834 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to maintain the warmth of the walls. M. Somesco has now lived 

 in this house for some years. Without the aid of fires, when the 

 windows were shut, he has never known the temperature of the 

 rooms fall below 54 Fahr., and this during the hardest frost. If 

 the windows were thrown wide open the temperature indoors 

 would not fall below 30 Fahr. in spite of the frost. The air com- 

 ing through the windows is absolutely cold and frosty, but the 

 thermometer rises under the influence of the heat radiated from 

 the walls. There is a fireplace in each room, though fires are 

 very rarely lighted. When, however, it is very cold weather and 

 the windows have been open for a long time, then it is expedient 

 to light a fire for an hour or so. As there is no loss of heat 

 through the coldness of the walls, the room is warmed in a very 

 short time. On the day of our visit the drawing-room windows 

 had been open for two hours, and as the weather was very cold a 

 fire was lighted, but soon the fire was let out, the room was too 

 warm, the thermometer marking 78 Fahr. We left the drawing- 

 room for some time. We opened the front door leading to the 

 garden, and the drawing-room door, which was from four to five 

 feet from the front door. Thus the fresh air from the garden blew 

 freely into the drawing-room. Yet, and though there was now 

 no fire, the radiation of heat from the walls was such that the 

 thermometer marked 66 Fahr. In the garden the temperature 

 was below 50 Fahr., and a strong northeasterly gale was blowing. 

 Thus we were while indoors breathing cold, pure air from the 

 garden. 



We have seen that M. Somesco's house was built on a swamp ; 

 and yet the principal, if not the only, inconvenience from which 

 he has suffered is extreme dryness. We visited other houses in 

 the neighborhood and found the walls stained by the damp to a 

 height of six or seven feet ; some of M. Somesco's furniture and 

 other objects were spoiled because the wood had split in conse- 

 quence of its extreme dryness. To counteract this inconvenience, 

 M. Somesco has been obliged to place a large number of plants in 

 different parts of the house, a measure which, however, adds con- 

 siderably to the charm and beauty of the place. 



The heat and dryness thus secured cost M. Somesco ten tons of 

 English household coals per annum. His house has fourteen 

 rooms, and ten persons could live comfortably in it. The cost 

 would then be one ton of coal per head per annum. But then it 

 must be noticed that the furnace and the system of warming the 

 passage round the basement of the house are somewhat roughly 

 contrived, and that more economical methods of obtaining the 

 necessary heat could be easily devised. Then it must also be 

 noted that it is not a question of warming one room or a portion 

 of a room, but that the entire house is equally warmed, and 



