Fireplace Poker

Many different fireplace tools are used when it comes to building and maintaining of fires in the fireplaces in the home and each of these tools has a different story to tell about how they came to appear on your fireplace chimney. This story will focus on the andirons, bellows, pokers and fire screens. Also included are tools fireplace shovels, tongs, brushes, but it is quite difficult to determine when and how these particular tools have begun to be used.

To begin our discussion begin with the definition of the tool. It is a device that provides a mechanical advantage in accomplishing a physical task. Archaeology has determined that the man has used various tools from the beginning of our existence. A tool can be as simple as a stick used to poke at something to achieve and move.

Fireplace Poker

In this spirit we will begin our exploration of the history of fireplace tools with poker. A poker, also known as a driver, a short circuit, rigid rod, used to move the material burning in a fire. Fireplace pokers today are generally made of metal with a point at one end for pushing burning material and a handle at the other end. Archaeology shows that we have used as a tool pokers homes since the Paleolithic period. This period is the prehistoric era was noted for the development of the first stone tools. It covers the period from 2.5 or 2.6 million years ago until about 10,000 BC with the introduction of agriculture. It represents the largest part of human time on Earth (about 99% of human history). Archaeologist believe fireplace pokers were invented just after the discovery of fire (790,000 years) and pokers earlier were most likely the same material as the fuel for the fire - which is wood. Initially, the fireplace poker, or "Firestick" was probably a big part of the type used to help maintain the fire.

Through the ages this fireplace tool has evolved, and as with other tools were used, the fireplace poker went in and out of favor. Until the 17th century in England, you may find only a range fire and the fireplace andirons, but by the 19th century, a fireplace poker was always used and the range of fire had almost disappeared.

The first successful mass production of poker as part of a whole stack was entirely designed and manufactured in Cape Girardeau, Missouri by RL Hendrickson Manufacturing Company in 1898. From that time until now poker is almost always considered a part of the assembly of fireplace tools.

"Through the fire irons ... the housekeeper and the hardware include a shovel, poker and tongs. These tools are not all found on the former homes of this country, they were not all necessary when the wood was burned on an open fire ... The use of coal, and near fireplaces, allow the adoption of universal poker being requisitioned. "Robert Hunt, a treatise on the progressive improvement and State Current of Metal Manufactures, 1853.

Fireplace Andirons

A grate is a horizontal bar on which the newspapers are to burn in a fireplace. Andirons usually come in pairs. They hold up the wood so that air flow can go around him and to allow a good fire and less smoke. Andirons position on short legs and are usually related to a guard standing.

As the man began to study the properties of fire and its good, it was discovered that allow air circulation around the fire has led to better fire. Because of this discovery fender increasingly popular. In the 16th and 18th centuries.