CHIMNEY, that portion of a building by means of which smoke is conveyed from fires inside to the outside air. The necessity of a chimney appears only when braziers are abandoned in favour of large fireplaces. Thus in northern Europe in the 12th century the primitive hole in the roof yielded to a hollow flue leading from a fireplace by the wall to the outside ; but a specific architectural form of flue was not developed until the 15th century. The 13th and 14th century type was a simple, round, vertical conduit of stone, with a conical cap and openings at the sides under the cone. A remarkable example occurs in the monastic kitchen of the Abbey of Fontevrault, France, dating from the end of the 12th century. In the early 15th century the re-duplication of fireplaces led to the grouping of several flues inside a vertical, and generally rectangular, mass of masonry, which was carried well above the roof, and occasionally decorated. In France, in the latter half of the century, this decoration was of great richness, consisting of late Gothic pinnacles and niches, and in the châteaux of the Francis I. period, chimneys vied with dormers in their lavish detail. Heraldic ornaments, pilasters and entablatures abound. In England, decorative effect was obtained by grouping the flue tops as independent features, usually in brick, above a stone base ; each flue was then treated as a separate shaft with base and cap, polygonal or twisted ; e.g., Compton Wynyates and Hampton Court palace. In the early Renaissance, the flues were sometimes treated like little classic columns, as at Burleigh House. With the development of classicism, the chimney became simple again, a mere rectangular mass of masonry. In colonial work in America, the chimney is either a large square mass in the centre of the roof or else developed as an important feature of the end gable walls. In the Italian Renaissance the chimney is merely utilitarian and, whenever possible, is hidden. (T. F. H.)
