When building and maintaining fires in home fireplaces, a variety of fireplace tools are used, and each of these tools has a unique origin story that can be told about how it came to be on your fireplace hearth. The andiron, bellows, pokers, and fireplace screens are all covered in this history. Shovels, tongs, and brushes are also used with fireplace tools, but it is difficult to tell how and when these specific tools were first used.
Let’s start by discussing what a tool is in order to continue our discussion. This machine offers a mechanical benefit for carrying out a physical task. According to archeology, man has used various tools since the dawn of civilization. A stick can be used as a simple tool to reach and move something.
In light of this, let’s begin our investigation of the evolution of fireplace tools with the poker. The burning material in a fire is moved by a short, rigid rod known as a poker or stoker. Modern fireplace pokers are typically made of metal, with a handle on one end and a point for pushing burning material. Pokers have been used as a fireplace tool since the Paleolithic era, according to archaeology. It is the prehistoric era during which the first stone tools were made. It covers the period from 2. 5 or 2. From approximately 6 million years ago until the advent of agriculture around 10,000 BC It represents the greatest portion of human time on Earth (about 99% of human history) The earliest pokers were probably made of the same material as the fuel for the fire, which is wood, according to archaeologists who believe that fireplace pokers were created immediately after the discovery of fire (790,000 years ago). Initially, the “firestick” or fireplace poker was probably just a big branch of some kind that was used to keep the fire going.
This fireplace tool has changed over time as other tools have replaced it, and the fireplace poker has been in and out of style. In England, a fire fork and andirons might have been the only fireplace accessories available up until the 17th century, but by the 19th century, a fireplace poker had nearly replaced the fire fork as the standard.
The RL Hendrickson Manufacturing Corporation in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, created and produced the first successful mass production of pokers as a component of an entire fireplace set in 1898. Since then, the poker has been largely regarded as a component of the set of fireplace tools.
The housekeeper and the ironmonger understand a fire-shovel, poker, and pair of tongs when they refer to fire-irons. The use of pit coal and nearby fire places led to the adoption of the poker, now in common use. However, not all of these tools were present on the ancient hearths of this country, nor were they all required when burning wood on a fireplace. A Treatise on the Progressive Improvement and Present State of the Metal Manufacturing Industries by Robert Hunt, 1853
A horizontal bar known as an andiron is used to place logs for an open fireplace. Andirons usually come in pairs. They support the firewood so that air can circulate around it, facilitating proper burning and producing less smoke. Andirons are typically attached to an upright guard and stand on short legs.
Allowing the circulation of air around the fire led to better fires, which was discovered as man started to seriously study fire and its properties. Because of this discovery andirons became more and more popular. They were also used to hold porridge or as a rest for a roasting spit between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries AD.
Prior to the fourteenth century, andirons were typically made of wrought iron and were very basic. Many common household items caught the attention of artists during the Italian Renaissance (14th to 17th centuries AD), who used design and skill to create andirons. Louis XIV of France oversaw the andiron’s greatest period of artistic development (late 1600s). The andiron’s guard, which is its upright portion, was ornately decorated. The patterns included sphinxes, grotesque animals, mythological creatures, heraldic symbols, and many other things.
Sometimes andirons were referred to by the creature they portrayed. Firedog is one instance of this that is still current. Andirons that portrayed dogs were called firedogs. This plays off the word dog’s dual meaning as an animal and an inanimate object. In some places, the term “firedog” started to be used to describe any andiron In the past, andiron was only used in the North of the United States, while andirons in the South were known as dog iron, firedog, or just dog. Although andiron is now used everywhere, the Southern term is still used there.
“Fire-lighting, however straightforward, is a task that requires some skill; a fire is easily made by laying a few cinders at the bottom in open order; over this, a few pieces of paper; over that again, eight or ten pieces of dry wood; over the wood, a course of moderate-sized pieces of coal, taking care to leave hollow spaces between for air at the center; and taking care to lay the whole well back in the grate, so that the smoke may go Once this is done, light the paper with a match from below. If it is properly positioned, it should burn up quickly, with the stream of flame from the wood and paper quickly connecting to the coals and cinders, assuming there is enough air at the center. ” Isabella Beeton, Book of Household Management, 1861.
