2. The newer-fashioned fire-places, with low breasts, and narrow hearths.
3. Fire-places with hollow backs, hearths, and jams of iron (described by M. Gauger, in his tract entitled, La Mechanique de Feu) for warming the air as it comes into the room.
4. The Holland stoves, with iron doors opening into the room.
5. The German stoves, which have no opening in the room where they are used, but the fire is put in from some other room, or from without.
6. Iron pots, with open charcoal fires, placed in the middle of a room.
1. The first of these methods has generally the conveniency of two warm seats, one in each corner; but they are sometimes too hot to abide in, and, at other times, incommoded with the smoke; there is likewise good room for the cook to move, to hang on pots, &c. Their inconveniencies are, that they almost always smoke, if the door be not left open; that they require a large funnel, and a large funnel carries off a great quantity of air, which occasions what is called a strong draft to the chimney, without which strong draft the smoke would come out of some part or other of so large an opening, so that the door can seldom be shut; and the cold air so nips the backs and heels of those that sit before the fire, that they have no comfort till either screens or settles are provided (at a considerable expence) to keep it off, which both cumber the room, and darken the fire-side. A moderate quantity of wood on the fire, in so large a hearth, seems but little; and, in so strong and cold a draught, warms but little; so that people are continually laying on more. In short, it is next to impossible to warm a room with such a fire-place: and I suppose our ancestors never thought of warming rooms to sit in; all they purposed was, to have a place to make a fire in, by which they might warm themselves when cold.
2. Most of these old-fashioned chimneys in towns and cities, have been, of late years, reduced to the second sort mentioned, by building jambs within them, narrowing the hearth, and making a low arch or breast. It is strange, methinks, that though chimneys have been so long in use, their construction should be so little understood till lately, that no workman pretended to make one which should always carry off all smoke, but a chimney-cloth was looked upon as essential to a chimney. This improvement, however, by small openings and low breasts, has been made in our days; and success in the first experiments has brought it into general use in cities, so that almost all new chimneys are now made of that sort, and much fewer bricks will make a stack of chimneys now than formerly. An improvement, so lately made, may give us room to believe, that still farther improvements may be found to remedy the inconveniencies yet remaining. For these new chimneys, though they keep rooms generally free from smoke, and, the opening being contracted, will allow the door to be shut, yet the funnel still requiring a considerable quantity of air, it rushes in at every crevice so strongly, as to make a continual whistling or howling; and it is very uncomfortable, as well as dangerous, to sit against any such crevice. Many colds are caught from this cause only, it being safer to sit in the open street, for then the pores do all close together, and the air does not strike so sharply against any particular part of the body.
The Spaniards have a proverbial saying,
If the wind blows on you through a hole,
Make your will, and take care of your soul.