WEBVTT - The Glow Behind the Firescreen 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:06.760 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:14.880 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.040 name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe McCormick. We are 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.240 currently in the midst of rerunning our episodes about the 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:24.480 Heart from last year, which, if you've been listening to 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.720 the show well at least a year, you know that 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:30.920 these were episodes that talked about the central place that 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:35.400 the hearth has long had in human domiciles. This place 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:38.239 that is a source of heat, that can be a 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:40.519 source of food, and is also kind of like the 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:45.120 epicenter of culture for the immediate household, and also there 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:48.400 are all these additional supernatural ideas associated with it. It 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.320 becomes a gateway through which spirits might enter into the 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:56.760 home and so forth. Yeah, and so today's episode is 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:00.520 gonna be essentially kind of a sidebar to all of that. 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:04.920 That was partially inspired by a recent visit that I 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.320 made to New Orleans. Traveled there with my family, and 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:11.600 New Orleans, of course, is full of all sorts of 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:15.880 interesting history, and I was touring a mid nineteenth century 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:20.760 home that had been restored and redecorated so that it 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.399 would look like it did back in the day. And 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:26.360 you know, there are all sorts of little details and 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:31.680 technological innovations of the time period that are pretty fascinating, 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:34.640 but one in particular kind of caught my eye. And 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:37.520 it wasn't anything super advanced either. It wasn't related to 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:42.200 plumbing or ventilation, well a little bit to ventilation, as 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.040 we'll discuss, but it wasn't like high tech of the day. 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:49.200 In fact, it had some kind of antique aspects about it. 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:54.000 It was a fire screen. It was a decorative piece 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.960 on a little stand placed in front of the fireplace. 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.680 And I'm sure I've seen these before. I like, looking back, 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:03.640 I'm like, oh, there's here's one in this museum I 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:05.200 went to and so forth. I don't know that I've 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:07.200 ever really looked at one and thought about it all 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:09.560 that much, But in this moment, I really was taken 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:12.920 by it was why is that there? Why would we 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:16.000 have something between us and the fire? Because, as we 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.240 discussed in the heart episodes, like everybody loves looking at 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.920 a roaring fire, right, why would you put something in 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.120 front of it? And you know, this question has some 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:26.840 flaws in it as well, as we'll get into, but 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:28.280 that's what we're going to be talking about in this 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:29.079 episode today. 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.240 What was the design on the fire screen? You saw it? Like, 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:32.960 what did it look like? 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:37.000 It was the flowers or something it was. I think 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:38.839 that was part of it too. It was like, why 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:41.280 would you look at this when you could look at 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:45.040 a fire, which is, you know, so enthralling and ever 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.880 changing and kind of fills your mind with different ideas. 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:50.639 But the answer is going to be a little more 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:51.640 complex than that. 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:54.440 Yeah, So I had never really thought at all about 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.920 fire screens. I'm sure I've seen these things before, but 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:02.040 there they were invisible to me. I had never lingered 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:04.120 on them, so I never even thought to ask the 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:06.720 question what were they for? Where did they come from? 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:11.200 So investigating that was kind of interesting. I found to 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:14.160 mention one source some passages on the history of the 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:17.320 fire screen in a book by an art historian named 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:20.320 William C. Ketcham Junior. This guy wrote a bunch of 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:25.160 books about American furniture and antiques. The book is called Chests, Cupboards, Desks, 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:29.000 and other Pieces, published by A. Knop in nineteen eighty two. 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:32.840 Shout out that I found this because excerpts from the 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:37.720 book were screenshotted on a website called Buffalo Architecture and History, 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:41.880 which is still rocking and amazing. Early two thousands website 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.160 design with like white text or sorry, black text on 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:48.880 a white background divider bars. That great stuff made me 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:50.400 yearn for the old web. 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:52.640 Oh man, I wonder if I can scan to the 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:54.720 bottom of this page and join the web ring. 0:03:56.160 --> 0:04:00.320 It should have like a visit tracker accounter. Yeah, you know, yeah, 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.480 but it's great. So yeah, excerpts from this book we're 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:05.520 on that website. I went and looked up the book 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:09.880 on its own. So catch um. Rites that fire screens 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:15.280 date back to the Middle Ages, when many homes, especially 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:19.600 larger homes, would be heated by these huge blazing fireplaces. 