CHIMNTY. 



OHIMVEY.PIECE. 



chimney-flues within the eubstonou of the party-wall, an arrangement 

 which, while it involves rather more brickwork than the older plan of 

 forming them in the projecting jamb*, hu the advantage of leaving 

 the width and projection of the jambi entirely dependent upon the 

 taste of the architect. Where thii plan is adopted in the case of two 

 adjoining houses, the fire-places of which are back to back, the flues of 

 two houses may be brought into one plane, a* illustrated in the annexed 

 diagrams, jfg*. 1 and 2. Pig. \ represent* the arrangement of the Hues 

 in a four-story house, having two fire-places on each of the three lower 



lie. l. 



floors, and three on the upper floor, making nine in all. Being one of 

 two houses with their flues united into one stack, the number of 

 separate flues required in eighteen ; but to show the arrangement more 

 distinctly, the flues of one house only are tinted, while those of the 

 adjoining house, rising from fire-places in the same positions but on 

 the opposite side of the party-wall, are left in outline. The fire-places 

 are indicated by a dark tint, and the positions of the floors and par- 

 titions are shown by dotted lines, fig. '2 represents transverse sections 

 or ground-plans of the party-wall and flues, at the respective levels of 

 the floors, a, b, and c, the flues of the one house being shown by a dark 

 colour, while those of the other, left in outline in Jit/. 1, are shown 

 white. If the stock were for a single house only, the arrangement of 

 the tinted tot of flues would need to be a little altered, so as to bring 

 them close together in the chimney-shaft. Were the flues of the some 

 house to be formed in the jambs, instead of being in the substance of 

 the party-wall, the transverse section of the wall at the floor a would be 



tilt. 2. 



> >^ 



I 



iar 



i 



as in fy. 8, the inner jambs being widened to receive the flues from 

 the basement story ; but the arrangement of the flues in the upper 



Flf. I. 



storeys would be altered, so as to distribute the flues as equally as 

 possible on each side of the fire-places. It is however imuomihle in a 

 lofty house, with flues of this description, to avoid the disfigurement 

 of unequal jambs, since it will inevitably occur that in Home, cases a 

 fire-place will have one flue in the one jamb and two in the other, or 

 two flue* on one side and three on the other. Another important. 

 advantage gained by placing the flues in the party-wall is, that the 



projection of the jambs and breast may be reduced from 1 4 inches, 

 the projection necessary when the flues are in the jambs, U 4} inches. 

 This advantage is not apparent in the outs here given, because where 

 fire-places are made back to back they cannot be mad* to recede so 

 far into the wall as in other cases, it being necessary to preserve a 

 thickness of nine inches between the backs of the two fire-plac. The 

 variations from the straight vertical course necessary to enable the 

 I flues which rise from the fire-places of the lower storeys to pan beside 

 ! the fire-places of upper storeys, are useful in checking the tend. -i 

 the chimneys to smoke, and ore frequently increased for that purpose 

 beyond the degrees necessary for their arrangement in the stack ; but 

 in making them it is very desirable to avoid angles and sudden turns, 

 which encourage the lodgment of soot, and impede the operation of 

 the sweeping-machine. It is hardly needful to observe here the im- 

 portance [SMOKE] of avoiding the communication of one flue with 

 another. Such an arrangement is now very rarely permitted, except ing 

 in the case of a copper or oven flue, which is frequently tunic. I int.i 

 a kitchen flue, instead of being carried up separately to the top of the 

 stick. 



Indispensable as chimneys now appear, they are of comparatively 

 modern invention. Beekmann, who gives a long dissertation on tin-it 

 early history, with numerous references to passages in aneient . 

 bearing upon the subject (' History of Inventions,' English edition ,.f 

 1814, vol. ii. pp. 62-101), gays that the oldest certain account of chim- 

 neys with which he was acquainted occurs in the year 1347, wh< n 

 several chimneys at Venice were thrown down by on earthquake ; but 

 they were not in general use until long after that time. 



