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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
important note to read about this book,
By J R FAULDS (Dalrymple, Ayrshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Forgotten Art of Building a Good Fireplace: The Story of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, an American Genius & His Principles of Fireplace Design Which Have Remained Unchanged for 174 Years (Paperback)
This book is an interesting read, written in an old-fashioned but relaxed style. However, please note that some of the technical descriptions and explanations given about Rumfords designs are just plain wrong. Vrest Orton has mis-understood some of the principles and if you want to acheive the best results, read Rumfords original papers (available on-line). You will not have a disaster with Ortons guidance, but you will have neither the correct understanding nor the best possible results.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.3 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews) 23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Building a Rumford fireplace,
By Carl Sacherich - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Forgotten Art of Building a Good Fireplace: The Story of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, an American Genius & His Principles of Fireplace Design Which Have Remained Unchanged for 174 Years (Paperback)
When I was building my first home in 1972, I stumbled upon Orton's little book in the Library. I had never built a fireplace before, although I did have a little bit of experience laying block and brick. But Orton inspired me. I knew that I couldn't afford to have a fireplace of my own unless I built it myself. Long story short: I built my Rumford fireplace all by myself, from footer to top of the chimney, using this book as my only guide. And it worked wonderfully. It was unbelievably efficient and smoke free. My kids and I spent many winter evenings "camping out" there in our family room, with the electric baseboard heat turned off. I once built a fire on the front-most edge of the brick hearth (with several fire extinguishers at my side), just to see if this design could really "draw" as well as Orton claimed. It DID! And without any smoke in the room!
This book "clicked" with me for 2 reasons: first he laid out the history behind this invention, the biography of Count Rumford, and WHY this design was so revolutionary. Then he carefully laid out the principles of WHY IT WORKS, the theory and proportions. It was not a heady treatise for engineers, nor did it insult my intelligence with details on "inserting tab A into slot A" as most do-it-yourself books do. I'm now building my second home -- this one with TWO Rumford fireplaces. And I decided that its high time that I had my own personal copy of this book! 10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Count,
By Chris Hedrick "Chris" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Forgotten Art of Building a Good Fireplace: The Story of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, an American Genius & His Principles of Fireplace Design Which Have Remained Unchanged for 174 Years (Paperback)
If you are building a firplace this is the book about the man of all men. This simple how to works. This isn't like a Sunset book that has pictures of all steps but it is kept simple. If you supplement this with the Rumford and get their step by step instructions off of their website then this will be simple for most fairly talented home do it your selfers. The end result works and makes since. The products from the web site are hard to get and are costly but they make it so simple to build that you will be surprised and happy. This book is tiny and about a one hour read. A lot of this book is on the history and how the science of Rumford is applied. The shallow box is the way to build a fireplace right . Good Luck
23 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Useful, But Only if Your Architect or Builder Reads It, Too,
By Imperial Topaz - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Forgotten Art of Building a Good Fireplace: The Story of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, an American Genius & His Principles of Fireplace Design Which Have Remained Unchanged for 174 Years (Paperback)
I am an American, living overseas, in Africa, and am in the process of designing my own home. The building standards here are far lower than the standards in America, and I'm looking to educate myself before hiring an architect.This book is the product of an interested layman's research, based on his own interest in finding out why some older, very unusual-looking fireplaces (by modern standards) seem to produce better, non-smoky fires than the modern fireplaces built in this century. The author researched the historical documents and designs left by the famous early-American fireplace builder Count Rumford. He shows us through explanations and diagrams the principles of Count Rumford's designs, and he does explain these principles clearly. I have two criticisms of the book. The first is that he spent the first 35 pages talking about Count Rumford and his life (obviously of great personal interest to the author, and of less interest to me). He spent only the last 20 or so pages specifically on the principles of fireplace design. Secondly, as a layperson, he has had to include in the book a disclaimer for the information. Therefore, this book is useful, but your architect or builder would have to read through it (it's short, and could be done) and pass his judgement upon the principles. Therefore, I don't know if the book will be that useful to me here in Africa, as I am in a French-speaking country. The book could have been greatly improved just by the addition of some comments by various architects added to it, in a separate section. |
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