SC - smoking

[cclark at vicon.net]

Puck wrote:
>The latest Mother Earth News (okay, not exactly a period resource) declares
>in their really KEWL build yer own sauna article, that the chimney is a 19th
>century invention.  Now I know this to be far from the truth, but I suspect
>from my research its not too durn far.  Any ideas? ...

A while back I read a book or two about period architecture, and from what I
recall chimneys are (at least in England) nearly a thousand years old. It
used to be that there was an open hearth at the middle of the hall, and a
louver on top of the roof (a long way up) for ventilation. After a while
they sometimes added a sort of central hanging chimney starting above the
hearth and going directly up to the louver. After they discovered that
putting a hood over a fireplace by the wall improved the draw (about the
12th century, perhaps?), then they started to develop a preference for
fireplaces by the side of the room, with a hood or mantle and a chimney.

Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon

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