some of ray hearers may be 

 aware of the mutual fitness of subject and place. Many, perhaps, are 

 not aware, as, indeed, was the case with myself three months ago, that 

 the principles of fireplace construction which will be laid before you 

 to-night, and which I have been working out and teaching for the last 

 three or four years, were urged, written about, and acted upon at the 

 end of the last century by your Founder, Count Enraford, and that a 

 great portion of his time, his writings, and his work was devoted to 

 this very question. 



Hardly any subject would be more in harmony with the aims 

 which he set before him in founding this Society, as we may learn 

 from the following quotation from the "Prospectus of the Royal 

 Institution," published at the end of the 5th volume of Rumford's 

 Works : — " But if it should be proved, as in fact it may, that in the 

 applications of fire, in the management of heat, and in the production 

 of light, we do not derive half the advantage from combustion which 

 might be obtained, it will readily be admitted that these subjects must 

 constitute a very important part of the useful information to be con- 

 veyed in the public lectures of the Royal Institution." (V. p. 784.) 



And why should it be necessary, at the end of this nineteenth 

 century, to give a lecture on " The princijdes of fireplace construc- 

 tion " ? Why should such a title draw together an audience ? Clearly 

 from the fact that correct principles have been habitually, and, until 

 the last few years, almost universally violated, and because the rules 

 so ably worked out, so earnestly and forcibly advocated by Rumford, 

 have lain dormant, lingering here and there, chiefly in old-fashioned 

 houses, and almost forgotten. 



Again, why should a layman, whose profession lies outside that of 

 the architect, the builder, and the manufacturer, take upon himself to 

 teach principles that are to guide other professions than his own ? 



