Fires Improved: Or, A New Method Of Building Chimnies, So as to prevent their Smoking. In Which A Small Fire, shall warm a Room much better than a Large One made the Common Way. And the Method of altering such Chimnies as are already Built, so that they shall perform the same Effects. By Monsieur Gauger. Made English from the French Original. By J. T. Desaguliers, L.L.D. and F.R.S. The Second Edition, With an Appendix, Containing several farther Improvements made by the Translator and Others.
New Method Of Building Chimnies
Books Printed for E. Curll
Mecanique du feu
Imprint
London:: Printed for J. Senex, at the Globe, against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleetstreet; and E. Curll, at Pope's Head, in Rose-street, Covent-Garden., 1736. Price 4 s.
Physical Description
[2], vi, [8], 158, [2] p., 10 pl. (all fold.); 204 mm. (Octavo).
Contents
[T.p.] - Preface (May 3. 1715 by J.T. Desaguliers); Advertisement - The Contents - [Text] - Appendix By Dr. Desaguliers (Nov. 1, 1735) - A Description of a Fire-Place ... as described by Dr. Boerhaave in his Chemical Lectures - Books Printed for E. Curll - [Plates].
Responsibility Note
The plates are unsigned.
References
ESTC, T111906
E. Harris and N. Savage, British Architectural Books (1990), no. 245, p.204-5.
Summary Note
The work was originally published in French in 1713. Desaguliers's English translation was first published in 1715 ('Fires Improv'd: Being a New Method Of Building Chimneys'). It adapts and expands its original. A rival and closer translation was published in 1716 ('The Mechanism Of Fire Made In Chimneys').
The French title is cited on page [i] of the Preface as 'La Mechanique de Feu'; but ESTC states that it was 'La mécanique du feu' (as in the Paris edition of 1749). The 1714 edition published at Cosmopoli has the title, 'La Mechanique Du Feu'.
As the title states, this work is entirely concerned with the construction of chimneys. It does not address the design of chimney-pieces.
Provenance
Recorded in RAA Library, Catalogue, 1802.
Binding Note
19th-century brown paper-covered boards, red morocco spine, lettered 'Fires Improved - Gauger - R.A.'
Subject
Chimneys - Fireplaces - Heating systems - France - Great Britain - Europe - History - 18th century
Manuals - Instructional materials - Translations from French - Translations into English - Great Britain - 18th century
Pictorial works - Great Britain - 18th century