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145

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When f r ’ P ro P or tione<l to the section of the fire, whiche qual t ° Utld n ecessary to vary from ordinary cases, should beT 0 0 ^ ie said horizontal section of the fire, or nearly so.that ,/ reven t smoke, the chimney ought to he so constructed,as ta ? urrent of air may pass immediately over the fire, so«>roJ:V are > d in its passage, and not to pass entirelythis n ^ le dre > as many have erroneously imagined. ForPrevent ° Se ’ tdle t ^ lroat should be so near to the fire, as todirnei n • l ^ e . ccdd a ^ r from passing over it, and its horizontalfour i thickness of the wall should not exceed

Thj 68 and a half, or five inches at most,and 1^ < i? ntract i° 11 is to be formed by facing up the back,by th Velln S the covings, so that no cold air may be admittedthg ni 6nds ^ ie ^ re > ^7 thus obliging the overplus abovethe fi n . 7 necessary to produce combustion, to pass overPart, A 1 * becomes so heated, as to consume the smoke intitv^„ i to drive the remaining portion before it, with cele-n,. and violent

Wrt , Covin gs

a,) A should v ~' J — —°-- — ■ ■ _

as t 0 ^ oe made to form an abrupt plane on their top,

The 6a ^ curren t of a sudden gust of wind.

- and violence.

. - 0 ~ are in general placed at an angle of one

and thirty-five degrees with the back and breast,

gust i

flue a greater the quantity of rarefied air that passes up theaiuj’ f , ln general the higher the chimney, the more celeritybe car l, ° j ^ ascend with. The flue ought, therefore, to

T 0 as high as conveniency will admit.

8 boulq r , 6vent t ' le absorption of heat, the back and covingss h° u j ( j 5* e constructed of white materials, or, if not, theythey (j be covered with plaster, and whitened as often astu y of heaf 6 black, and thus they will reflect a greater quan-

a bl e f or 7? eta ^ s absorb the heat, and are therefore unfavour-

Vbt purpose -

*he . anc l covings are most conveniently put up after

The introduction and general use of

re gist S6 >> S built.

f °rtn a / s> bas obviated any difficulty in this respect; theySou,™ 4 improvement on the old method.v ery w e i] *be principles in the construction of chimneys areTl le t asc ertained, others are not easily discovered till tried,

to

tnd

Profit

S,

c °unt

.uiok^

i - “Vfcmviu, UL11C1 a tU. C Ut/b CUOA.IJ' UiOV/UVCiCU U1J. VUV/U.

iit„ hues should not have such wide apertures, asgreater quantity of air to rush down the chimney,

eiac t the force of the ascending rarefied stream.

floor/. chimne 7S are frequently occasioned by the situationln a room, the grate being placed too low, or the

e asy to °° high. There are many cases in which it is not^ilv re,' Scover the cause: hut if once known, it may be

th,

oh:

Ues

to be

vv ith circular sections are, with some reason, sup-

w bo S e

more favourable for the venting of smoke, than

‘ore j 8 " Sect ions are square or rectangular.c j lla ney s r.? 1Uc b difference of opinion as to the origin ofU aSs ' Cs , as ,/ le 7 fl° not seem to have been in use among the/'ongst ^ 'ey are not found, as Winkelmann informs us,t|' Sc °Ver e( j ? ru ms of Herculaneum , although coals have beenA the j/ n Some of the rooms, from which he conjectures(/criLejj /J:, nan s used charcoal fires ; Mr. Lysons, however,^otHa n f'j'Pb'H'e, which he found in one of the rooms ofth an 7 e/l] at -^'gnor, in Sussex. There does not seemfj/t'velftij ' < ence °f the use of chimneys in England before\y.t*oc} leste aer >tury, when we meet with them in the castlesCi!, a11 in also in a Norman house atup Qn j Jr f°lk, in tliese cases, however, the flue isobf Is then t ^ a s bort distance in the thickness of the wall,tiphol eg Ura ® d out at the back, the apertures being smalll 0r ae tvholl /bovtiy afterwards we meet with flues carried° U ^b, Jjp ilei =b t °f the wall, as at the castles of Conis-'voastle, Sherbourne, &c., as also at Christ

2 p

Church, Hants. At this period the shafts were carried upto a considerable height, and are generally circular; in aftertimes the forms varied considerably, and terminated fre-quently with a spire, pinnacle, or gable, with apertures ofornamental forms in the sides underneatli for the escape of Ithe smoke. During the fourteenth century the shafts werevery short, and of great variety of forms. In the fifteenth,the shafts were more usually octangular, sometimes square,with the aperture at the top ; at the latter end of this cen-tury we find clustered shafts, which afterwards became socommon in Elizabethan buildings. These clustered chimneysare most frequently of brick, variously and elaborately orna-mented all the way up the shaft, and indeed form a veryprominent and beautiful feature in buildings of this period.Fine specimens of the kind are to be seen at HamptonCourt Palace, Eton College, East Basham Hall, Norfolk , and iall the larger buildings of the Elizabethan style; examplesin stone, though more rare, exist at Bodiam Castle, Sussex,and on houses at South Petlierton and Lambrook, Somer-setshire.

CHINESE ARCHITECTURE, that which is used bythe inhabitants of China , and employed in their temples andother edifices. It would he very difficult to give sucha definition as should point out the species of architecturepractised by the Chinese ; we must therefore have recourseto the descriptions of those who have drawn and actuallymeasured their edifices with care. To the attainment of this,our materials are few. Sir William Chambers is the only |author we are acquainted with, who has given representationsof Chinese edifices from measurement, and who was able todiscriminate, as an architect, those characteristic forms bywhich it is distinguished from other species of architecture,and to mark out its peculiar features. In his preface heobserves:

“ To praise too much or too little, are two excesses whichit is equally difficult to avoid. The knowledge of the Chi-nese , their policy and skill in the arts, have been praisedwithout bounds ; and the excessive encomiums that have beengiven them, show with what force novelty strikes us, andhow natural it is to pass from esteem to admiration.

“ I am far from joining in the over-strained eulogies of theChinese . If I find among them wisdom and sublimity, it isonly when I compare them with the people that surroundthem; nor shall I put them on a parallel with the inhabitants,either ancient or modern, of our quarter of the world. Atthe same time, we must acknowledge, that our attention isdue to this distinct and singular race of men, who, separatedfrom the polished nations of the world, have, without anymodel to assist them, been able of themselves to mature thesciences and invent the arts.

“ Everything that regards a people so extraordinary, has ja claim to our attention; but though we are pretty well !instructed in most things respecting them, we are very littleso in their architecture. Many descriptions that have beenhitherto given us of their edifices, are unintelligible, the bestgive but indistinct and confused ideas of them, and none ofthe drawings deserve the least attention.

“ Those which I at present offer to the public, are drawnfrom sketches and measures that I took at Canton some yearsago. I took them merely to satisfy my own curiosity. I hadnot the least intention to publish them; and they would nothave appeared at present, had I not yielded to the solicita-tions of several amateurs of the fine arts. They have thoughtthem worthy of the attention of the public, and that theymight be useful in stopping the course of those extravagantproductions, that appear every day, under the name of Chi-nese; although the most part of them are pure works of