The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1884-11-15
WHY oalMNEYS SMOKE.
4 Familiar Domestic Evil and How I
May be Cured.

May be Cured.
Many persons object to open fire.
places for burning wood or soft coal on
account of their liability to 81 with
smoke the rooms they are intended to
warm. A writer in paper devoted to
the construction of houses, in discussing
the question why do Our Chimneys
Smoker says:
"As matter of fact they never do
1t is the wood that smokes. We make
this statement not by way of facetious-
ness, but to bring the discussion to a
strictly scientific basis. Since the new
birth of the open wood fire, the old ques-
ton of how to coax the smoke to go
straight up the chimney-flue. at all
times and under all circumstances, has
come again to the front; and the old
controversy as to the relative magnitude
of two stupendous but familiar domes-
tic evils is liable to be revived. 1t is
not our purpose to give here and now
all the infallible rules by which one of
these-and doubtless the minor-can be
cured, or. better still, prevented, but
simply to refer to one of the common
reasons why smoke from a fire on the
hearth falls out into the room oc-
casionally, if not constantly, in
stead of going up to the skies, where
it belongs. Having stated that
chimneys never smoked, it may be well
to observe that they never "draw"
either. Whatever goes up the chimney
from Thomas Hoods chimney-sweep
to the steam from the kettle nose--is
poked up from behind. OF course, this
amounts to the same thing practically
as being drawn up, but it is well to re-
member that the same pushing force
will just as readily lift air, shavings,
| ashes, steam, or anything else that
comes in its way as smoke. The point,
| therefore, is to so arrange the throat Of
| the chimney that the smoke shall be
caught first, and, like proud Korah's
troop, be swallowed up before it has a
chance to spill over into the room and
before something else can be crowded
into its place. Left to its own devices, it
would fall out of the fireplace and run
over the floor like water. As the air
in the room happens to be usually
cooler and. therefore, heavier than that
In the fireplace, it forces the latter up
ward and the smoke with it. Now, the
tendency of the smoke, as soon as it is
lifted against the back wall of the
fireplace, is to fall forward, and this
tendency is favored by the curving back
against which it ascends. There is no
| objection to this curve, which seems TO
keep the smoke within bounds, and it
doubtless radates more heat than if it
stood erect, but the one point which
should be insisted upon is that the face
of this curve along which the smoke
rises should strike, if it were continued
| (Which it is not, being cut off by the
broad throat of the flue), several inches
above the Intel at the top of the fire.
place opening. The smoke is then fairly
caught in the ascending current of warm
air and carried up and away
A smoking fireplace may often be
cured without any change of flue or
chimney by simply bringing down the
top either with a row of bricks or tiles,
or by piece of metal fitted in between
the jams. And this cure is effected moi
because the fireplace was originally toe
large or too shallow to draw" but be.
cause the proper provision had not beer
made for entrapping the smoke and
turning it into the rising stream of warm
| Thica0O Times