A mechanical tool for producing an air jet is the bellow. Typically, it consists of a flexible box with hinges that can expand to draw air in through an inward opening and contract to push air out through a nozzle.
Between the 5th and 16th centuries, bellows were widely used in medieval Europe. Later, it was used to power pipe organs and speed combustion for a blacksmith. The manual bellows used with fireplaces is one of the most basic and well-known varieties of bellows. The leather bag with pleated sides that makes up the expandable chamber. The bag is fixed between handles to expand and contract. Values are provided for the inlet and outlet vents so that air must enter through the first and exit through the second. Thus the fireplace bellows becomes a simple air pump.
These straightforward bellows come to mind when we think of fireplaces. But bellows have had a major role in history. Before the invention of the bellows, which enabled the fore, metal smelting was not feasible. Bellows increase the rate of heat output required for melting by supplying more air to the fuel. Bronze was melted by hand using bellows in the third millennium BC. The first evidence of iron smelting is around 930 BC.
Early humans learned that fireplace bellows made building fires easier even though they did not need to raise their heating and cooking fires to the temperatures required for smelting. Logs start much more quickly and produce a hotter flame when kindling is stoked with a bellow. This is particularly crucial when working with wet logs. Additionally, early on, when cleaning the fireplace, an airstream was created using fireplace bellows to blow the ashes out.
A necessary item for the fireplace hearth even today is a set of fireplace bellows. Additionally, many people enjoy designing and creating their own versions of this tool. Many bellows are made of gorgeous wood and some have intricate designs that make for an elegant display piece by the fire.
Although there is no known precise date for the invention of fireplace screens, we do know that they were initially a type of furniture that protected people from any excess heat emanating from a log-burning fireplace. Early fireplace screens were typically made of adjustable shield-shaped panels mounted on tripod table legs or flat panels standing on attached feet. Modern fireplace screens are placed in front of the fireplace to shield the room from flying embers that may result from the fire. They are available in many decorative designs and are made of metal, glass, or wire mesh. When not in use, they are occasionally used to conceal the fireplace to add decoration to the room.
Whatever fireplace tool you use to start and maintain your fire, be aware that it has a rich history and that centuries of use have gone into honing the tool you are holding. And keep in mind that fire has changed in modern society from being a source of heat and cooking to being a symbol of warmth and love shared by everyone who gathers at the fireplace hearth.
This fireplace tool has changed over time as other tools have replaced it, and the fireplace poker has been in and out of style. In England, a fire fork and andirons might have been the only fireplace accessories available up until the 17th century, but by the 19th century, a fireplace poker had nearly replaced the fire fork as the standard.
Early humans learned that fireplace bellows made building fires easier even though they did not need to raise their heating and cooking fires to the temperatures required for smelting. Logs start much more quickly and produce a hotter flame when kindling is stoked with a bellow. This is particularly crucial when working with wet logs. Additionally, early on, when cleaning the fireplace, an airstream was created using fireplace bellows to blow the ashes out.
Whatever fireplace tool you use to start and maintain your fire, be aware that it has a rich history and that centuries of use have gone into honing the tool you are holding. And keep in mind that fire has changed in modern society from being a source of heat and cooking to being a symbol of warmth and love shared by everyone who gathers at the fireplace hearth.
The housekeeper and the ironmonger understand a fire-shovel, poker, and pair of tongs when they refer to fire-irons. The use of pit coal and nearby fire places led to the adoption of the poker, now in common use. However, not all of these tools were present on the ancient hearths of this country, nor were they all required when burning wood on a fireplace. A Treatise on the Progressive Improvement and Present State of the Metal Manufacturing Industries by Robert Hunt, 1853
When building and maintaining fires in home fireplaces, a variety of fireplace tools are used, and each of these tools has a unique origin story that can be told about how it came to be on your fireplace hearth. The andiron, bellows, pokers, and fireplace screens are all covered in this history. Shovels, tongs, and brushes are also used with fireplace tools, but it is difficult to tell how and when these specific tools were first used.