434 C H I M N E Y. 
other inflammable fubdances is made in it. When this 
is done, they place over the hole or dove a wooden top, 
like a {mail low table, and fpread above it a large cover¬ 
let quilted with cotton, which hangs down on all Tides to 
the floor. This covering condenfes the heat, and caufes 
it. to warm the whole apartment. The people who eat or 
conveyfe there, and Tome who deep in it, lie down on the 
floor above the carpet, and lean, with their flioulders 
againft the wall, on l'quare cufnions, upon which they 
fbmetimes alio lit; for the tennor is condrufted in a 
place equally dillant from the walls on both Tides. 
Thofe who are not very cold only put their feet under 
the table or covering; but thofe who require more heat 
can put their hands under it, or creep under it altoge¬ 
ther. By thefe means the Hove diffufes over the whole bo¬ 
dy, without caufing uneafinels to the head, fo penetrating 
and agreeable a warmth, that I never in winter experi¬ 
enced anything more pleafant. Thofe, however, who require 
Jefs heat let the coverlet hang down on their flde to the 
floor, and enjoy, without any inconvenience from the 
Hove, the moderately heated air of the apartment. 
They have a method alfo of dining up or blowing the fire 
when necelfary, by means of a finall pipe united with 
the tennor or ltove under the earth, and made to project 
above the floor as high as one choofes, fo that the wind 
when a perfonbiows into it, becaufe it has no other vent, 
aits • immediately upon the fire like a pair of bellows. 
When there is no longer occafion to ufe this ltove, both 
holes are clofed up, that is to fay, the mouth of the 
Hove and that of the pipe which conveys the air to it, 
by a fiat ltone made for that purpofe. Scarcely any ap¬ 
pearance of them is then to be perceived, nor do they 
occafion inconvenience, efpecially in a country where it 
5 s always cultomary to cover the floor with a carpet,and 
where the walls are plaiftered, In many parts thefe ovens 
are ufed to cook victuals, by placing kettles over them. 
They are employed alfo to bake bread, and for this pur¬ 
pofe they are covered with a large broad metal plate, 
on which the cake is laid: but if the bread is thick and 
requires more heat, it is put into the Hove itfelf.” We 
may add, that the jews ufed fuch (loves in their houfes, 
and the prielts had them alfo in the temple. That the 
Greeks and Romans adopted a (imilar method, is ex¬ 
tremely probable ; for it is certain that no traces of 
chimneys were found in the newly difcovered city of 
Herculaneum, as defcribed by the abbe Winckeimann. 
That there were no chimneys in the twelfth and thir¬ 
teenth centuries, Teems to be proved by the ignhegium, 
or pyritegium, the curfeu-bell of the English, and couvre- 
feu of the French. In the middle ages, as they are 
termed, people made fires in their houfes in a hole or pit 
in the centre of the floor, under an opening formed in 
the roof; and when the fire was burnt out, or the family 
went to bed at night, the-hole was lhut by a cover of 
wood. In thofe periods a law was almoll every where 
cltablilhed, that the fire Ihould be extinguifhed at a cer¬ 
tain time in the evening; that the cover Ihould be put 
over the fire-place; and that all the family Ihould retire 
to reft, or at lead be at home. The time when this 
ought to be done was fignified by the ringing of a bell. 
William the Conqueror introduced this law into Eng¬ 
land in 1068, and fixed the ignitegium at feven in the 
evening, in order to prevent no6turnal alfemblies; but 
this lav/ was abolilhed by Henry I. in 1100. The oldell 
certain account of chimneys, occurs in 1347, in an in- 
Icription (till exiiting at Venice, which relates, that at 
the above period a great many chimneys (molti camini) 
were thrown down by an earthquake. This circum- 
ltance is confirmed by John Villani, the hillorian, who 
died at Florence in 1348, and who calls the chimneys fu- 
majuoli. Galeazzo Gataro, who in the Dictionary of 
Learned Men is named De Gataris, and who died of the 
plague in 1405, fays in his Hitlory of Padua, that Fran- 
celco da Carraro, lord of Padua, came to Rome in 1368, 
and finding no chimneys at the iun where he lodged, be¬ 
caufe at that time fire was kindled in a hole in the mid¬ 
dle of the floor, he caufed two chimneys, like thofe which 
had been long ufed at Padua, to be confirufted, and 
arched by mafons and carpenters whom he had brought 
along with him. Over thefe chimneys, the firjl ever feen 
at Rome, he affixed his arms, which were Hill remaining 
in the time of Gataro. An evident and fatisfaftory proof 
that chimneys are but of modern date. 