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.520 And the earlier screens that you would find going back 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:28.080 into the Middle Ages would have generally been quite utilitarian 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:30.880 in nature, less like the decorated pieces that we're going 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:33.080 to talk about in a minute. You see more of 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.760 the decorative, beautiful pieces later on, especially beginning around the 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:42.040 seventeenth century. So what is the utilitarian function of a 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:46.239 fire screen? Well, you might imagine if you've ever sat 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.760 out by a bonfire in the cold, or sat beside 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:52.960 a large fireplace when no other form of heat was 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:55.960 being used in a house, you'll know that it can 0:04:56.000 --> 0:05:01.000 be equal parts cozy and uncomfortable. You know, if you 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:02.920 have no other heat source in a house and it's 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:04.760 very cold in the winter, you know, if you get 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.920 more than ten feet away from the fire, it's still freezing. 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:12.279 Like it doesn't A fireplace does not distribute heat evenly 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:16.680 throughout the house like forced air central heating does. You know? 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.679 Fourced air central heating uses convection. It warms the air 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:23.680 with vents throughout the house. The fire is just mainly 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:28.200 going to be sending radiant heat in straight lines out 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:31.240 into the room where the fire is, and it's also 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:34.080 heating up some of the stone, you know, tile or 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.560 metal infrastructure around it that also radiates some heat. So 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:40.520 most of the heat is just coming straight out of 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:43.560 the fire and around where the fire is. So you 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.440 step away from the fire and it's still cold. In fact, 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:50.160 we talked in our episodes on the Hearth about some 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:53.839 research showing that well, it might feel nice and toasty 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.719 right beside the fire. When you start a fire in 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.480 a fireplace, usually the rest of the house gets colder 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.839 because it's going to be sucking air in through little 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.800 gaps and cracks and the windows and the doors in 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.320 order to help drive the to help drive the convection 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:11.440 that's going to be flowing up out of the chimney. 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:14.960 So if your only heat source is a fireplace, it's 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:16.920 going to be cold stepping away from the fire. You 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.520 got to stay close to it to be warm. However, 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:22.719 when you're right up close, the warmth provided by a 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:27.000 large fire is not gentle. It roasts you, and you 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.560 might have to frequently adjust position or turn different parts 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.159 of your body toward the fire every few minutes to 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:37.040 prevent it from overheating any particular part of your flesh. 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:39.200 I'm sure you've had this experience. 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:42.719 Rob, Yeah, absolutely. I think maybe I've noticed it more 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.520 with campfires of course, where you know you're hanging out 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:47.760 by the campfire and well there's suddenly you know your 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:51.880 feet are heating up a little bit too much, and 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.040 then yeah, you go and cool off, and then pretty 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:56.880 soon you're chili and you have to move back next 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.200 to the fire. I did not have a fireplace in 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:02.400 my home, so I only get to enjoy them when 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.560 I'm like staying in a cabin or something, you know, 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:07.680 maybe at a hotel or a restaurant that has them. 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:10.080 But even then it's it's often kind of fleeting, so 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.960 you don't you don't get that like long term exposure 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:16.080 factor with one of these fires. And if I am 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:17.800 encountering a fire, it's often not going to be the 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:21.040 kind of roaring hearth that we're talking about, you know, 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:24.760 historically here, it might be one of these more these 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.760 tamer like gas powered features that we have today, which 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:29.840 are great to look at, do put off some heat, 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.000 but not on the level that we're talking about here. 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.000 Also, rarely these days in an American building is it 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:38.800 going to be the only source of heat. A lot 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:41.320 of times you'll have the you know, the central heat running, 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:44.960 forced air heating, and then also you have a supplemental 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.080 fire in the fireplace because it's nice, not because it's 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:49.600 the only way to heat the house. 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:52.720 Yeah, we do it as a more than more often 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.480 than not, as a luxury on top of whatever we're 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:56.400 doing to heat the place. 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:58.280 Right, So, when you got a big fire in the 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:00.760 fireplace and it's your only source of it can be 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.080 uncomfortable to be too far away from it and uncomfortable 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:06.360 to be too close because you're getting you're getting roasted 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:09.440 with a really big fire. Also, I've read you know, 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:12.160 the glare of the light can sometimes be uncomfortable to 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:14.600 look at, depending on how bright it is and other 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:18.080 conditions in the room. One thing I read mentioned in 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.720 a few sources was that another function of various screens 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.760 and guards of different kinds covering a fireplace, especially going 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:29.520 back into the Middle Ages, one function of these various 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:33.080 types of coverings, especially the tighter coverings, was to block 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.240 cold air drafts when the fireplace was not in use. 