Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-09-24
THE CHIMNEY QUESTION.
BE Sure ThAs the Main Flue L. Free from
.Troublesome Angles.

BE Sure ThAs the Main Flue Is Free from
.rroublesome Angles
The chimney question is still an unsatis-
factory problem In domestic architecture.
How absolutely essential II Is that the
flame on the family altar" as some one
not unaptly calls the central open chimney
around which the inmates OF the house
chiefly congregate, should burn with a
clear. steady brightness, undimmed by
smoke or inadequate draft of air. Yet
how often il occurs that the very fireplace
that the new householder fondly fancied
would be the centre and attraction Of the
dwelling has proved TO be smoky, cranky
and altogether unmanageable-a chimney
that must be humored, managed, worked
over and helped out with this and that de
vice for stopping the smoky turns TO which
it is liable, until the owner is fairly veXed
to death over the perversity which really
seems an intelligent maliciousness and
fully accounts for the kobolds and house
hold spirits of the old legends.
One very obvious and practical reason,
however, for smoky chimneyis crooked
flue Make it straight, right up 10 the
blue sky. and If there is no roofage to in.
Your architect or builder will constantly
tell you that to adjust itself TO this or that
bit of architecture your flue may be car
ried this way or that way with perfect
safety and yet, in nine cases out of ten,
! where this is done it will smoke.
In one very handsome house that cost
many thousand dollars the main chimney
was thus carried away from its course to
suit some picturesque angle in the floor
above, and every time fire was lit in the
( noble fireplace in the great hall the whole
house was filled with smoke, so that finally
the entire fue from the second story NJ
had to be built over again. This, of course
involved taking down almost the whole
chimney.
If however, it is simply impossible, as is
sometimes the case, to run up straight
and perpendicular flue, remember at al
events that there must be no angles, that
the hue must be curved in the direction in
in which it is to 90,
Architects are frequently great tyrants
in the matter of placing and construction
of chimneys, and many one who is build
ing new house has had to give up some
cherished fancy about a particular ingle
nook on account of the pros and con!
raised by the architect. 1--WE are going
to build our house," said young woman
to an old aunt Of the family who lived il
| one of the few memorial houses left stand
ing on the Hudson. 'We are leaving il
all to Mr.. R, our architect, but there /!
one thing wish to copy exactly, and thai
is the great fireplace in the hall here"
And so she brought her architect, tool
| all the measurements of the ample hearth
and chimney seats and departed. A veal
later, when she was living in the com
pleted house her aunt paid her a visit, anC
her first thought on entering the hall wa!
to look for the fireplace There she saw {
small tidy affair, pretty, it is true, but the
very reverse of the dear old family gather
ing place in her own house. Why, Belle,
she said to her niece, where is your fire
| placeY' Il never got it, afteI all, y pouteC
the other half laughing Mr.. R grad
uaIly talked me out OF it, said this would
be so much more in keeping, and so on
! and now have got what do not want a
all and have not got what do want"
The number is legion Of just such case
as this, and it is very seldom in building
house that one gets just what he most de
sires to have.-New York Tribune.