MISCELLANEOUS ODD FORMS

There are many unusual forms of fireplace with which we are not
particularly concerned. For example, one sees occasionally an opening
shaped like an inverted heart or like an ace of spades. It is possible
to make a fireplace of this kind work satisfactorily, but it is by no
means certain that this result can be accomplished at the first trial
nor that the fire will continue to work properly under all conditions.
It is safer always to adhere to the established type of rectangular
opening, or to depart from this only to the extent of having the top an
arch of large radius. Whenever the top is permitted to vary more than a
slight extent from the horizontal there is the danger of having the
smoke escape into the room at the top.

[Illustration: The inglenook seldom fails as a dispenser of home
cheer. Frequently the seats are placed too close to the fire]

There is one other type that deserves special mention and that is the
double fireplace, where two openings in adjacent rooms are served by a
single flue between them. The only way in which this affects the two
vital principles mentioned above is that the cross-section area of the
flue should be one-tenth of the combined areas of the openings. The
throat will in this case be in the middle of the chimney with the smoke
shelf on either side of it. It is essential in a fireplace of this kind
that there be no disturbing draft tending to pass through the opening
from one room to the other.

Still another type which is even more rarely seen is the open fire in
the middle of a room, such as may be desired occasionally in the
lounging room of a large club. Such an apparent anomaly could be
secured by suspending a metal flue and hood from the roof, so that the
lower edge of the truncated pyramidal form at the bottom would form the
upper side of the fireplace "opening" at a convenient height above the
hearth of brick, stone, tile or concrete. It is conceivable that an
effective and thoroughly practical fireplace could be thus devised,
having the flue and hood of wrought iron or copper, suspended and
steadied by chains or bars from the ceiling and surrounding walls. In
such a form the same principle of a fixed ratio between opening (here
the entire perimeter of the hood multiplied by the distance above the
hearth) and cross-section of flue would have to be observed, and here
also it would be well to provide as fully a