The Salamander
Hot gas runs sideways through a masonry mass before it ever reaches the chimney — a bench or floor that holds a fire's heat long after the flame is gone.
Why the name
Named for the salamander of medieval and alchemical legend — an elemental creature said to live in fire without being consumed by it. A fitting namesake for a stone mass built to sit directly in a fire's path and come out radiating instead of burning.
A fire chamber feeds hot gas horizontally through a flue passage built beneath a stone or brick platform (bed or bench), heating the mass by conduction before exhausting through a chimney. The platform radiates stored heat for hours after the fire dies down — the same core mechanism as The Domovoi, applied to a bench or floor instead of a bed.
Components
- Fire chamber — side-fed firebox.
- Stone or brick layer forming the platform base.
- Horizontal flue passage running the length of the platform.
- Chimney at the far end for exhaust.
- Masonry/stone platform top — sitting or sleeping surface.
Historical Lineage
This exact shape shows up independently across several old building traditions: the hypocaust (Roman/Greek heated floors), the kang (Chinese heated platform), and the ondol (Korean underfloor heating). Different cultures, same underlying mechanism.
Open Items
- No dimensions, flue slope, or draft calculations given in source — concept-level only.
- No masonry thickness specified — needs a real hypocaust/kang engineering reference before this is buildable as a spec, not just a documented principle.
Tools You'll Need
Brick — fire brick, regular brick, soapstone, or mold/3D-print your own with geopolymer — same masonry as the Snawfus Hearth, just laid out horizontal instead of vertical
Not yet in our Tool Guide.
A trowel, for spreading and mixing the geopolymer mortar
Not yet in our Tool Guide.
A bucket, for mixing the geopolymer
Not yet in our Tool Guide.
An angle grinder (optional) — for cutting intricate bricks on harder builds