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:39.079 Yeah. So, so two things I want to say on 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.400 what you just shared. First of all, in terms of 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:45.600 the glare, I think this is something that it's easy 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:49.240 to overlook as a non like regular fireplace user, is 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:53.439 since the fireplace becomes a special treat. Yeah, we think, like, 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:54.960 like I was thinking, like, why would you look at 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.040 anything else? Like you have the fireplace, look at it. 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:00.360 But in general it makes sense that, yeah, around it 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:01.960 all the time, you have other things you might want 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.599 to do. You may wish to socialize more directly with 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.080 the people around you, or read a book or work 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:11.240 on a craft, and the light might be too intense 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:13.640 for that. You might want to focus your eyes on 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:17.040 something else. Other than the fire, and in this reminded 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:20.160 me a little bit of the There's a scene in 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:24.920 the recent Nonseratu adaptation where we meet count Overlock more 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:28.840 officially in this big room that has a roaring fire, 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.320 and it's fabulously at the same time both really dim 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:36.680 and dark and also like blinding. So I feel like 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:41.040 that scene maybe gets that some of the paradoxical realities 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:46.880 of a hearth lit and hearth heated room, I think so. Yeah, 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:52.640 and then the empty hearth is another important factor, one 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:56.200 that I think is also easy to forget about if 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:57.680 you don't have a fireplace, or if you have a 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:00.560 modern fireplace that can maybe be s up a little 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:02.720 bit easier when it's not in use. But yeah, this 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.760 idea that it is a potentially drafty affair in and 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:10.040 of itself, and so you might want to block access 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:14.079 to the wind to some degree, cut down on the 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:20.160 airflow or even the sight of the empty fireplace, which 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:22.400 I know is another factor involved here. Yeah. 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:26.720 Secondary purpose for fire screens, especially certain forms of them. 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.640 We'll get into different forms as we go along, but 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:33.760 the wider paneled forms sitting closer to the floor were 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:38.440 often used to cover up what was considered the unsightly 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:42.920 and depressing image of an empty fireplace when there was 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.400 not a fire burning in it. So a nice decorative 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:49.400 fire screen would hide the sooty hollow and replace it 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:51.880 with a nice design or at least a neutral surface. 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:55.040 This I understand now that it's pointed out to me, 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.840 because the fireplaces that I have grown up around at 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:01.840 different times, they were often not in use. When they 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:03.680 were not in use, sometimes things it would like they'd 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:05.520 be like maybe some sort of a popoury kind of 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:09.760 a little thing placed in there to sort of, yeah, 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.680 tend to make it a little more comfortable and less 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:16.199 look less empty, and maybe make you less sad about 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:18.160 the fact that we can't use the fireplace right now 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:20.280 because it's July, right. 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:24.720 So, fire screens are functional. They do have a purpose. 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.240 They were invented to allow you to heat a room 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.720 with a large, hot fire, but shield the people sitting 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:34.120 next to the fire from the most intense direct radiant 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:39.000 heat and glare from the blaze. Fire screens, depending on 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.080 how they're defined, sometimes people make a distinction between the 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.640 terms fire screen and fire guard. Things that are I 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:50.720 think more often called fire guards would have the benefit 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:54.440 as well of blocking sudden ejections from the fire, like 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:58.240 sparks and embers. But if you think about that, you know, 0:11:58.320 --> 0:11:59.920 some of these fire screens we're going to talk about 0:11:59.920 --> 0:12:03.160 it made a very delicate flammable material and so they 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:05.800 probably you wouldn't want to use them for that purpose. 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.720 But yeah, this sort clearly they were not intended to 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:13.760 catch any sparks or flaming logs that might come falling 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:14.679 out of the fireplace. 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.200 But you know, as we've probably all seen around a 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:20.640 lot of fireplaces, there might be a metal mesh or 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:24.200 wire or some kind of metal and glass design, and 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:28.079 these are more in the fire guard zone. These would 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.600 not only provide some shielding from the most intense radiant 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.200 heat and the glare, they would also prevent anything from 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:38.000 being ejected through. You know, they would be a stopper there. 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.600 But in addition to these functional uses, fire screens were 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.240 also decorative so catch them in this book mentions that 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:50.840 in eighteenth century American examples quote the panels displayed fine 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:54.920 needlework or later paintings, often made by the women of 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:59.040 the house, as well as prints or various fabrics, And 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:03.320 if you look up examples of eighteenth century American fire screens. 