It's been thirty to forty years since the radiator (a term almost unknown in France) has banished certain old ways of heating the home. Our young people may have seen a stove or perhaps heard the expression 'the whore's brazier,' but none of them knows what a tanduri was.

The fireplace, both as a concept and as a word, has persisted because many homes (be they neoclassical, rustic, or modern) have kept it or acquired it due to fashion. Of course, in addition to the fireplace and the tanduri and the brazier, they used heating methods like the wood stove, the heater, and, somewhat incorrectly, the kitchen stove.

As far as I know, we do not have a specific study on the subject, so I will attempt to say a few words about the tanduri, the brazier, the wood stove, and the heater. I will leave the fireplace aside because it is such a big issue that requires a separate investigation.