Pict's Fireplace


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Posted by Ed Kiser on April 05, 2004 at 14:03:57 from 152.163.252.196 user Kisered.

See the drawing at the very front of PICTS and MARTYRS, even before the pages start being numbered:

In looking at the drawing of the fireplace in the Dogs' Home, with Dick and Dorothea there before the fire, we see there is some sort of large pot hanging by a hook over the fire. Dot has reached in and has just grabbed the top of this pot. There are flames curling up around the pot.

It would seem to me that she would be risking a severe burn to put her hand onto the top of that pot, especially considering the height of the flames up around that pot.

The pot is hanging from a hook, and the hook is hanging from a rod that goes from one side of the fireplace all the way to the other, much as a pole is found in a closet to hang clothing from.

With that pole arrangement, it would seem that she would need to reach into that hot area with some sort of poker to perhaps push the hook along the pole off to one side, out of the flame, so she can get access to the lid of the pot.

The traditional image I have of cooking in a fireplace has a swinging arm on a hinge, with a hook at the end on which to hang the cooking pot. In this manner, the hook with its pot dangling can be swung forward out of the fireplace, away from the fire, so the contents can be inspected without the scorching of eyebrows.

Then there is the problem of retrieving the pot from the fireplace when the contents are to be removed and served. That ring at the top of the pot must be very hot; it is not the sort of thing one would want to reach into a hot fire and grab, then lift a heavy pot from the fire. The pot has to be removed from the fire BEFORE being able to properly grab that handle, even with some sort of glove or hotpot cloth pad.

The use of the pole instead of a swinging arm/hook makes such access much more awkward. As for her actually reaching in and grabbing off that pot lid as the pot is in the intense center of that fire does not strike me as being a feasable mode of access without serious damage.

That fireplace is not the way I would want to have to do any cooking, as the design does not seem to be all that functional. Maybe I am not properly understanding how such a cooking environment is to be properly accessed, but it looks risky.

I wonder what sort of suspension gear was in the REAL, ORIGINAL hut that was the model for the Dogs' Home - if any was there at all. Maybe it was just a simple fireplace, with NO way to hang a pot in it. Maybe someone that has actually SEEN that place can provide that detail for us.

Ed Kiser, South Florida


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