hearth

(hirth or hérth), x. [Early mod. E. also harth; hearth That part of the floor of a room on which the fire is made, or upon or above which a receptacle for the fire rests: generally a pavement or floor of brick or stone below an opening in the,chimney, as in a fireplace. That part of the hearth of a fireplace which is within the limits of the chimney is called the inner hearth; its continuation beyond these limits, as by a slab of stone, is the outer hearth. Baking their bread in cakes on the harth, Sandys, Travailes, p. 80. Where glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom; Far from all resort of mirth, Save the cricket on the hearth. Milton, TL Penseroso, 1, 82. The fire on the hearth has almost gone out in New England; the hearth has gone out; the family has lost its center. C. D. Warner, Backlog Studies, p. 1. Thus the worship of. the Lares was the foundation and the support of the adoration of the hearth, which was in effect its altar, and the holy fire which forever burned there. W. £. Hearn, Aryan Household, p. 54. 2. The fireside; the domestic circle; the home. Now, this extremity Hath brought me to thy hearth, Shak., Cor., iv, 5. And Lamb, the frolic and the gentle, Has vanished from his lonely hearth. Words worth, Death of James Hogg. Household talk, and phrases of the hearth, Tennyson, Prince , ii. 8. In metal.: (a) The floor in a reverberatory furnace on which the ore is exposed to the flame. See furnace. (b) The lowest part of a blast-furnace, through which the metal descends to the crucible. See furnace. (¢) A pbloomery.—4. Naut., the grate and apparatus for cooking on board ship.—5. In soldering: (a) An ordinary brazier or chafing-dish containing charcoal. (b) An iron box, about 2 feet by 1 foot 6 inches deep, sunk in the middle of a fiat iron plate or table, measuring about 4 feet by 3 feet. It is provided with an air blast, and has a hood above, to gather smoke and gases and carry them to the chimney. 6. In gla -manuf. See flattening-hearth.— Open hearth furnace, See open-hearth.