CHIMNEY, in Architecture, a particular part of a house where the fire is made, having a tube or funnel to carry off the smoke. The word chimney comes from the French cheminée, and that from the Latin caminata, a chamber in which is a chimney; while caminata, again, is derived from caminus, and that from the Greek κάμινος, chimney, from κα∕ω, uro, I burn.

It is usually supposed that chimneys are of modern invention, and that the ancients made use only of stoves; but Octavio Ferrari endeavours to prove that chimneys were in use among the ancients. To this end he cites the authority of Virgil,

Et jam summa procul villarum culmina fumant, and that of Appian, who says, that of those persons proscribed by the triumvirate, some hid themselves in wells and common sewers, and some on the tops of houses and in chimneys (xαwα⅛; wrωξο(f>ια ∣ , fumaria sub tecto posita) ; while Aristophanes, in one of his comedies, introduces his old man, Polycleon, shut up in a chamber, whence he endeavours to make his escape by the chimney.

Chimneys, however, are, in Professor Beckmann’s opinion, of comparatively modern origin; and in order to show the ground upon which he comes to this conclusion, we shall lay before our readers some observations from his elaborate dissertation on this subject.

When the triumviri, says Appian, caused those who had been proscribed by them to be sought for by the military, some of them, in order to avoid the bloody hands of their persecutors, hid themselves in wells, and others, as Ferrarius translates the words, in fumaria sub tecto, qua scilicet fumus e tecto evolvitur. The true translation, however, in Beckmann’s opinion, is fumosa coenacula. The principal persons of Rome endeavoured to conceal themselves in the smoky apartments of the upper story under the roof, which, in general, were inhabited only by poor people; and this seems to be confirmed by what Juvenal expressly says, Parus venit in ccenacula miles.

Those passages of the ancients which speak of smoke rising up from houses, have with equal impropriety been supposed to allude to chimneys, as if the smoke could not make its way through doors and windows. Seneca says, “Last evening I had some friends with me, and on that account a stronger smoke was raised; not such a smoke, however, as bursts forth from the kitehens of the great, and which alarms the watchmen, but such an one as signifies that guests have arrived.” Those whose judgments are not already warped by prejudice, will undoubtedly find the true sense of these words to be, that the smoke forced its way through the kitchen windows. Had the houses been built with chimney funnels, one cannot conceive why the watchmen should have been alarmed when they observed a stronger smoke than usual arising from them; but as the kitchens had no convenience of that nature, an apprehension of fire, when extraordinary entertainments were to be provided in the houses of the rich for large companies, seems to have been well founded; and on such occasions people appointed for that purpose were stationed in the neighbourhood, to be constantly on the watch, and to be ready to extinguish the flames in case a fire should happen. There are to be found in Roman authors many other passages of a similar kind, which it is hardly necessary to mention, such as that of Virgil,

Et jam summa procul villarum culmina fumant; and the following words of Plautus, descriptive of a miser:

Quin divûm atque hominum clamat continuo fidem,

Suam rem periisse, seque eradicarier, De suo tigillo fumus si qua exit foras.

The passage of Aristophanes above alluded to, however, and which, according to the usual translation, seems to refer to a common chimney, may, especially when we consider the illustration of the scholiasts, be explained by a simple hole in the roof, as Reiske has supposed; and indeed[7:6:547] this appears to be the more probable, as we find mention made of a top or covering (τjja∕α) with which the hole was closed.

It has been said that the instances of chimneys remaining among the ruins of ancient buildings are few, and that the rules given by Vitruvius for building them are obscure; but it appears that there exists no remains of ancient chimneys, and that Vitruvius gives no rules, either obscure or perspicuous, for building what, in the modern acceptation of the word, deserves the name of a chimney The ancient mason-work still to be found in Italy does not determine the question. Of the walls of towns, temples, amphitheatres, baths, aqueducts, and bridges, there are some, though very imperfect remains, in which chimneys cannot be expected; but of common dwellinghouses none are to be seen, except at Herculaneum, and there no traces of chimneys have yet been discovered The paintings and pieces of sculpture which are preserver; afford as little information, for nothing can be perceived ir them which bears the smallest resemblance to a modern chimney.

If there were no funnels in the houses of the ancients to carry off the smoke, the directions given by Columella, to make kitchens so high that the roof should not catch fire, were of the utmost importance. An accident of the kind, which the author seems to have apprehended, had almost happened at Beneventum, when the landlord who entertained Maecenas and his company was making a strong fire in order to get some birds the sooner roasted.

Ubi sedulus hospes

Paene arsit, macros dum turdos versat in igne; Nam vaga per veterem dilapso flamma culinam Vulcano summum properabat, lambere tectam.

Had there been chimneys in the Roman houses, Vitruvius certainly would not have failed to describe their construction, which is sometimes attended with considerable difficulties, and which is intimately connected with the regulation of the plan of the whole edifice. He does not, however, say a word on the subject; neither does Julius Pollux, who has collected with great care the Greek names of every part of a dwelling-house; and Grapaldus, who in later times made a collection of the Latin terms, has not given a Latin word expressive of a modern chimney.

