Fireplace construction

• US 4,478,208 A
• Filed: 01/23/1984
• Issued: 10/23/1984
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/1982
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Jay R. Pitha
• Original Assignee: Jay R. Pitha
• Inventors: Pitha, Jay R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Scott, Samuel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Odar, Helen A.
• Application Number:
  US06/572,841
• Time in Patent Office: 274 Days
• Field of Search: 52/218, 52/219, 52/610, 126/151, 126/120, 126/121, 110/336, 110/338, 237/51
• US Class Current: 126/500
• CPC Class Codes: F24B 1/18 Stoves with open fires, e.g. fireplaces
• CPC Class Codes: F24B 1/1885 the heat exchange medium being air only

Abstract

The invention contemplates a fireplace comprising a stacked plurality of courses of modular prismatic blocks laid upon a base to define a firebox region of opposed side walls and a rear wall contiguous thereto. In one embodiment the blocks are characterized by at least one horizontal surface having external horizontal channel formations and by limited vertically extending end passages such that one or more vertically serpentine continuous air-flow ducts are established through successive horizontal channels in the stacked plurality of courses of the walls. Above the firebox region, and surrounding an associated chimney region, the wall-block courses continue, providing extension of the air-flow duct system into additional heat-exchanging relation with the chimney. The chimney-flue system also relies on modular blocks with vertical flue passages which register from one to the next course, the arrangement being such as (1) to provide relatively large flue-surface area for extraction of flue-gas heat and (2) to cause plural cycles of horizontal undulation of the vertical flow of exhausted flue gases, in their upward passage through the chimney.

Claims

1. A fireplace construction, comprising a first stacked plurality of courses of modular prismatic blocks laid upon a base to define an open-fronted firebox region of opposed sidewalls and a rear wall contiguous thereto, lintel means spanning the open front at an upper course of said blocks and constituting with the blocks of said upper course the peripheral enclosure of a generally rectangular opening for upward conduct of firebox-exhaust products of combustion, said opening having an elongate dimension in the span direction of the lintel and a lesser dimension transverse to the elongate dimension;

and a second stacked plurality of courses of modular blocks laid upon the lintel and upon upper-course blocks of said peripheral enclosure, the blocks of said second plurality comprising (1) U-shaped end blocks wherein an upstanding central body connects upstanding arms which are spaced to span substantially the transverse dimension of the opening, and (2) flat upstanding spacer blocks of thickness substantially matching the thickness of said arms, the inner-wall surface of the central body sloping from a relatively narrow lower surface of the body to a relatively wide upper surface of the body, and the width difference between said upper and lower surfaces of the body being substantially one half of the longitudinal extent of said spacer blocks;

whereby the first course of the second stacked plurality may comprise one of said end blocks at each of the respective ends of the rectangular opening, with the arms of said end blocks extending toward each other in partial longitudinal register with longitudinal margins of the rectangular opening, and first like pluralities of spacer blocks in longitudinal end-to-end abutment with each other and with the respective arms of the two end blocks; and

further whereby the second course of the second stacked plurality may be similarly constituted of opposed end blocks having their respective arms connected by end-to-end arrays of second like pluralities of spacer blocks, each second plurality comprising one less spacer block than each first plurality, so that the sloping inner-wall surfaces of the end blocks of the respective courses may conjointly define a single inwardly convergent surface.

2. The construction of claim 1, in which said end blocks and said spacer blocks have integrally formed tongue-and-groove interfit formations at their respective abutment regions.

3. The construction of claim 1, in which said end blocks have integrally formed tongue-and-groove interfit formations at the respective ends of the arms thereof so that the uppermost course of said second stacked plurality may comprise two end blocks alone, with their arms in interengaged abutment.

4. The construction of claim 3, in which the inner-wall surface of at least first abutted arms of said end blocks slope inwardly in the upward direction.

5. The construction of claim 1, in which said lintel means is another prismatic block of vertical height matching the course height of the blocks of said first stacked plurality.

6. The construction of claim 5, in which blocks defining opposed sidewalls of the upper course of said first stacked plurality are recessed at the forward end of the inner wall surface thereof, thereby exposing locally inner and forward regions of the upper surface of blocks of the next-adjacent lower course, said lintel means overlapping and deriving support from said exposed regions.

7. The construction of claim 5, in which the inner-wall surface of said lintel block slopes inwardly in the upward direction.

8. The construction of claim 1, in which at least each of the sidewalls blocks of the upper course of the first stacked plurality has an inner-wall surface which slopes inwardly in the upward direction.

9. The construction of claim 8, in which each of the sidewall blocks of the next-to-upper course of the first stacked plurality has an inner-wall surface which slopes inwardly in the upward direction, the inwardly and upwardly sloping surfaces of vertically adjacent sidewall blocks of the respective two upper courses being similarly inclined and defining conjointly a single inwardly and upwardly sloping surface.

10. The construction of claim 9, in which the inwardly and upwardly sloping surfaces of said vertically adjacent sidewall blocks define at least in part a substantially continuous surface with the inwardly and upwardly sloping surface of the vertically adjacent end blocks of the second stacked plurality of courses.

11. The construction of claim 1, in which all blocks of both stacked pluralities are solid castings of cementitious material.

12. The construction of claim 1, in which blocks of the first stacked plurality are characterized by horizontal surfaces having external horizontally extending channel formations which define a horizontal-air-duct portion by reason of first and second courses of first-plurality blocks being in stacked vertically adjacent array, one block of each horizontally adjacent pair of blocks in each of said vertically adjacent courses having near one to the exclusion of the other horizontal end thereof a vertically extending passage providing communication between the upper and lower horizontal surfaces thereof, the vertically extending passages of one of said vertically adjacent courses being at horizontal offset from the vertically extending passages of the vertically next-adjacent course, whereby one or more vertically serpentine continuous air-flow ducts are established through successive horizontal channels in the stacked plurality of courses of one or more of the walls of said first stacked plurality.