In Paris I saw a fire-place so ingeniously contrived as to serve conveniently two rooms, a bedchamber and a study. The funnel over the fire was round. The fire-place was of cast iron ([Plate], Figure 13.) having an upright back A, and two horizontal semicircular plates B C, the whole so ordered as to turn on the pivots D E. The plate B always stopped that part of the round funnel that was next to the room without fire, while the other half of the funnel over the fire was always open. By this means a servant in the morning could make a fire on the hearth C, then in the study, without disturbing the master by going into his chamber; and the master, when he rose, could, with a touch of his foot, turn the chimney on its pivots, and bring the fire into his chamber, keep it there as long as he wanted it, and turn it again, when he went out, into his study. The room which had no fire in it was also warmed by the heat coming through the back plate, and spreading in the room, as it could not go up the chimney.
FOOTNOTES:
[51] This letter, which has been published in a separate pamphlet, both in this country and America, first appeared in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, in which it was read Oct. 21, 1785. Editor.
[52] See Notes at the end of the Letter, No. I.
[53] See Notes at the end of the Letter, No. II.
[54] See Notes at the end of the letter, No. II.
[55] See Notes at the end of the letter, No. II.
[56] See Notes at the end of the letter, No. III.
[57] See Notes at the end of the Letter, No. II.
[58] "It may be just remarked here, that upon comparing these proportions with those arising from the common divisions of the monochord, it happens that the first answers to unisons, and although the second is a discord, the third answers to the third minor, the fourth to the third major, the fifth to the fourth, the sixth to the fifth, and the seventh to the octave." Nutshells, page 85.