CHIMNEY

CHIMNEY, in Architecture, a particular part of a house, where the fire is made, having a tube or funnel to carry off the smoke. The word chimney comes from the French cheminée; and that from the Latin caminata, "a chamber wherein is a chimney;" caminata, again, comes from caminus; and that from the Greek καμνος, "a chimney;" of καίνω, καίνω, "I burn."

Chimneys are usually supposed a modern invention; the ancients only making use of stoves: but Octavio Ferrari endeavours to prove chimneys in use among the ancients. To this end, he cites the authority of Virgil,

Et jam summa procul villarum culmina sumant:

and that of Appian, who says, "That of those persons proscribed by the triumvirate, some hid themselves in wells and common sewers, and some on the tops of houses and chimneys;" for so he understands καμνούς πυρρῶν, sumaria sub tecto posita. Add, that Aristophanes, in one of his comedies, introduces his old man, Polycleon, shut up in a chamber, whence he endeavours to make his escape by the chimney.

Chimnies, in Professor Beckman's opinion, are comparatively of modern invention. We shall lay before our readers some observations from his elaborate dissertation on this subject. He thus explains the above passage of Virgil.

"When the triumviri, says Appian*, caused those who had been proscribed by them to be sought for by the military, some of them, to avoid the bloody hands of their persecutors, hid themselves in wells, and others, as Ferrarius translates the words, in sumaria sub tecto, qua scilicet fumus est tecto evolvitur (A). The true translation, however, (says Mr Beckmann) is sumosa canacula. The principal persons of Rome endeavoured to conceal themselves in the smoky apartments of the upper story under the roof, which, in general, were inhabited only by poor people; and this seems to be confirmed by what Juvenal† expressly says, Rarus venit in canacula miles.
De bellis civilib. lib. iv. p. 962. Edit. Tollis. Sat. x. ver. 17.

"Those passages of the ancients which speak of smoke rising up from houses, have with equal impropriety been supposed to allude to chimneys, as if the smoke could not make its way through doors and windows. Seneca‡ writes, 'Last evening I had some friends with me, and on that account a stronger smoke was raised; not such a smoke, however, as bursts forth from the kitchens of the great, and which alarms the watchmen, but such a one as signifies that guests are arrived.' Those whole judgments are not already warped by prejudice, will undoubtedly find the true sense of these words to be, that the smoke forced its way through the kitchen windows. Had the houses been built with chimney-funnels, one cannot conceive why the watchmen should have been alarmed when they observed a stronger smoke than usual arising from them; but as the kitchens had no convenience of that nature, an apprehension of fire, when extraordinary entertainments

Chimney. ments were to be provided in the houses of the rich for large companies, seems to have been well founded; and on such occasions people appointed for that purpose were stationed in the neighbourhood to be constantly on the watch, and to be ready to extinguish the flames in case a fire should happen. There are many other passages to be found in Roman authors of the like kind, which it is hardly necessary to mention; such as that of Virgil*,

Et iam summa procul villarum culmina fumant.

† Aulus. and the following words of Plautus†, descriptive of a miser:

Quin divum atque hominum clamat continuo fidem,
Suam rem perisse, seque eradicarier,
De suo tigillo fumus si qua exit foras.

“The passage of Aristophanes above alluded to, however, (says the professor) which, according to the usual translation, seems to allude to a common chimney, can, in my opinion, especially when we consider the illustration of the scholiasts, be explained also by a simple hole in the roof, as Reiske has determined; and indeed this appears to be more probable, as we find mention made of a top or covering (τελών) with which the hole was closed.”

It has been said that the instances of chimneys remaining among the ruins of ancient buildings are few, and that the rules given by Vitruvius for building them are obscure; but it appears that there exist no remains of ancient chimneys; and that Vitruvius gives no rules, either obscure or perspicuous, for building what, in the modern acceptance of the word, deserves the name of a chimney.

