- Related Topics:
- fireback
- coal scuttle
- fire screen
- poker
- grate
fireplace
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What is a fireplace in architecture?
In architecture, a fireplace is a housing or framed opening built into a chimney to contain an open fire for heating and sometimes cooking. The rectangular form of early fireplaces, which were made of stone and later brick, proved superior for directing smoke up the chimney.
Scottish architect Robert Adam and Italian architect Giambattista Piranesi made considerable artistic contributions to fireplace design and construction.
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Why are fireplaces included in houses and buildings?
Fireplaces in houses and buildings serve both functional and decorative purposes. Historically, they provided heating and cooking, especially before modern central heating systems. The design of fireplaces has evolved, with early versions made of stone and later of brick. Over time, accessories like firebacks, andirons, and fire tools were added, often becoming decorative objects. Architects like Robert Adam and Giambattista Piranesi significantly contributed to fireplace design, highlighting their importance as interior elements.
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What basic parts make up a traditional fireplace?
A traditional fireplace consists of several key components. The hearth is the area in front of or the floor of the fireplace. Above the fire sits the firebox, a chamber that contains the fire. The throat is the opening immediately above the fire, leading to the smoke chamber, which connects the throat to the flue. A damper regulates airflow, and the mantel is the finish around the fireplace, often including a shelf. The chimney carries smoke away, aided by the flue's draft.
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How does a fireplace work to heat a room?
A fireplace heats a room primarily through thermal radiation. The fire's flames, hot coals, and heated bricks emit electromagnetic radiation that travels directly to objects and people in the room.
Fireplaces feature a firebox, often made of stone or brick, and a chimney to vent smoke. The shape of the fireplace, particularly the splayed sides, helps to increase the reflection of heat into the room. A masonry wall opposite the fireplace can absorb and re-radiate heat, improving efficiency. While some air is heated and rises through convection, most of the air drawn into the fireplace goes up the chimney.
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What materials are commonly used to build fireplaces?
Fireplaces are commonly built with stone and brick. After the 19th century, firebrick became more widely used in fireplace construction. Firebrick is a refractory brick that can sustain high temperatures and is often used to line furnaces or fireplaces. Firebricks consist of nonmetallic minerals like fireclays, silica sources, and magnesia minerals.
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How have fireplace designs changed throughout history?
Fireplace designs evolved significantly through history. Medieval houses initially had simple fireplaces with chimneys to remove smoke. Over time, rectangular shapes, grates, and splayed sides improved heat reflection. Early fireplaces were stone, but brick became common later.
Fireplace accessories, like decorated firebacks, andirons, and fire tools, became decorative objects. The poker became common in the 18th century. In 1624, Louis Savot designed a fireplace that drew air through passages under the hearth, an idea adapted in the 20th century with double-walled steel liners. Robert Adam and Giambattista Piranesi made artistic contributions to fireplace design.
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fireplace, housing for an open fire inside a dwelling, used for heating and often for cooking. The first fireplaces developed when medieval houses and castles were equipped with chimneys to carry away smoke; experience soon showed that the rectangular form was superior, that a certain depth was most favourable, that a grate provided better draft, and that splayed sides increased reflection of heat. Early fireplaces were made of stone; later, brick became more widely used. A medieval discovery revived in modern times is that a thick masonry wall opposite the fireplace is capable of absorbing and re-radiating heat.
From early times fireplace accessories and furnishings have been objects of decoration. Since at least the 15th century a fireback, a slab of cast iron, protected the back wall of the fireplace from the intense heat; these were usually decorated. After the 19th century the fireback gave way to firebrick in fireplace construction.
Andirons, a pair of horizontal iron bars on short legs and placed parallel to the sides of the fireplace to support burning logs, were used from the Iron Age. A vertical guard bar at the front, placed to prevent logs from rolling into the rooms, is often decorated ornately. (Rear guard bars were in use until the 14th century, when the central open hearth as a mode of heating went out of general use.) The grate, a sort of basket of cast-iron grillwork, came into use in the 11th century and was especially useful for holding coal.
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Fire tools used to maintain a fire have changed little since the 15th century: tongs are used to handle burning fuel, a fire fork or log fork to maneuver fuel into position, and a long-handled brush to keep the hearth swept. The poker, designed to break burning coal into smaller pieces, did not become common until the 18th century. Coal scuttles appeared early in the 18th century and were later adapted into usually ornamental wood boxes or racks for fire logs. The fire screen was developed early in the 19th century to prevent sparks from flying into the room, and it also has been ornamented and shaped to serve decorative as well as functional purposes.
The fireplace itself was not subject to significant improvement—once the open central hearth was abandoned—until 1624, when Louis Savot, an architect employed in construction in the Louvre, Paris, developed a fireplace in which air was drawn through passages under the hearth and behind the fire grate and discharged into the room through a grill in the mantel. This approach was adapted in the 20th century into a prefabricated double-walled steel fireplace liner with the hollow walls serving as air passages. Some such systems use electric fans to force circulation. In the 1970s, when sharply rising fuel costs had stimulated energy conservation measures, sealed systems were devised in which the air to support combustion is drawn in from outside the house or from an unheated portion; a glass cover, fitted closely over the front of the fireplace, is sealed once fuel has been placed and ignited.