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:05.880 I guess that's probably what you would have been seeing 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:08.640 in the house you visited, Rob. Many of them are 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:13.560 absolutely beautiful, beautiful, elaborate designs. I just wanted to mention 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:15.880 one that caught my eye when I was just image 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:19.559 searching for these things, I found images of a screen 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:24.240 hosted on a blog post for the Winterthur Museum in 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:29.200 Delaware by a student named Tess Friedman. This image, Rob, 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:30.880 I've got for you to look at in the outline. 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.480 It's of what's called a pole screen. I'll explain that 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:37.440 more in a minute. A pole screen that was made 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.840 in New York between seventeen sixty and seventeen seventy five 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:45.959 with a mahogany base. The screen is a linen canvas 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.200 with an elaborate hand embroidered image made out of yarn 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:53.080 and silk, and it looks basically like a framed painting 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.320 on a rectangular canvas attached to a pole on a 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.000 wooden tripod, except, of course, it's not a painting. It's 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:03.560 an embroidery design. The embroidered image on the canvas depicts 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:07.120 a shepherdess and a shepherd out in this pastoral scene 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.800 with sheep roaming the hills beside a city, and the 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:13.680 male shepherd is kneeling in front of the shepherdess. He's 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.200 got his hand over his heart, looks he looks like 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:19.160 he's asking for her attention or something. Maybe maybe he's 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.640 asking her to marry him, and she seems to be 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.600 kind of considering the offer or whatever it is. And 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:29.600 I think, what's so captivating to me about this piece 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:33.320 of furniture is imagining this beautiful, delicate work of art, 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:37.520 delicate both in construction and even in subject matter, being 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:42.960 used as the shield from a roaring fire. But again, 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:46.920 this contradiction is somewhat not a contradiction when you understand 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:51.400 how these different types of fire shield furniture were used. 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.960 There are actually lots of different designs for fire screens 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:59.560 and fireguards. Some are wide and positioned on the floor 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.120 closer to the fire to provide general protection to the 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.960 room or to the seating area around the hearth. Others, 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:11.240 like this fire screen would be positioned usually closer to 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:15.560 the person, with a targeted blocking radius, kind of like 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:19.280 a little parasol for the fireplace, And these are often 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:23.160 said to serve the purpose of shielding a person's face 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.760 rather than their whole body. This form again is often 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.560 called the pole screen, and you can find a lot 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.320 of examples like this that are a pole, a wooden pole, 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:35.560 or a metal pole coming up off of a round 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:38.600 or tripod base on the floor and then it's holding 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:44.040 maybe a round or a rectangular screen of some kind, 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:47.520 often with a beautiful design on it. And this type 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.280 of furniture again would not be placed right next to 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:52.800 the fire. Instead, you should picture it maybe at the 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.680 edge of a couch where a lady was resting, and 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:59.360 the screen would be between next to the lady's head 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:02.720 between her in the fire. Now I also mentioned that 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:05.240 the pole screen, the smaller pole screen, is not the 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:09.440 only design in contrast to these smaller elevated screens. Ketchum 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:13.560 says that in the early nineteenth century, the cheval design 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:16.600 became more popular in American homes. It was not invented 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:18.960 at this time, but it became more popular in America 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:22.600 around then. The cheval design, named after the French word 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:27.320 for horse, is a wide rectangular panel mounted load to 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.840 the floor on two pairs of short legs, So it 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:32.440 is kind of like a little you know, picture a 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:36.000 little sawhorse, but instead of a cross beam. It's a 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:38.600 big rectangular panel or screen. 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:42.160 And these often really have a you really get a 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:45.520 sense of please don't look at the fireplace with these. Yeah, 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:47.880 it's almost like like, pay no attention to what is 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.680 behind the beautiful parrot decorated work of art. 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.960 Right, Or here's an angel with a bunch of blooming 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.280 flowers all around her, and then behind her is the blaze. 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:02.320 Ketchum finally says that fire screens began to fade out 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:04.919 of use and become less common as modern forms of 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:08.000 domestic heating takeover in the early twentieth century. 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:12.639 Now, one thing that I picked up on during my 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:17.119 tour in New Orleans was this idea that people of 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.800 the time might want to avoid looking into the fire 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:23.800 for some reason or another, and it was compared to 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.119 staring at a television too much or something. I was 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:30.879 rather intrigued by that idea, I have to say, though 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.600 I did not have much luck in finding any specific 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:39.720 Victorian notion of this situation where there was some sort 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:42.600 of an idea that it was bad luck or thought 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:47.040 bad for the eyes, especially to gaze into the fire. 