Fig. 7, 8, and 9, show a plan, elevation, and section of a
Fire-place constructed or altered upon this principal.--The wall
of the Chimney in front at a, fig. 9, being only four inches
thick, four inches more added to it for the width of the throat
would have left the depth of the Fire-place measured upon the
hearth b c only eight inches, which would have been too
little;--a niche c and e, was therefore made in the new back of
the Fire-place for receiving the grate, which niche was six
inches deep in the center of it, below 13 inches wide, (or equal
in width to the grate,) and 23 inches high; finishing above with
a semicirular arch, which, in its highest part, rose seven inches
above the upper part of the grate.--The door-way for the
Chimney-sweeper, which begins just above the top of the niche,
may be seen distinctly in both the figures 8 and 9.--The space
marked g, fig. 9, behind this door-way, may either be filled with
loose bricks, or may be left void.--The manner in which the piece
of stone f, fig. 9, which is put under the mantle of the Chimney
to reduce the height of the opening of the Fire-place, is rounded
off on the inside in order to give a fair run to the column of
smoke in its ascent through the throat of the Chimney, is clearly
expressed in this figure.
The plan fig. 7, and elevation fig. 8, show how much the width of
the opening of the Fire-place in front is diminished, and how the
covings in the new Fire-place are formed.
A perfect idea of the form and dimension of the Fire-place in its
original state, as also after its alteration, may be had by
careful inspection of these figures.
I have added the drawing fig. 10, merely to show how a fault,
which I have found workmen in general whom I have employed in
altering Fire-places are very apt to commit, is to be avoided.
--In Chimneys like that represented in this figure, where the
jambs A and B project far into the room, and where the front edge
of the marble slab, o which forms the coving, does not come so
far forward as the front of the jambs, the workmen in
constructing the new covings are very apt to place them,--not in
the line c A, which they ought to do,--but in the line c o, which
is a great fault.--The covings of a Chimney should never range
BEHIND the front of the jambs, however those jambs may project
into the room;--but it is not absolutely necessary that the
covings should MAKE A FINISH with the internal front corners of
the jambs, or that they should be continues from the back c,
quite to the front of the jambs at A.--They may finish in front
at a and b, and small corners A, o, a, may be left for placing
the shovels, tongs, etc.
Were the new coving to range with the front edge of the old
coving o, the obliquity of the new coving would commonly be too
great;--or the angle d c o would exceed 135 degrees, WHICH IT
NEVER SHOULD DO,--or at least never by more than a very few
degrees.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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