925

PRACTICE OF ARCHITECTURE. Book III.

of ;i room, add the leiif^tli, bieadtli, and height of the room together, and extract tlie square
root of that sum, and half that root will be the height of the chimney." The third rule he
gives is,
"
To find the depth of a chimney from any given magnitude, including the breadth
and height of the same, add the breadth and height of the chimney together, take one
fourth of that sum, and it is the depth of the chimney." His fourth and last rule is, "To
lind the side of a s(juare or funnel proportioned to clear the smoke from any given dejith
of the chimney, take three fourths of the given depth, and that sum is the side of the
square of the funnel. Observe, only, that in cube rooms the height is equal to the breadth,
end the foregoing rules are universal." The rules given by Chambers are extremely vague
and general. lie says that
"
in the smallest apartments the width of the aperture is never
made less than from three feet to three feet six inches
;
in rooms from twenty to twenty-
four feet square, or of equal superficial dimensions, it may be four feet wide
;
in those of
twenty-five to thirty, from four to four and a half; and in such as exceed these dimensions,
the aperture may be extended to five or five feet six inches
;
but should the room be
extremely large, as is frequently the case of halls, galleries, and salons, and one chimney of
these dimensions neither afford sufficient heat to warm the room nor sufficient space round
it for the company, it will be much more convenient, and far handsomer, to have two
chimney pieces of a moderate size than a single one exceedingly large, all the parts of
which would ajjpear clumsy and disproportioned to the other decorations of the room."
It is well so to place the chimney as that persons on entering a room may at once see it.
In this climate a cheerfulness is imparted by the sight of a fire
;
but it is not to be so
placed as to be opposite a door, neither ought it, if possible to be avoided, to be so placed
as to have a door on either side of it. There are, however, circumstances under which
even the last-named category cannot be avoided, but it is always well if it can. The fact
is, that the further the door can, generally speaking, be removed from a chimney, the better;
and the architect must, if the plan admit It (and he ought so to distribute his parts), avoid
all cross draughts of air in a room. Angular chimneys are only admissiljle in small rooms
where space and other considerations permit no other means of introducing a chimney.
We can hardly think it necessary to say, with Chambers, that "whenever two chimneys are
introduced in the same room they must be regularly placed, either directly facing each
other, if in different walls, or at equal distances from the centre of the wall in which they
both are placed. He observes, however, with a proper caution to the student, that
"
the
Italians frequently put their chimneys in the front walls, between the windows, for the
benefit of looking out while sitting by the fire
;
but this must be avoided, for by so doing
that side of the room becomes crowded with ornaments, and the other sides are left too
bare ; the front walls are much weakened by the funnels, and the chimney shafts at the
top of the building, which must necessarily be carried higher than the ridges of the roofs,
liave, from their great length, a very disagreeable effect, and are very liable to be blown
down." All these objections, however, may be easily answered, and the fimnels collected,
or shafts, as they then become, be, with skill, made even ornamental to a building. It is
in cases like these tliat the power of the architect above the artisan is manifest.
2793. Where the walls of a building are sufficiently thick, their funnels rise within the
thickness of the walls, but in walls of a mean thickness this cannot be accomplished, for
imder such circumstances the walls and chimney pieces will necessarily jiroject into the
rooms, and if the break be great, the effect is luipleasaiit ; but this may always be obviated
by making arched recesses on each side, which, in commoner rooms, may be occupied by
presses or closets, thus enabling the architect to carry the cornice unbroken round the
room, a point which should never be forgotten, inasmuch as by the cornice or entablature
of the apartment being carried round it without a break, which gives the celling an unbroken
and regular form, a regularity is preserved infinitely more satisfactory to the eye than the
disagreeable appearance of a broken, and, we may say, disjointed cornice.
2794. Of the materials employed in the construction of chimney pieces, nothing more is
retjuislte than to say that the costliness of the material must follow the wealth of the
founder of the building. Marble, however, is the material usually employed, and the
various sorts known are not unfrequently intermixed, so as to produce a pleasing eflTect.
When the aid of the sculptor is called in, much latitude is allowed in the proportions ; but
on this head we hope we may, without prejudice, deliver our opinion, that the effect has
never amounted to anything like what might have been expected from his extraneous aid
:
and the solution is easy : his object is not to produce a work in harmony with the apart-
ment, but rather to exhibit his own powers.
2795. In the external appearance of chimney shafts, so as to group them with the
building to which they belong, no architect can be put in competition with Sir John Van-
brugh. Those of Blenheim, Castle Howard, and other of his buildings, exceed all praise,
and deserve the closest investigation of the student. They become in his works, as they
always should do, parts of the building, inseparably connected with it, and their removal
would detract from the m.ijesty of the structure with which they are connected. On this
point we are certain that the best advice that can be given to the student Is a constant