Edinburgh 56In x 42In Wood Fireplace Mantel Surround

Ancient fire pits were sometimes constructed from the ground, in caves, or at the center of a hut or dwelling. Evidence of prehistoric, man-made flames exists on all five inhabited continents. The disadvantage of early indoor fire pits was that they produced toxic and/or irritating smoke inside the house.Fire pits developed into elevated hearths in buildings, but venting smoke depended on open windows or holes in roofs. The great hall typically needed a centrally located hearth, where a open fire burnt with the smoke rising to the port in the roof. Louvers were developed throughout the Middle Ages to allow the roof vents to be coated so snow and rain would not enter.

Also during the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were invented to prevent smoke from dispersing a room and vent it out through a wall or roof. These could be placed against stone walls, instead of taking up the center of the space, and this allowed smaller chambers to be heated.Chimneys were invented in northern Europe from the 11th or 12th centuries and largely fixed the problem of fumes, more reliably venting smoke out. They made it feasible to give the fireplace a draft, and made it possible to place fireplaces in multiple rooms in buildings handily. They did not come into general use immediately, however, since they were expensive to build and maintain.

Benjamin Franklin developed a convection chamber for the fireplace which greatly improved the efficiency of fireplaces and wood stoves. In addition, he improved the airflow by pulling air from a cellar and venting a longer area on very top. At the later 18th century, Count Rumford made a fireplace with a tall, shallow firebox which has been better at drawing up the smoke and from the building. The shallow design also improved greatly the quantity of radiant heat projected into the room. Rumford's design is the foundation for modern fireplaces.

Rather it depended on simple designs with little unnecessary ornamentation. From the 1890s the Aesthetic movement gave way into the Arts and Crafts movement, in which the emphasis was placed on supplying quality stone. Stone fireplaces at this time have been a sign of prosperity, which to some degree remains the notion today.A fireplace is a construction made from brick, stone or metal designed to include a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and also for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficacy, depending on the design.

Historically they have been utilized for heating a dwelling, cooking, and heating water for laundry and domestic uses. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows exhaust to escape. A fireplace may have the following: a foundation, a hearth, a firebox, a mantelpiece; a chimney (utilized in laundry and kitchen fireplaces), a grate, a lintel, a lintel pub, home overmantel, a damper, a smoke chamber, a neck, a flue, and a chimney filter or afterburner.

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On the exterior there is often a corbeled brick crown, in which the projecting courses of brick act as a drip course to keep rainwater from running down the outside walls. A hood, cap, or shroud functions to keep rainwater out of the exterior of the chimney; rain at the chimney is a far larger difficulty in chimneys lined with impervious flue tiles or metal liners compared with the standard masonry chimney, which divides up all but the rain. Some chimneys have a spark arrestor incorporated into the cap or crown.

The EPA writes"Smoke may smell good, but it is not good for you.

Kinds of fireplacesArtificial fireplaces are made out of sheet glass or metal flame boxes.Electric fireplaces can be built-in replacements for either gas or wood or retrofit with log inserts or electric fireboxes.A couple of types are, wall mounted electric fireplaces, electric fireplace stoves, electric mantel fireplaces and fixed or free standing gas fireplaces.

Masonry and prefabricated fireplaces can be fueled by wood, natural gas, biomass and propane fuel sources. Ventless Fireplaces (duct free/room-venting fireplaces) are fueled by either gel, liquid propane, bottled gas or natural gas. In the United States, some states and local counties have laws limiting these kinds of fireplaces. They must be suitably sized to the area to be heated. There are also air quality control issues due to the amount of moisture that they release into the room air, and oxygen sensor and carbon monoxide sensors are security essentials. Direct vent fireplaces are fueled by either liquid propane or natural gas. They are completely sealed from the place that is heated, and vent all exhaust gasses to the exterior of the structure.

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AccessoriesFor the inside, common in current Western cultures comprise grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, bark baskets, along with fire puppies, all of which cradle fuel and accelerate burning. A grate (or fire grate) is a framework, usually of iron bars, to maintain fuel to your fire. Heavy metal firebacks are sometimes used to capture and re-radiate warmth, to protect the rear of the fireplace, and as decoration. Fenders are low metallic frames placed before the fireplace to contain embers, soot and ash. For fireplace tending, tools include pokers, bellows, tongs, shovels, brushes and instrument racks. Other wider accessories can include log baskets, companion sets, coal buckets, cabinet accessories and much more.

Over time, the intent behind fireplaces has transformed from one of requirement to one of interest. Early ones were more fire pits than modern fireplaces. They were used for warmth on chilly days and nights, as well as for cooking. They also served as a gathering place inside the house. These fire pits were generally centered within a room, allowing more individuals to collect around it.

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Many defects were found in early fireplace designs. The most famous fireplace designers of this time were the Adam Brothers. They perfected a style of fireplace design that was used for generations. It had been smaller, more brightly lit, with an emphasis on the level of the materials used in their construction, instead of their dimensions.

From the 1800s most new fireplaces were made up of two parts, the surround as well as the insert. The surround consisted of the mantlepiece and sides supports, typically in wood, granite or marble. The fit was fire burnt, and was built of cast iron often backed with decorative tiles. In addition to providing heat, the fireplaces of the Victorian age were thought to bring a cozy ambiance to houses.

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Some fireplace components incorporate a blower that transfers more of the fireplace's heat to the atmosphere via convection, leading to a more evenly heated space and a lower heating load. Fireplace efficiency is also enhanced with the use of a fireback, a piece of metal that sits behind the flame and reflects heat back into the room. Firebacks are traditionally produced from cast iron, but are also made from stainless steel. Efficiency is a complicated concept although with open hearth fireplaces. Most efficiency tests consider just the effect of heating of the air. An open fireplace isn't, and never was, designed to heat the atmosphere. The ideal way to gauge the output of a fireplace is if you detect you're turning the thermostat down or up.

Most elderly fireplaces have a comparatively low efficiency rating. Standard, contemporary, weatherproof masonry fireplaces still possess an efficiency rating of 80% (legal minimum requirement for example in Salzburg/Austria). To boost efficiency, fireplaces can also be modified by adding special heavy fireboxes developed to burn much cleaner and can reach efficiencies as large as 80 percent in heating the air. These modified fireplaces are usually equipped with a massive fire window, allowing an efficient heating system in two stages. During the first stage the first heat is provided through a large glass window while the flame is burning. In this time period the structure, constructed of refractory bricks, absorbs the warmth. This heat is then equally radiated for many hours during the next phase. Masonry fireplaces without a glass fire window just offer heat radiated from its surface. Based on temperatures 1 to 2 daily firings are enough to guarantee a constant room temperature.fireplace surrounds