Mantle piece and grate styles have altered but the basic structural elements of a fireplace have not drastically modified for centuries. The early aggregate of a big stone or brick opening with a chimney built over it developed out of the most obvious truth that smoke rises, rather than from a systematic understanding of how a well-designed flue system works. Hence early wood and later coal-burning fires were awfully inefficient and it wasn’t until a certain Benjamin Thompson ( sometimes called Count Rumford ) made his proposal on the principles of fireside style in 1799 that smaller grates and improvements in the internal shape of the openings were introduced.
A brick or stone enclosure forms the basis of the fireplace. Variously called the fireside opening or recess or builders opening, it could be set even with the wall or built out into the room, forming a chimney breast. This chimney breast rises thru the height of the house, emerging through the roof to form a chimney stack. At the apex of the opening the gather and flue combine to hold the smoke up the chimney. If the chimney is shared by several fireplaces on different floors, it may have more than one flue.
The masonry over the fire opening is supported by a lintel or a brick arch. Old inglenook fireplaces used massive oak beams, whereas a robust iron strap sometimes supports an early brick arch. Soon after fireplaces may have a straight arch supported by angle iron, and by the twentieth century cast cement lintels were the standard.
A hearth, constructed from non-combustible materials like stone or tile-faced concrete, comes out into the room to protect the floor from falling ashes. In a good amount of old homes the hearth was set flush with the floor, although infrequently a superimposed one was employed to raise the level. The space in the fireplace opening, called the back hearth, is mostly level with the hearth itself. A dog grate for burning wood or coal can be put on this back hearth. However, by the mid-nineteenth century the mass produced cast-iron register grate which filled the opening, had become the style.
To complete the assembly, a mantelpiece or mantel or fireplace surround, as it is regularly called today is fitted to border the grate or fireplace opening. The mantel might be made from stone, slate, marble, wood or iron. The walls around it may be finished with wood paneling, or more commonly with plaster, and in a few cases the mantel extends upwards to form a powerful chimneypiece. Mirrored overmantels were introduced in the late eighteenth century, and these became the classic feature of Victorian sitting rooms.
Within this fire an open fire burning wood or coal is a happy sight, but if it is your only source of heat, as it was for centuries, this romantic vision can shortly fade especially if the fire doesn’t burn correctly. Getting a fire started and keeping it land then becomes a problem, if not a bore. For wood and coal fires to combust well a fine supply of air is required under the grate, in addition to a strategy of escape for the hot gases and smoke. With the fuel safely controlled in the fire opening on a grate, free circulation of air is achievable and waste ash can fall through the grate so the fire isn’t stifled. If the chimney is inadequate or the flow of air is proscribed the fire will not function effectively . To find the righ ones be certain to search all the main electric fireplace logs and electric fireplace log manufacturer sites.