sket grate
fireplace to an old house would be an interesting possibility.

However fully we may appreciate the desirability of some sort of
fireplace, there seems to be a rather widespread impression that the
attainment is largely a matter of chance. Too many home-builders have
instructed their architects to provide a fireplace or two in the fond
hope that the matter was then practically closed--a mere matter of time
until they might be sitting before the fire's cheerful glow. Too
frequently the result has been a disappointment when the first few
trials introduced into the room more smoke than heat or cheer. The
reason for this is that there is a scientific basis for fireplace
building which is frequently ignored absolutely by an over-confident and
stupid mason. Where the work of building the home has been entrusted to
an architect's hands the latter usually appreciates the fact that the
building of the fireplaces is liable more than any other part of the
house to be taken into the mason's own hands with, if he is not watched,
disastrous results. Undoubtedly every mason would resent most
strongly any insinuation as to his lack of knowledge regarding fireplace
construction. Each mason not only thinks that he knows how a fireplace
should be built, but it is almost as general a rule that he feels that
his particular method is the only correct one.

[Illustration: One of the best forms of the basket grate in
brass. The splayed sides send out more heat]

[Illustration: A modern English fire corner. Facing and hearth
have been worked out in a rather startling contrast of tiles]

In view of this it might be well for any man building his own home to
give some attention to the matter of his fireplaces, to insist on
knowing how they are designed and to follow their construction
throughout so that there is no chance for a blunder; and this chance is
not so slight as might be supposed. In a house in which the author had
carefully shown every detail of construction in the drawings, it was
found when the building was nearly completed that the cast-iron throat
flues, which ordinarily prevent any possible mistake of construction on
the mason's part, had been put in reversed and it was necessary to tear
down the whole face of the chimney breast in each case to replace them
properly.

The matter of construction is not at all a complicated affair, as the
next chapter will aim to show.