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By GERALDS. HAWKINS % * Rappahannock Newg Contributing Writer < Editor’s note: Due to an error in the composing room, this column was garbled when it originally appeared in the Nov. 16 issue of the Rappahannock News. This is the correct version of Dr. Hawkins’ column. We offer our apologies for the error.
We heat our farmhouse, upstairs and down, with a single fireplace. That may sound unusual, but it is (or was) the traditional English way.
At the time of King Arthur the manor house was entirely open-plan, heated by a log fire burning on a hearth in the middle of the room, with a hole in the roof for the smoke. Later, someone thought of making a chimney of wood and stone to help the smoke get out. Finally the famous scientist Isaac Newton invented the smokeshelf — a ledge inside the chimney just behind the damper — and this created a circulation of cold air within the flue which stopped the effects of downdraft.
From that point on the Englishman’s country home became his castle. The fireplace with its added oven was a conservation area, a source of hot water, a rotisserie, a bakery and a central heating unit all in one.
Our fireplace is a mass of masonry built in the middle of the house, hollow inside with more than a thousand coral-colored bricks. Because it is hollow the trapped air is heated at the sides and at the back ol the fireplace. The thousand bricks also store a lot of the heat. The chimney itself is a long giraffe-like affair , that stretches up inside the stairwell to poke through the center of the roof. C- After the air has circulated around the channels of the masonry, it flows out through a heat register on the second floor at about 105 degrees to warm the bedrooms. The nicely warmed brickwork becomes a low-level radiator for the rest of the i house. Apart from the chore of car| rying logs from the outdoor wood' pile, the system is trouble-free, anc ' in the evenings we have a cheer} ; flicker of flames to look at, and hot | coals for making toast, popping popi com, and roasting chestnuts.
I don’t want to argue for or | against the traditional potbellied | stove, but a hollow masonry fire| place is probably more efficient | More air gets to the flames so the ! burning process is more complete ! Less creosote collects in the flue oi ' goes out into the environment.
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