 by
Jim Buckley
Rumford fireplaces are tall and shallow to reflect more
heat, and they have streamlined throats to eliminate
turbulence and carry away the smoke with little loss of
heated room air.
Rumford fireplaces were common from 1796, when
Count Rumford first wrote about them, until about 1850.
Jefferson had them built at Monticello, and Thoreau
listed them among the modern conveniences that everyone
took for granted. There are still many original Rumford
fireplaces - often buried behind newer
renovations-throughout the country.
Count Rumford, for whom the fireplace is named,
was born Benjamin Thompson in Woburn, Massachusetts in
1753 and, because he was a loyalist, he left (abruptly)
with the British in 1776. He spent much of his life as
an employee of the Bavarian government where he received
his title, “Count of the Holy Roman Empire.” Rumford
is known primarily for the work he did on the nature of
heat.
Back in England, Rumford applied his knowledge of
heat to the improvement of fireplaces. He made them
smaller and shallower with widely angled covings so they
would radiate better. And he streamlined the throat, or
in his words “rounded off the breast” so as to
“remove those local hindrances which forcibly prevent
the smoke from following its natural tendency to go up
the chimney...”
Rumford wrote two papers detailing his improvements on
fireplaces in 1796 and in1798.* He was well known and
widely read in his lifetime and almost immediately in
the 1790s his “Rumford fireplace” became
state-of-the-art worldwide.
Today, with the extensive restoration of old and
historic houses and the renewed popularity of early
American and classical architecture in new construction,
Rumford fireplaces are enjoying a comeback. Rumford
fireplaces are generally appreciated for their tall
classic elegance and their heating efficiency.
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