“The ancient mason-work still to be found in Italy does not determine the question. Of the walls of towns, temples, amphitheatres, baths, aqueducts, and bridges, there are some though very imperfect remains, in which chimneys cannot be expected; but of common dwelling houses none are to be seen, except at Herculaneum, and there no traces of chimneys have been discovered. The paintings and pieces of sculpture which are preserved, afford us as little information; for nothing can be perceived in them that bears the smallest resemblance to a modern chimney.

“If there were no funnels in the houses of the ancients to carry off the smoke, the directions given by Columella, to make kitchens so high that the roof should not catch fire, was of the utmost importance. An accident of the kind, which that author seems to have apprehended, had almost happened at Beneventum, when the landlord who entertained Mecenaeus and his company was making a strong fire in order to get some birds sooner roasted.

ubi sedulus hospes
Paene arsit, macros dum turdos versat in igne;
Nam vaga per veterem dilapso summa culinum
Vulcano summum properabat lambere testum.

Had there been chimneys in the Roman houses, Vitruvius certainly would not have failed to describe their construction, which is sometimes attended with considerable difficulties, and which is intimately connected with the regulation of the plan of the whole edifice. He

does not, however, say a word on this subject; neither does Julius Pollux, who has collected with great care the Greek names of every part of a dwelling-house; and Grapaldus, who in later times made a collection of the Latin terms, has not given a Latin word expressive of a modern chimney.”

“Caminus signified, as far as I have been able to learn, first a chemical or metallurgic furnace, in which a crucible was placed for melting and refining metals; secondly, a smith's forge; and, thirdly, a hearth on which portable stoves or fire-pans were placed for warming the apartment. In all these, however, there appears no trace of a chimney.” Herodotus relates (lib. viii. c. 137.), that a king of Libya, when one of his servants asked for his wages, offered him in jest the sun, which at that time shone into the house through an opening in the roof, under which the fire was perhaps made in the middle of the edifice. If such a hole must be called a chimney, our author admits that chimneys were in use among the ancients, especially in their kitchens; but it is obvious that such chimneys bore no resemblance to ours, through which the sun could not dart his rays upon the floor of any apartment.

“However imperfect may be the information which can be collected from the Greek and Roman authors respecting the manner in which the ancients warmed their apartments, it nevertheless shows that they commonly used for that purpose a large fire-pan or portable stove, in which they kindled wood, and, when the wood was well lighted, carried it into the room, or which they filled with burning coals. When Alexander the Great was entertained by a friend in winter, as the weather was cold and raw, a small fire-basin was brought into the apartment to warm it. The prince, observing the size of the vessel, and that it contained only a few coals, desired his host, in a jeering manner, to bring more wood or frankincense; giving him thus to understand that the fire was fitter for burning perfumes than to produce heat. Anacharsis, the Scythian philosopher, though displeased with many of the Grecian customs, praised the Greeks, however, because they shut out the smoke and brought only fire into their houses*. We† Plutarch. are informed by Lampidius, that the extravagant He-
liogabalus caused to be burned in these stoves, instead of wood, Indian spices and costly perfumes†. It is also worthy of notice, that coals were found in some of the apartments of Herculaneum, as we are told by Winkelmann, but neither stoves nor chimneys.”

It is well known to every scholar, that the useful arts of life were invented in the east, and that the customs, manners, and furniture of eastern nations, have remained from time immemorial almost unchanged. In Persia, which the late Sir William Jones seems to have considered as the original country of mankind, the methods employed by the inhabitants for warming themselves have a great resemblance to those employed by the ancient Greeks and Romans for the same purpose. According to De la Valle, the Persians make fires in their apartments, not in chimneys as we do, but in stoves, in the earth, which they call, teonor. “These stoves consist of a square or round hole, two spans or a little more in depth, and in shape not unlike an Italian cask. That this hole may throw out heat sooner, and with more strength, there is placed in it an iron vessel

