REWahoo
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give
I heard an interesting story at neighbor’s Christmas party. We were admiring the fireplace at the host’s house when one spouse spoke up to tell about her husband’s first experience with a “modern” fireplace.
They had only been in their new home a few weeks, Christmas was approaching, and the weather had finally turned cold enough to use the fireplace. Although he grew up on a dairy farm, they’d had no fireplace so he was not especially skilled at starting a fire other than to cook on the backyard grill. He did know enough to open the flue, which he did before loading logs onto the grate. He had noticed a circular brass fixture set into the brick to the right of the fireplace, with a metal key inserted into the square in the center, but hadn’t given much thought to its purpose. Just then in dawned on him: this fireplace was equipped with a vent allowing in outside air, preventing the heated air in the house being sucked up the chimney. He turned the key to open the vent.
Having no clue that he had just turned on the gas to the fireplace lighter, he headed for the garage to find his can of charcoal starter fluid. After returning to thoroughly douse the logs, he went into the kitchen for matches. He returned and lit the logs.
She and her husband disagreed on how many bricks the explosion blew off the chimney. She said it was the entire top portion, he said it was “only a few”. They did agree the force of the explosion propelled the bricks 50 yards or more.
They had only been in their new home a few weeks, Christmas was approaching, and the weather had finally turned cold enough to use the fireplace. Although he grew up on a dairy farm, they’d had no fireplace so he was not especially skilled at starting a fire other than to cook on the backyard grill. He did know enough to open the flue, which he did before loading logs onto the grate. He had noticed a circular brass fixture set into the brick to the right of the fireplace, with a metal key inserted into the square in the center, but hadn’t given much thought to its purpose. Just then in dawned on him: this fireplace was equipped with a vent allowing in outside air, preventing the heated air in the house being sucked up the chimney. He turned the key to open the vent.
Having no clue that he had just turned on the gas to the fireplace lighter, he headed for the garage to find his can of charcoal starter fluid. After returning to thoroughly douse the logs, he went into the kitchen for matches. He returned and lit the logs.
She and her husband disagreed on how many bricks the explosion blew off the chimney. She said it was the entire top portion, he said it was “only a few”. They did agree the force of the explosion propelled the bricks 50 yards or more.