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:51.600 At the same time, again acknowledging that there was a 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:54.439 need to shield yourself from the heat and or glare 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:58.320 of the fire. But I was expecting that maybe there 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:01.199 might be something out there of a tradition where it 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.560 was you know, bad luck or bad manners or bad 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:07.920 health to do so. But I don't know. It seems 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.119 based on what I was finding, that there's little in 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:13.399 the way of cultural opposition to steering at a fire 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:18.840 in general for human beings outside of some very specific 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:23.399 cultural examples. Certainly nothing with a wide enough footprint in 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:26.600 European and then American traditions of the time as far 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.240 as I can tell. That being said, however, as we 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.600 discussed in the Hearth episodes, there all these rich ideas 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:37.200 of the heart is some sort of a supernatural pathway 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.679 through which things might enter the home. There's plenty of 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:43.080 room for a tradition like that to emerge, even if 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:45.760 it's very local, and you know, particularly if you're thinking 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:47.399 of a place like New Orleans, where you have all 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:50.439 these different cultures coming together and different ideas merging with 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:53.080 each other. So I'm not going to completely rule out 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:55.760 the possibility, but I wasn't able to find much on it. 0:18:56.960 --> 0:19:01.840 What you will find, however, is an idea that these 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:07.160 screens were important to keep the cosmetics of Victorian women 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:13.159 from melting, essentially from their face melting off when they 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:15.840 were hit with the intense heat of a fireplace, and 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.160 therefore you would need to have a screen in place, 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:22.600 either handheld or on a pole to protect them. This, 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.080 as far as I can tell, so this is widely 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:29.480 discredited as a myth. But at the same time, it 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:32.840 seems like this is maybe more on the exaggeration end 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:36.000 of the myth spectrum. So as we've been discussing, like 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:40.120 there were practical reasons to want to keep the heat 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:43.440 off of your face and the glare of the fireplace 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:47.200 out of your eyes. Could it mess up your makeup? 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:51.800 I don't know, maybe not, but it doesn't seem to be. 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.560 You know, the prime reason for this, I think where 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:56.440 it becomes a myth is when people say, oh, well 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:59.440 they had that because ladies had wax based cosmetics and 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:04.760 they didn't want the melt. Not the prime leading reason 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:07.600 as far as I can tell. Now, I want to 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:12.520 briefly mention another tradition just because I feel like it 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:17.000 helps us maybe understand like some of the broad strokes 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.600 of this sort of technology, The idea of placing some 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.800 sort of a screen between you and a heat source 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:25.680 or between the heat source and other parts of your environment. 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:30.520 And in that we have what is known in Japanese 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:35.920 as a biobu, and I maybe butchering that pronunciation now 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:41.040 byaba in general is just a folding screen, often decorated 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:44.760 with calligraphy or other images. These eventually found their way 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:48.480 into European and American homes as well during the eighteenth 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:52.520 century and then beyond. It led to a tradition in 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:57.440 Mexico as well of a screen tradition that was inspired 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:00.560 by it. And the word literally means protect action from 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:04.199 the wind or wind wall in Japanese. And so you 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:07.680 might use this to break up a space or indeed 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:10.520 to sort of like prevent a draft from moving all 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:13.760 the way through a living environment. But then you also 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:19.240 have a frosaki biago or furnace wind screen, and this 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:23.720 is also decorative, sometimes a fine work of art, but 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:28.280 it is specifically used to protect the furo or portable 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:32.320 tea brasier from drafts that might blow on the coals 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:35.879 and scatter the ashes and disrupt the tea ceremony that 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:40.439 you're conducting with this little portable, little portable stove. The 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:43.720 stove would have used charcoal, it would have provided the 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:49.080 specific heat needed for the creation of proper macha tea. 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.160 So it's one of these things that is again highly ceremonial, 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:59.680 highly esthetic, but the at least original idea in its 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:02.160 design is Okay, if you're going to have some sort 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:04.640 of a heat source, a burning heat source, you might 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:07.879 need to prevent the wind from catching it because this 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:11.000 could at the very least disrupt things, get some ash 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:13.320 where you don't want some ash, or it could potentially 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:17.600 serve as a fire hazard. Again, easy to take all 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:21.439 this for granted because central heating in a home, like 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:24.639 your airflow is part of the way your home is heated. Like, 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:26.879 it's all built into the system. This problem has been 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:29.680 solved for you, and you don't have to worry as 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:33.040 much about that air circulation and how it relates to 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:34.320 your heat and your heat sources. 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:38.280 Yeah, one of the many pieces of modern domestic technology 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:40.399 that we often just take for granted. We forget to 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:53.240 even appreciate that it's there. Yeah, all right, are you 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:54.840