83 



PORTABLE GEEENHOTJSES.— MODES OE HEATING. 



YoTJB sketch of a greenhouse last month 

 will prove useful to many. The building 

 of plant-houses Las its legal difficulties, 

 which may affect so many, that I am in- 

 duced to ask your opinion respecting erect- 

 ing one in a garden where the houses are 

 in a row, and the average height of wall is 

 seven or eight feet, and width about seven- 

 teen. Would a tenant be able to heighten 

 his wall, to allow of a lean-to house, or 

 erect a high span-roof in the centre of 

 a narrow garden, or support the said lean- 

 to on one or both of his outer walls? 

 Again, a yearly tenant would not be justi- 

 fied putting up even such a small building, 

 costing but £5 or £10, for two reasons. 

 He might anticipate changing his resi- 

 dence, and unless the building was made 

 like a bedstead, to be taken to pieces, 

 it might fall into the hands of the land- 

 lord. This subject is engaging the minds 

 of many in the present day, and if you 

 would kindly show your ingenuity in 

 pointing out a plan to assist an amateur to 

 build, it would oblige no doubt many of 

 your readers. Sash- bars, instead of any 

 rafters, as mentioned in your last, could be 

 used, as the glass could be cut out if soft 

 putty was used, and the building required 

 to be put up elsewhere. The front could 

 be in ten-feet lengths, or any convenient 

 length for moving, and ventilation abun- 

 dantly supplied, either with or without a 

 glass front. As some plan of heating must 

 be secured, I cannot see one better than a 

 furnace, and six or nine-inch glazed pipes, 

 instead of a brick flue, except at the corner, 

 for the convenience of cleaning. My chief 

 difficulty is, fearing the height of house and 

 chimney may be thought a nuisance by an 

 adjoining tenant. A paper on this subject 

 from yourself would greatly assist one who 

 is about to build under the above circum- 

 stances, and unwilling to consult those 

 strangers by wliom I may be placed as ad- 

 joining neighbours. I have heard great 

 improvements have been made by a firm at 

 Kingstou-on-Thames in the simplicity of 

 erecting portable houses. Have you seen 

 any, or had any experience in the Polmaise 

 system of heating, which is drawing the 

 cold air from the house or pit, and form- 

 ing a chamber around the stove ? It would 

 be a great assistance if some scale could be 

 formed whereby it could be known what 

 the size should be, of a fui-nace to a house, 

 say twenty by twelve feet or ten feet high ; 

 then a rough calculation might be formed 

 what addition must be made to a furnace 



for a house twenty-four or thirty feet by 

 twelve. From my experience, I should say 

 an extra size was best, as it need not be 

 overcharged with fire, and being well made 

 up for the night, or an absentee during the 

 day, a damper will regulate and prove more 

 satisfactory than being continually making 

 up a fire, owing, perhaps, to a rapid draft, 

 or small furnace. 



Another most useful hint in builduig 

 furnaces, is to have a dead plate, from 

 six to eight inches wide, in front of the 

 fire-bars. It prevents the door getting 

 over-heated, and helps to coke the coal 

 [coke and cinders are a better fuel than 

 coal]. The door would also be improved 

 by having an inner jDlate fixed an inch 

 within the door, four studs keeping them 

 aj)art. 



I think all readers of a periodical should 

 add tlieir mite in ti-ying to extend its use- 

 fulness, and sale also; for the greater the 

 number sold the better can the proprietor 

 afford to illustrate, and better will the 

 work be clone, and with more spirit. If 

 any of us have been successful in any one 

 or more stoves or plans of heating, we 

 should contribute our experience. Mr. 

 Elvers, in his instructive work on orchard- 

 houses, says he has built several brick 

 Arnott stoves, and found them answer. I 

 have put one up to heat a large hall, and 

 have Polmaised it, that is, incased it in 

 brick-work, leaving a three-inch passage all 

 round, an opening below for cold air, and 

 one above for hot air. It answers well, 

 but requires a damper in the chimney, as 

 it draws rapidly. 



I have a cucumber-bed heated by flues 

 and a Polmaise stove ; the chamber is 

 covered withflat tUes. I last season covered 

 the tileti with pieces of wood about six 

 inches long and about four inches deep, 

 covered with rough turf, and then fifteen 

 inches of mould, and placed drain-pipes 

 under each light to convey water to the 

 wood and tiles, under the impression of its 

 causing a moisture to the mould below. I 

 do not commence this year forcing till the 

 1st of February, Should you recommend 

 this plan, or be withovit the wood? Tlie 

 bed is four feet wide, and only one plant 

 grown under each light, six by three, and 

 allowed to train up a string suspended be- 

 tween each light, and six inches from it. 

 I am not ■ satisfied with my last few years' 

 success, as I have commenced on the 1st of 

 January, and not began to cut till the 

 middle of April, When should I sow 



