January 29. 1003. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



363 



Plant of Cypripedium Lceanum Grown at Florham Farms, Madison, N. J. 

 Photo by A. Herrington. 



STEAM HEATING. 



BY F. B. CALL. 



[Read before the St. Louis Florists' Club. J;in- 

 uaryS, 1903.J 



Being an amateur in the steam heat- 

 ing business I can only give you views 

 from a very limited experience. What 

 experience I have had, however, leads 

 me to believe that, very small establish- 

 ments excepted, steam is the ideal meth- 

 od of greenhouse heating. But in being 

 given the subject of "steam heating," 

 I suppose I am not expected to argue 

 the advantages of the different methods 

 of lieating, but merely to tell what I 

 know alxiut steam. 



Tlie boiler, of course, is the heart of 

 the system and should liave our first at- 

 tention. My advice to anyone going into 

 the marli;et for a boiler woiild be to get 

 a brick set, return draft, tubular; first, 

 because there is more surface exposed to 

 the fire than in any other ; second, be- 

 cause less heat is lost from outside ex- 

 posure and through the chimney than 

 in any other; third, because of reasons 

 first and second it is more economical 

 in fuel : and fourth, it is easily re- 

 paired and repairs can be made in less 

 time than on any other kind of boiler. 



As an example, take our place. We 

 have two brick set and one locomotive, 

 or fire box boiler. We can bank the 

 fire in the brick set boilers and they 

 viiW run up to 40 or 50 pounds merely 

 from the heat that is in the bricks and 

 will make enough steam all day to 

 heat our office and machine shop, besides 

 running the steam pump to return the 

 water. This is done on clear days, when 

 we have no heat in the greenhouses. 



But althougii we have bricked our fire 

 box boiler in the same as a brick set, 

 just as soon as we bank the fire the 

 steam drops. The bricks around the 

 boiler only keep in the heat that is given 

 off from the outside of the boiler, while 

 in the other boilers they absorb the 



heat direct from the fire and act on 



the order of the storage battery. 



In regard to flues, we think a happy 

 medium is struck in the 4-inch. A small- 

 er flue chokes up too quickly and a 

 larger one, unless you have a very large 

 boiler, does not give the surface, besides 

 being harder to clean. The cost of flues 

 larger than 4-inch, should one or more 

 give out, makes quite an item on the re- 

 pair bill, and consequently increases the 

 expense account. 



Boilers should also be cleaned out 

 thoroughly at least every 30 days. Some 

 clean them as often as every 7 or 8 

 days, but this is a question of the water 

 tliat is used, and what kind of work the 

 boiler is subjected to. Our water is 

 very clear and free from lime, and we 

 find that after using our boilers all 

 winter there is scarcely any scale on the 

 tubes. Tliose of you who use city water 

 in vour boilers will probably fijid them 

 lial'f full of mud in 30 days. Others 

 may have clear water, but it may con- 

 tain lime, alkali or other substances 

 that will scale tlie tubes very quickly. 

 ]!ut even if the water contains neither 

 iiuid nor lime the boiler should be 

 cleaned at regular intervals, as scale 

 and dirt from the pipes will find its 

 way eventually to the boiler. If enough 

 of this is allowed, to collect you will 

 find a hole burned in the shell some 

 morning when the thermometer stands 

 at about 5 below zero. I might add 

 that we had an experience of this kind. 

 To conclude the boiler subject, I would 

 say, give it plenty of grate surface, a 

 good draught and set it at least two feet 

 below the level of lowest return pipe, 

 wlicn possible. Wlien this is not possi- 

 ble the water will have to be returned 

 by a trap or steam pump. Or if it is 

 only one or two pipes that are low the 

 water can be run off and the higher 

 pipes returned by gravity. I would not 

 advise, liowever, running the water off. 



as it is a very expensive economy. For 

 every drop of hot water that is lost 

 an equal amount of cold water must be 

 put in the boiler, and, of course, the 

 more cold water the more coal. 



After the boiler come the pipmg and 

 method of arranging same. The three 

 systems in use are as follows: 



First, pipes running clear around the 

 house, flow on one side and return on 

 the other. 



Second, mains at opposite ends ot 

 house, and house heated by flows under 

 the benches. 



Tliird. mains at same end of house 

 and heated by overhead flow, with re- 

 turns under benches. 



While we have houses heated by all 

 of the above arrangements of piping, we 

 prefer the latter. We believe there 

 should be at least one overhead pipe 

 to take the chill off of any cold drafts 

 that may come in through the venti- 

 lators or broken and imperfect fitting 



Of course it is not necessary to go 

 into details, such as leaving plenty of 

 room for expansion, air cocks at ends of 

 returns, etc., but it never does any harm 

 to remind ourselves of details, as an in- 

 stance of our own experience will show. 

 Last year, when we put in a gasoline 

 engine and pumping outfit, we knew 

 that the building would have to be heat- 

 ed in cold weather to keep the engine 

 from freezing, but were busy with build- 

 ing all summer and fall and neglected 

 the heat for our shop until finally a 

 cold snap came along. 'Wliile it didn't 

 freeze the engine jacket, the water pipes 

 froze and burst and caused us more 

 trouble generally than I will worry you 

 with. The result was, of course, that 

 we made up our minds that, just as soon 

 as the weather moderated we would drop 

 everything else until the shop was heat- 

 ed. 



N'ow, we knew perfectly well that a 

 2-inch pipe would expand several inches 

 in 400 or 500 feet, but we were in such 

 a rush to get those pipes in that a small 

 matter like contraction and expansion 

 never entered our heads. We put the 

 flow and return pipes together and cov- 

 ered them with sewer pipe about 2J 

 feet underground and proceeded to forget 

 all our troubles. Tliis was about the 

 middle of January, and everything 

 worked smoothly the balance of the win- 

 ter, but when we fired up this year the 

 fireman couldn't keep water in the boil- 

 ers and our troubles began again. 



We advanced theory after theory and 

 cause after cause, only to find them all 

 wrong, and to say we were puzzled does 

 not express it. After a few days of 

 this we noticed some boiling springs or 

 geysers appearing along the hillside, and 

 we began to think of going out of the 

 florist business and starting a hot 

 springs health resort. Tlien the thought 

 of our steam pipe running along in the 

 same place occurred to us and the mys- 

 tery was solved. 



In taking care of expansion I would 

 advise the use of the simple swing joint 

 made by using three or four extra ells 

 and nipples. Tliis can be made to take 

 care of any amount of expansion and 

 will work iinder all conditions. By all 

 means avoid the so-called expansion 

 joint. We have one in our 6-inch main 

 and the only thing it has expanded is 

 our troubles, and it has done that so 

 thoroughly that we will never need an- 

 other one. Tliey work all right as long 

 as everj-thing is exactly in line, but 



