The matter of construction is not at all a complicated affair, as the next chapter will aim to show.
CONSTRUCTION
The chief difficulty in attaining a successful fireplace design does not lie in securing an abundant draft. In fact it is an easy matter to make a fireplace draw if the flue is large enough and the opening from the fire chamber into the flue unobstructed. There will never be any question of getting a roaring blaze the moment the fire is lighted.
This is, in a way, the type of fireplace that our Colonial ancestors built—great cavernous openings and generous flues, with the result that the more wood was piled upon the blaze the more they blistered their toes and at the same time chilled their backs. For it is evident that when we secure such a strong, unobstructed current of hot air up the chimney, enough cool air to take its place must be drawn into the room through every opening and crevice. The result is a mighty draft that rushes past those unfortunate enough to be sitting about the fire and carries rapidly up the chimney almost all of the heat of combustion.
In the fireplace of our Colonial ancestors probably ninety per cent. of the heat was entirely lost, being carried up the chimney. However, cord wood was then to be had for the cutting.
We want a different sort of a fire in these days—one that will burn with a steady, constant blaze or glow, conserving most of its heat, which the back and sides of the fire chamber will reflect out into the room.
Such a fireplace will not necessarily be a large one. It is amusing to hear how universally the demand goes up for large fireplaces—“great big fellows that will burn full cord wood.” It is hard to see just why this is. It may be based on the assumption that if a small fireplace is desirable a large one is more so. This is a fallacy that the architect and fireplace builder find it hard to dispel. There is no objection whatever to a large fireplace in a summer camp or informal shack of that sort. In fact a small one would in such a place be ridiculous, but when we come to our year-round living-room or dining-room or den, where the walls of the room are tight and the whole atmosphere quieter and more restrained, a large fireplace would be distinctly a disturbing element. Such a room as this, unless very poorly built, would not permit the in-take of sufficient air for the draft of a big fireplace, whereas in our slab cabin or log bungalow the conditions are quite different.