On the subject of engine and factory chimneys the reader m.r 

 suit Dr. Ure's ' Dictionary of Art*, 1 article ' Chimney,' where it i< 

 stated that the celebrated Montgolfier was the first to investigate the 

 general principles of chimney-draughts, as applied in manufacturing 

 establishments. Dr. Ure gives sectional and other diagrams of one of 

 the immense and yet beautiful chimneys at the Camden Town 

 of the London and Birmingham (now London and North- Western) 

 Railway, connected with the furnaces of the stationary engines for 

 working the Euston inclined plane, subsequently removed. Hebert, 

 ' Engineer's and Mechanic's Encyclopiodia.' vol. i. p. 864, describes a 

 curious mode of constructing chimneys with circular flues enclosed 

 within common brick flues of an octagonal form, in mieh a manner 

 that the inner flue, which forms the only passage for the smoke, is 

 surrounded by a current of hot air supplied by enclosed chambers at 

 the back of the fire-place, the effect of which is greatly to improve the 

 draught. The internal flue is formed of a peculiar wedge-shaped kind 

 of brick, which affords facilities for the formation of curves without 

 any roughness or irregularity in the work, whenever it is desired to 

 conduct the flue in a serpentine direction. This plan, which is patented 

 by Mr. Hiort, is said to have been adopted in several public buildings 

 with success. In the better sort of houses the flues are sometimes so 

 constructed that they may be swept from openings in the basement 

 story, without any communication with the rooms into which the 

 fire-places open. 



The celebrated chimney of the St. Rollox chemical works, near 

 Glasgow, was not less than 450 feet in height, from foundations to 

 top, its diameter at the ground line being 40 feet, and at the top i:t 

 feet 6 inches. The chimney, subsequently destroyed, of Mr. MusprattV 

 soda ash manufactory, near Liverpool, was 406 feet high above the 

 ground, 45 feet diameter at the base, and 9 feet diameter at the top ; 

 and the chimney of the Edinburgh gas-works is not less than 341 feet 

 li iin'hcs high. In the ' Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal,' and in 

 the ' Builder ' (pamim), many interesting statistics connected \\ ith tin- 

 branch of construction are to be met with ; whilst the theoretical 

 principles it involves ore to be found in Peclet's ' Traite 1 de la Chaleur.' 

 CHIMNEY-PIECE, the assemblage of architectural dressing* 

 around the open reoess constituting the fire-place in a room, and within 

 which the fuel is burnt, either immediately ujxin the hearth itself, or 

 in a raised grate or open stove. Accordingly, the fire-place being the 

 spot around which persons naturally group themselves in an apartment , 

 or near which they take their station literally the 1 rm ,,f the do- 

 mestic circle the chimney-piece has always been made a pr- 



and a chief point for decoration, so much so as to be con- 

 sidered almost essential to the character of a sitting-room ; for though 

 an equal degree of warmth and a more equable temperature may bo 

 obtained by means of flues for hot air, a room lias a rather blank and 

 comfortless appearance without a fire-place ; and though its want may 

 not be felt, the chimney-piece is missed as an architectural feature, 

 there being about the same want of expression when it is absent as 

 there is in a house which shows no chimneys. Both chimney-shafts 

 and chimney-pieces were therefore properly made significant and orna- 

 mental features in our ancient domestic architecture. For a long time 

 indeed, fire-places were used only for one or two principal rooms in a 

 building, and were of very rude and primitive design, the funnel of the 

 cliinmcv projecting into the room, and sometimes sloping forward, 

 downwards, and tfie opening for the fire-place being a simple arch, 

 with scarcely any attempt at ornament The. more ancient ex.. 

 are those of mere fire-places rather than chimney-pieces. In Am. 

 architecture much was exceedingly uncouth and inconvenient, at the 

 time when the Gothic style had attained in eo lilk-cw what 



has been considered by many its highest perfection. But as soon as 



