26 



THE HOUSE AND ITS EQUIPMENT. 



not till quite the end of the eighteenth century that Count 

 Rumford set about trying to design a proper fireplace 

 for the burning of coal, and the principles which he 

 enunciated, in a lecture before the Royal Institution, 

 are those which obtain at the present day. Count 

 Rumford was not successful in influencing public- 

 opinion ; here and there his principles were adopted, 

 but not generally until 1886. Then in the same place 

 another paper was read on the subject, by Dr. Pridgm 

 Teale, who acknowledged how much he was indebted 

 to the Count for his ideas, and from 1886 onwards 

 these principles have been generally adopted, and may 

 be set out as follows : i. A general contraction of 

 the size of the fireplace. 2. A use of brickwork and 

 fireclay for the same instead of iron. 3. Splayed sides 

 to the fireplace and a sloping back. The first condition 

 was an acknowledgment of the fact that coal instead of 

 wood had become the staple fuel, and so less space 

 was needed at the sides, and especially at the top ; as 

 less smoke was to be produced, less room was needed for 

 its escape. The second suggestion was a good one, as 



35. AT AVON TYRRELL. 



36. OLD CANOPIED EIREPLACE. 



brickwork and fireclay are not good conductors 

 of heat, which instead of being conducted 

 and lost in the body of the surrounding wall, 

 as was the case with the iron frame and 

 cheeks to the hob-grate, was retained and 

 radiated into the room. The temperature of 

 the fire was raised in consequence, and in the 

 result a more perfect consumption of the coal 

 took place. The third condition helped to 

 radiate heat into the room and again helped 

 combustion. It must be remembered that the 

 London fog is very largely caused by im 

 perfect combustion, and many attempts have 

 been made from time to time to remedy this ; 

 there have been stoves which were fed from 

 underneath, so that the products of com 

 bustion had to pass through the incandescent 

 mass, and were thus largely freed from their 

 deleterious components. Generally, however, 

 such designs were either too intricate to be 

 understood by the people or too costly to be 

 put upon the market, and never, therefore, 

 obtained any hold.. Enough has been in 

 stanced to show that from the days when our 