Chimney. of the same size, which is either filled with burning coals, or a fire of wood and other inflammable substances is made in it. When this is done, they place over the hole or stove a wooden top, like a small low table, and spread above it a large coverlet quilted with cotton, which hangs down on all sides to the floor. This covering condenses the heat, and causes it to warm the whole apartment. The people who eat or converse there, and some who sleep in it, lie down on the floor above the carpet, and lean, with their shoulders against the wall, on square cushions, upon which they sometimes also sit; for the tennor is constructed in a place equally distant from the walls on both sides. Those who are not very cold only put their feet under the table or covering; but those who require more heat can put their hands under it, or creep under it altogether. By these means the stove diffuses over the whole body, without causing uneasiness to the head, so penetrating and agreeable a warmth, that I never in winter experienced any thing more pleasant. Those, however, who require less heat let the coverlet hang down on their side to the floor, and enjoy without any inconvenience from the stove the moderately heated air of the apartment. They have a method also of stirring up or blowing the fire when necessary, by means of a small pipe united with the tennor or stove under the earth, and made to project above the floor as high as one chooses; so that the wind, when a person blows into it, because it has no other vent, acts immediately upon the fire like a pair of bellows. When there is no longer occasion to use this stove, both holes are closed up, that is to say, the mouth of the stove and that of the pipe which conveys the air to it, by a flat stone made for that purpose. Scarcely any appearance of them is then to be perceived, nor do they occasion inconvenience, especially in a country where it is always customary to cover the floor with a carpet, and where the walls are plastered. In many parts these ovens are used to cook victuals, by placing kettles over them. They are employed also to bake bread; and for this purpose they are covered with a large broad metal plate, on which the cake is laid; but if the bread is thick and requires more heat, it is put into the stove itself *."

The professor farther observes, the oldest account of them which he finds is an inscription at Venice, which relates, that in the year 1347 a great many chimneys were thrown down by an earthquake. It would appear, however, that in some places they had been in use for a considerable time before that period; for De Gataris, in his history of Padua, relates, that Francesco de Carraro, lord of Padua, came to Rome in 1368, and finding no chimneys in the inn where he lodged, because at that time fire was kindled in a hall in the middle of the floor, he caused two chimneys like those which had long been used at Padua to be constructed by masons and carpenters, whom he had brought along with him. Over these chimneys, the first ever seen at Rome, he affixed his arms, which were still remaining in the time of De Gataris, who died of the plague in 1405.

Method of Building Chimneys that will not smoke. Chimney
Workmen have different methods of drawing up the Chimpan-
funnels of chimneys, generally according to their own zee.
fancies and judgments, and sometimes according to the customs of places. They are seldom directed by sound and rational principles. It will be found for the most part, that the smoking of chimneys is owing to their being carried up narrower near the top than below, or zig-zag, all in angles; in some cases, indeed, it is owing to accidental causes; but, for the most part, to those two above mentioned. Where they are carried up in the pyramid or tapering form, especially if the house be of a considerable height, it is ten to one but they sometimes smoke. The air in the rooms, being rarefied, is forced into the funnel of the chimney, and receives from the fire an additional force to carry up the smoke. Now it is evident, that the further up the smoke flies, the less is the force that drives it, the slower it must move, and consequently the more room in proportion it should have to move in; whereas in the usual way it has less, by the sides of the chimney being gathered closer and closer together.

The method here proposed of carrying up chimneys will be objected to by some thus: The wider a chimney is at the top, say they, the more liberty has the wind to blow down. Very true; but is it not resisted in going down, both by the form of the chimney and other evident causes, so that it must return again? In the other way, when the wind blows down, the resistance being less, the wind and smoke are, if we may use the expression, imprisoned, and make the smoke puff out below. This method has proved effectual after all others had failed; and that in a house placed in the worst situation possible, namely, under a high mountain to the southward, from which strong blasts blow down upon it. A vent was carried up without angles, as perpendicular as possible; and was made about three or four inches wider at top than at the bottom: the funnel was gathered in a throat directly above the fire-place, and so widening upwards. Since that time the house has not only ceased to smoke, but when the doors stand open, the draught is so strong that it will carry a piece of paper out at the chimney head. See more on this subject and the improvements by Count Rumford under the article SMOKE.