By: Matthew Bailey, Aurora Vazquez, Brianna Sprague, and Alexis Majors

 Fireplaces were the earliest form of household heating. They were often made of marble in the more luxurious homes. In the majority of homes in early America they were made of brick. The fireplace functioned by allowing smoke to exit through the chimney, and the heat from the burning wood radiate through the often one room homes.  In our age many household fireplaces are actually gas powered and only made to look like a real fireplace.

 Furnaces came into use after the household fireplace when they were invented by Ben Franklin. The furnace earlier on burned wood much like the fireplace but it was in a steel casing and the smoke exited through an exhaust pipe on top of the house which took up less space than a chimney.

 Peter vonn Rittinger was credited with developing the Heat Pump in the late 1850's. He created the Heat Pump while trying to find a way to seperate salt from brine.  The Heat Pump is used to heat a home by evaporating and condensing refrigerant under extreme pressure and using the environment to heat and cool the gas.

 Thomas Edison was Credited with the invention of the electric heater. Alexander G. Bell is credited with the development of electric heaters. Alexander created the first version which utilized casings with long bulbs that reach extreme temperatures and radiated the heat throughout the room.  Later a Chromel alloy which could reach much higher temperatures was invented and was much better at dispersing the heat throughout a room.