Caminus, as far as we have been able to lcarn, signified first a chemical or metallurgic furnace, in which a crucible was placed for melting and refining metals; secondly, a smith’s forge; and, thirdly, a hearth on which portable Stoves or fire-pans were placed for warming the apartment. In all these, however, there appears no trace of a chimney. Herodotus relates, that a king of Libya, when one of his servants asked for his wages, offered him in jest the sun, which at that time shone into the house through an opening in the roof, under which the fire was perhaps made in the middle of the edifice. If such a hole must be called a chimney, our author admits that chimneys were in use among the ancients, especially in their kitchens; but it is obvious that such chimneys bore no resemblance to ours, through which the sun could not dart his rays upon the floor of any apartment.

However imperfect may be the information which can be collected from the Greek and Roman authors respecting the manner in which the ancients warmed their apartments, it nevertheless shows that they commonly used for that purpose a large fire-pan or portable stove, in which they kindled wood, and, when the wood was well lighted, carried it into the room, or perhaps they filled it with burning coals. When Alexander the Great was entertained by a friend in winter, as the weather was cold and raw, a small fire basin was brought into the apartment to warm it. The prince, observing the size of the vessel, and that it contained only a few coals, desired his host, in a jeering manner, to bring more wood or to fetch frankincense; giving him thus to understand that the fire was fitter for burning perfumes than to produce heat. Anacharsis, the Scythian philosopher, though displeased with many of the Grecian customs, praised the Greeks, because they shut out the smoke, and brought only fire into their houses.

We are informed by Lampridius, that the extravagant Heliogabalus caused to be burned in such stoves, Indian

, spices, and costly perfumes, instead of wood. It is also worthy of notice, that coals were found in some of the l apartments of Herculaneum, but neither stoves nor chim- , neys.

It is well known to every scholar, that the useful arts of life were invented in the East; and that the customs, manners, and furniture of eastern nations, have remained from time immemorial almost unchanged. In Persia, I which Sir William Jones seems to have considered as the original country of mankind, the methods employed by the inhabitants for warming themselves have a great resemblance to those employed by the ancient Greeks and > Romans for the same purpose. According to De la Ville, the Persians make fires in their apartments, not in chimneys as we do, but in stoves in the earth, which they call ; tennor. These stoves consist of a square or round hole, I two spans or a little more in depth, and in shape not unlike an Italian cask. That this hole may throw out heat sooner, and with more strength, there is placed in it an iron vessel of the same size, which is either filled with burning coals, or a fire of wood and other inflammable substances is made in it. When this is done, they place over the hole or stove a wooden top, like a small low table, and spread above it a large coverlet quilted with cotton, which hangs down on all sides to the floor. This covering condenses the heat, and causes it to warm the whole apartment. The people who eat or converse there, and some who sleep in it, he down on the floor upon the carpet, and lean with their shoulders against the wall, on square cushions, upon which they sometimes also sit; for the tennor is constructed in a place equally distant from the walls on both sides. Those who are not very cold put their feet only under the table or covering; but those who require more heat may put their hands under it, or creep under it altogether. By these means the stove diffuses over the whole body, without causing uneasiness to the head, so penetrating and agreeable a warmth, that I never experienced any thing more pleasant. Those, however, who require less heat let the coverlet hang down on their side to the floor, and enjoy without any inconvenience from the stove the moderately-heated air of the apartment. They have a method also of stirring up or blowing the fire when necessary, by means of a small pipe united with the tennor or stove under the earth, and made to project above the floor as high as is judged necessary; so that, when a person blows into it, the wind, having no other vent, acts immediately upon the fire like a pair of bellows. When there is no longer occasion to use this stove, both holes, that is to say, the mouth of the stove and that of the pipe which conveys the air to it, are closed up by a flat stone made for that purpose. Scarcely any appearance of them is then to be perceived, nor do they occasion inconvenience, especially in a country where it is always customary to cover the floor with a carpet, and where the walls are plastered. In many parts these ovens are used to cook victuals, by kettles placed over them. They are employed also to bake bread; and for this purpose they are covered with a large broad metal plate, on which the cake is laid; but if the bread is thick and requires more heat, it is put into the stove itself. (See History of Invent. ii. 88.) [7:6:548]Beckmann further observes, that the oldest account of chimneys is to be found in an inscription at Venice, which relates, that, in the year 1347, a great many chimneys were thrown down by an earthquake. It would appear, however, that in some places they had been in use for a considerable time before that period; and De Gataris, in his history of Padua, relates, that Francesco de Carraro, lord of Padua, came to Rome in 1368, and finding no chimneys in the inn where he lodged, because at that time fire was kindled in a hall in the middle of the floor, he caused two chimneys like those which had long been used at Padua to be constructed by masons and carpenters, whom he had brought along with him. Over these chimneys, the first which had ever been seen at Rome, he affixed his arms, and these still remained in the time of De Gataris, who died of the plague in 1405.