288 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. .9.H I 1 = V 1 '"■ t
535 surface of t'le former should always be made to slope inwards, as before stated, and the breadth of the bars should be somewhat greater than is usually employed. This is shown in fig. 533, g, and also in the section, fig. 534, to a scale of a quarter of an inch to a foot, in which k k k are the sections of the bars ; /, the bottom grate ; and m, the ash-drawer. The front bars should always be straight, because the consumption of the fuel depends on its being as little exposed as possible to cold air on the sides, and because the heat given out to the room depends on the breadth of surface of the ignited fuel, and not on the depth of the fuel chamber. Curved fronts, therefore, for fireplaces of this sort, are never to be recom- mended ; not only because they increase the depth of the fuel- chamber, but because they expose a greater portion of the fuel to the action of the cool air, by which perfect combustion is rendered more difficult. With the fireplaces near the hearth, with front bars beveled inwards, and with an ash-drawer, the fender may be made very low ; and thus the heat may be allowed to radiate freely to that part of the floor from which it is excluded by a high fender. It is necessary to observe that the bottom or ash-drawer is not recommended as a means of increasing the heat, because its front and bottom will prevent a portion of that from being radiated to the hearth, but chiefly as a means of regulating the draught of air through the fire, and consequently of accelerating or diminishing the consumption of the fuel ; and partly for the sake of cleanliness, in preventing the small ashes from falling on the hearth, and avoiding the dust which in that case arises when they are swept up and carried away. 600. A simple and economical Fireplace for a cottage parlour the chimney of which is liable to smoke, is in use in some parts of Fifeshire and Mid- Lothian, and is worthy of imitation in countries where fire stone or fire clay can be readily procured. In the cot- tages alluded to, the sides or jambs, figs. 535, 536, n n (between which are fixed the front bars and the grate), are formed of a kind of fire stone, found in the island of Cramond ; the fire-cham- ber is wide in front, but not deep ; in consequence of which it consumes but few coals in proportion to the heat it throws out. The upper part of the fireplace, behind, and at the sides, is formed of the same stone ; and in front there is fixed a cast- iron plate, with an opening in it ; which, though generally semicir- cular, might be made square, or Gothic, according to the character of the architecture of the house. These fireplaces are valuable for low-roofed cottages placed among high trees, as the chimneys of dvvell- ings so situated are very apt to smoke. Fireplaces thus constructed draw well ; but it must be obvious that, in proportion as this is the case, a greater amount of heat must be carried up the chimney. A thin plate (generally of sheet iron) is sometimes hooked on in front of the opening, on first lighting the fire, in order to increase the draught, by preventing the cold air of the room from mixing with the heated air that has passed through the fire. In Ireland, we are informed by Mr. Bu- chanan, in his Economy of Fuel, p. 315, that, instead of using a cast-iron plate, the back of the upper part of the fireplace is formed into an oval niche, by fire stone or fire brick ; the breast of the chimney being rounded of}", and the throat very much con- tracted. A view of such a chimney is given in an excellent work, entitled The T/icort/ and Practice of Warming and Ventilating, &c., p. 183. We can only recommend such fireplaces, however, as a minor evil to that of a smoky chimney. The grate, fig. 535, and the preceding one, fig. 533, have one disadvantage for the cottager, common to both, viz., that of liaving no hobs ; but this want may be supplied in the present grate, by omitting the cast-iron plate, when the tops of the jambs would become hobs, as is actually the case in the parlour fireplaces of cottagers about Edinburgh : 5S6
