560 Of Chimney Fireplaces. 



tions relative to the construction and management of 

 these fireplaces, that may be of use to those who have in- 

 troduced them, or may be desirous of introducing them, 

 I feel it to be my duty to lay them before the public. 



It has been objected to these fireplaces, that they 

 sometimes occasion dust and ashes to come into the 

 room when the fire is stirred. I have examined several 

 fireplaces said to have been fitted up on my principles, 

 that have certainly had that fault; but I have common- 

 ly, I might say invariably, found, that their imperfections 

 have arisen from faults in their construction. Either 

 the grate has been brought out too far into the room, or 

 the opening of the fireplace in front has been left too 

 wide or too high, or the workman has neglected to 

 lower and to round off the breast of the chimney, or, 

 what I have often found to be the case, several of these 

 faults have existed together, in the same fireplace. 



When the throat of a chimney is situated very high 

 up above the mantle, and especially when the mantle 

 and breast of the chimney, or the wall that reposes on 

 the mantle, are very thin, workmen who are employed 

 to alter chimneys, setting about the work with their 

 minds strongly prepossessed with what they consider as 

 the leading principle 'in the construction of these fireplaces, 

 namely, that the throat of the chimney should not be 

 more than four inches wide, they are very apt to bring 

 the grate too far forward. In dropping their plumb- 

 line from the breast of the chimney, they do not reach 

 up high enough into the chimney, but take a part of the 

 breast, where it still goes on to slope backwards, for the 

 bottom of the perpendicular canal of the chimney. 

 They also very often commit another fault, not less 

 essential, and that has the same tendency, in neglecting 



