520 Of Chimney Fireplaces. 



they will burn with a clear fire, and all additional appa- 

 ratus being not only useless, but very pernicious, all 

 complicated and expensive grates should be laid aside, 

 and such as are more simple substituted in the room of 

 them. And in the choice of a grate, as in everything 

 else, beauty and elegance may easily be united with the 

 most perfect simplicity. Indeed, they are incompatible with 

 everything else. 



In placing the grate, the thing principally to be 

 attended to is to make the back of it coincide with the 

 back of the fireplace ; but as many of the grates now in 

 common use will be found to be too large, when the 

 fireplaces are altered and improved, it will be necessary 

 to diminish their capacities by filling them up at the 

 back and sides with pieces of fire-stone. When this is 

 done, it is the front of the flat piece of fire-stone which 

 is made to form a new back to the grate, which must be 

 made to coincide with and mark part of the back 

 of the fireplace. But in diminishing the capacities of 

 grates with pieces of fire-stone, care must be taken not 

 to make them too narrow. 



The proper width for grates destined for rooms of a 

 middling size will be from 6 to 8 inches, and their 

 length may be diminished more or less, according as the 

 room is heated with more or less difficulty, or as the 

 weather is more or less severe. But where the width of 

 a grate is not more than 5 inches, it will be very diffi- 

 cult to prevent the fire from going out. 



It goes out for the same reason that a live coal from 

 the grate that falls upon the hearth soon ceases to be red- 

 hot ; it is cooled by the surrounding cold air of the at- 

 mosphere. The knowledge of the cause which produces 

 this effect is important, as it indicates the means which 



