Suffering from cold, he sought a fire and could secure 

 nothing but a brazier, the fumes from whose smol- 

 dering wood blinded and choked him. Disgusted 

 with the unprogressive spirit of Rome he sent to Padua 

 for masons, whom he ordered to build two chimneys in 

 the inn. These were the first chimneys erected in the 

 Imperial City. 



Chimneys were soon adopted in the castles of Eng- 

 land, and, in consequence, the hearth, which formerly 

 stood in the middle of the room, was moved to a side 

 wall. They were at first constructed of wood, but in 

 1419 this material was prohibited. For a long time 

 the chimney remained closed at the top, the smoke 

 escaping through perforations in the sides. Fires were 

 by law extinguished at a certain hour in the evening. 

 This custom gave origin to the curfew-bell, which had 

 nothing to do with prayer, but only with municipal 

 safety, the bell announcing the hour for putting out 

 the fires. 



It was not till the sixteenth century that the use of 

 chimneys in dwelling-houses became general. The 

 Turks and Greeks of to-day do not use them, but per- 

 petuate an old Persian method of heating. They 

 dig a hole in the ground and set in it an iron vessel, 

 square or round, and two spans in depth. When a 

 fire of coal or wood is well started they place over the 

 little stove a sort of table, and over this table a covering, 

 a kind of quilt which retains the heat. Around this 

 stove sits the family. The fire is kept active by means 

 of a pipe which enters the stove at one point and emerges 

 from the floor at the other; this is in fact the prolonged 



