Soft Fireplace

The winter chill flees your frozen feet at the first sign of a warm glowing fire. You and the little ones rest easy upon the sofa, satisfied that the safety of home will reward your aching bones and windswept hair with love and affection. You lazily lounge, watching the flicker of the firelight as your eyes begin to close. Ancient fire pits were sometimes built in the ground in the center of a hut or dwelling. Smoke escaped through holes in the roof. Smoke would be blown outside or back into the room. Chimneys, invented much later, partially fixed this problem, venting smoke outside. The 18th century saw two important developments in the history of fireplaces. Ben Franklin developed a convection chamber for the fireplace that greatly improved the efficiency of fireplaces and wood stoves. He also improved the airflow by pulling air from a basement and venting out a longer area at the top. In the later 18th century, Count Rumford designed a fireplace with a tall, shallow firebox that was better at drawing the smoke up and out of the building. The shallow design also improved greatly the amount of radiant heat projected into the room. Rumford's design is the foundation for modern fireplaces. This sound uses the following file from Freesound: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=120644