FIRE OF LONDON

THE GREAT, broke out in a house near London Bridge, 2nd Sept., 1666, and raged for 449 FIRE-PLACES several days. Two-thirds of London was destroyed—89 churches and more than 13,000 dwelling-houses. The monument erected by Wren at Fish Street Hilt commemorates the Great Fire, and at one time bore an inscription attributing the fire to the Popish faction. FIRE-PLACES. Fire-places are usually constructed in the walls of a room, and where po ible should be placed in an inside wali, so as to economize the heat which pa es through the back of the fire-place. Yor ordinary register stoves the depth of the opening should be i foot 2 inches. For dog grates 1 foot 6 inches is better. The height of the opening for ordinary stoves is 3 feet, and it is usually finished with an arch turned on an iron bar or bars if the breast projects more than 44 inches from the face of the wall, and the jamb on either side is of le width than 174 inches; the bars must be turned up and down at the ends, and be built in the jambs for at least 84 inches. The back of a fire-place set in a party or internal wall must be 8% to 12 inches thick above the mantelpiece. When the wall is external, the thickne may be 44 inches. The breast of every chimney and the brickwork surrounding every fiue should be 43 inches thick. Fire-places for kitchen ranges require a depth of 1 foot 10 inches at least, and a height of 5 feet. The hearthstone should be 6 inches longer than the opening on each side, and 18 inches wide in front of the breast of the fireplace. On every floor except the lowest the hearthstone must be laid on brick trimmer arch or other incombustible material, and be solid for a depth of at least 6 inches. On the lowest story the hearthstone may be bedded on concrete covering the site, or on solid material placed on the concrete. The centering on which trimmer arches are turned is often left in order that the ceiling laths may be nailed to it. Unle this po ibility is borne in mind, le than 6 inches clear depth may be left for the hearth-stone. This difficulty does not occur when the trimmer arches are turned on cast iron centres. Fire-places are allowed to be built on corbels of brick, stone, or other incombustible material if the work so corbelled out does not project_ from the wall more than the thickne of the wall measured immediately below the corbels, but all other fire-places must be built on sold foundations and with footings similar to the wall against which they are built. Under the Chimney Sweepers Act the statutory size of flues to fire-places was |4 by 9 inches, but this is not now enforced. In order to economize in cost and space when gas-fires are to be installed smal! fines made of terracotta can be built in the thickne of a 4-inch partition without projecting beyond the face. It is usual to have one fire-place with a 9-inch by 9-ineh fine for cooking, ., when these fines are used. In hospital wards fire-places are placed in the centre of the wards with descending fiues carried in the floors to the outside walis.