How to Build a Fire in a Rumford Fireplace Ep. 93

Hi guys, Kevin here. Today I'm going to show you how to build a fire in a Rumford fireplace. Yay! Rumfords were popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when people heated their homes exclusively with fireplaces. The tall and shallow firebox has a straight back and angled sides. It's a fireplace that produces a surprising amount of radiant heat and almost no pollution. The design was created by the American-born British physicist Sir Benjamin Thompson, who would later become known as Count Rumford. I'll talk a little bit more about the clever count at the end of this video. Meantime, it's freezing in the dining room, so let me grab some firewood and kindling and let's build a fire. So to start, take some folding newspaper and arrange it standing upright back of the firebox. Then add some long pieces of kindling and stand these upright too. I'm using oh six or seven pieces of kindling and these are just sticks or twigs that I found in my yard. Then, to make sure the fire ignites quickly, take some crumpled up newspaper and just tuck it behind or between the sticks of kindling, like so. Then take five pieces of split and very well seasoned firewood and arrange them teepee style against the kindling, like so. And you would be amazed at how much heat is going to come from just these five measly pieces of split firewood. Oh, and did I say that the firewood should be very well seasoned? I don't remember. Well, it should be very well seasoned. You don't want to use green wood. It's got too much moisture in it. Then, making sure that your damper is open. I don't have a damper, so I don't have to worry about that. Take a match or butane lighter. See if mine works. Yep. And light the crumpled fire. Rather, light the crumpled newspaper and this fire will get going in about two minutes. So, I'll come back. Okay, it's been all of 30 seconds and already this fire is really going. Now, let's see. What else can I tell you about Count Rumford? Oh, yes. He invented the double boiler. He also invented the kitchen range and he invented the very first drip coffee maker. I think he also invented the percolator. He must have loved coffee. And I'm just grateful that he invented this here fireplace because you would not believe the amount of heat that's coming out of it right now. In fact, I'm going to have to move farther away from the fire and it hasn't even been burning for what, 10 minutes? So, if you don't have a Rumford fireplace, if you have a modern fireplace that sends all of its heat up the chimney and leaves you cold, you can, in fact, convert your fireplace into a Rumford. It's, I think, just a matter of adding bricks to create the angled sides and the straight back. You can learn more about converting your fireplace by visiting www.rumford.com. It's loaded with really great information. And I hope you enjoyed this little video. I hope it wasn't too long. I hope it wasn't too dull. And I hope you'll subscribe to my YouTube channel. I'll be doing some more cooking for you tomorrow. And I hope you'll give this video a nice thumbs up. And I hope you'll leave a comment below. And I'll see you next time. Thanks so much for watching. Bye.