Of the-great inconveniences which the ancients la¬ 
boured under for want of this accommodation, thofe 
will bed judge who are annoyed with fmoky chimnies. 
Modern invention, however, and the progrefs of the 
arts, feem to have overcome this deleft. Sir Benjamin 
Thompfon, now count Romford, by detefting the caule, 
appears to have found a radical cure. One of the philo¬ 
sophical principles, on which this improvement is founded, 
is a dillinftion in the form under which heat generated 
by combuftion exilts. This the count aflerts to have at 
lead two perfeftly didinft modifications: viz. that of 
heat combined with the fmoke and vapour flying off from 
the fuel; and that of heat uncombined, or at lead com¬ 
bined only with light, which he calls radiant heat. It is 
on the converfion of the greated part of the former into 
the latter, that he depends for the improvements which 
he fuggeds. Praftically, his contrivances chiefly confill 
in narrowing the throat of the chimney, and in condruft- 
ing the Tides of the fire-place in fuch a manner as to 
throw forwards, by reflection, as many as polfible of the 
rays of heat and light. We need only add that their 
efficacy has been proved in the alterations that have been 
made, under the count’s direction, in the fire-places 
of many houfes of perfons of dillinftion in and near 
London, infomuch that almod every mafon, aware of its 
great utility,' is now qualified to alter chimneys, and 
let grates, upon count Rumford’s plan. This circum- 
fiance has induced feveral ingenious perfons to co-operate 
in the views of the above able philofopher, by condruft- 
ing grates, with an apparatus of vents and tubes, adapt¬ 
ed to the principles laid down by the count for curing 
fmoky chimnies. Some of thele are the invention or’ 
Mr. James Burns, of Glafgow, fanftioned by letters 
patent, dated November 3, 1799, the plan and proper¬ 
ties of which the reader will find under the article 
Grate. An improvement of a limilar nature, protect¬ 
ed likewife by letters patent, has been lately made to the 
kitchen-range, and dove, by Mr. George Stratton, of 
Cheaplide, London ; as well to fave fuel, as to cure 
fmoky chimnies. We think, however, that fmoky 
chimneys might in general be prevented, by twidingo’r 
bending the flue in an oblique or zigzac direftion, when 
they are fird conilrufted. Many able architects, with 
whom we have conferred on this iubjeft, allure us, that 
not one dack of chimnies which they have had erefted 
with twilled flues, have been ever known to fmoke. 
The reafon is obvioully this ; that as the parallel line is 
broken, the weight of the incumbent atmoiphere loles 
its preffure, and the fmoke is not impeded in iffuing 
from the aperture of the chimney. For the condruftion 
and proportion of chimneys, fee Architecture, vol. 
ii. p. 107. 
A theory of chimneys and fire-places, has been lately 
pubiilhed, by Mr. Dauforth, of the Harvard Univerfity, 
at Cambridge, in America, which pofledes great im¬ 
provements on count Rumford’s plan; with a mecha- 
nifm, whereby in cafes of fire, either in Ihips or in dwei- 
ling-houles, the fame may be fpeedily got under and 
extinguidied., with certainty and eafe. This propofed 
improvement feems to be no other than the weli-known 
expedient of efiablilhing a communication by a tube or 
flue, between the external air and the back part of the 
fite place. The propofed mode of e'xtinguidung fires 
depends on a fyltem of tubes carried from an outlide 
wail, to each apartment in the divelling-iioule, and ter¬ 
minating in the centre of the ceiling, in a hollow globe 
pierced lull of holes, whereby a dream of water might 
