1883.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



105 



degree of cold, perhaps accompanied by high 

 wind ; as a precaution he goes the rounds of his 

 houses and finds old Boreas is getting the upper 

 hand of the fifteen or twenty pounds of steam he 

 may be carrying at the time ; that is, he finds 



58° where he wants 60°, or 40' 



45^ 



Does he rush back 



where he de- 

 franticallv to 



stir the fire to greater exertions, or rouse up help to 

 cover the threatened plants with blankets or mus- 

 lin or paper ? Not much he don't ; he returns to 

 his boiler and sets the weight of his pressure-regu- 

 lating valve a few pounds further out, or similarly, 

 if he uses a damper-regulator, he adds a few 

 pounds there, and in the course of a very short 

 time he is absolutely certain to have his houses 

 right to a degree. 



Perhaps some of my readers may think the 

 above blanket story overdrawn, but it is not ; it 

 happened in my own experience not once, but half 

 a dozen times in one season, not above five miles 

 from New York city, and moreover in what was 

 then and is now one of the best appointed estab- 

 lishments in the country. 



If the following information appears lengthy, 

 I wish to offer the excuse that I know the sub- 

 ject to be of some interest to literally hundreds 

 of the readers of the Monthly, as I have their 

 letters to show for. To answer each individually 

 became an utter impossibility, as the scope of 

 questions contained in any single one was so ex- 

 tensive as to require going over the whole field in 

 detail. 



To begin with the boiler or boilers most suitable. 

 Nearly every inquiry embraces that, and would be 

 easily enough answered if the kind of fuel most 

 convenient to the respective locality were men- 

 tioned. If soft or bituminous coal is your fuel, 

 and your concern is large, say upward of 3,000 

 feet of glass, I should use the Cornish boiler as the 

 one producing the most economical results; but 

 its first cost is considerably above that of any 

 other pattern. Next in order for the same fuel 

 comes perhaps the so-called Mississippi steamboat 

 boiler, containing a double flue. For anthracite 

 or coke I should give the preference to the follow- 

 ing styles of boilers in the order named : i, loco- 

 motive, fire box ; 2, tubular, with the fire under the 

 boiler ; 3, sectional boiler. The boiler once chosen, 

 the next thing in order is the best location for the 

 same ; if the topography of your site admits of a 

 difference in levels, place your boiler at the low- 

 est possible point, so as to be able to return all the 

 condensation to it by gravity; even where your 

 ground will not admit of that altogether, it is of 



advantage to secure as low a level as possible, in- 

 asmuch as the automatic return trap will have to 

 lift the corldensation just so much less, and will 

 work at a lower pressure, as it requires about one 

 pound of steam to raise a column of water two 

 feet. 



Be careful to secure ample draft by giving your 

 smokestack or chimney an inside area one-third 

 greater than the combined area of the flues or 

 tubes in your boiler, and make your connection 

 from boiler to chimney as direct as possible. As 

 regards the position of the pipes in your houses, be 

 particular to have them hung (which is far prefer- 

 able to resting them on fixed supports) with a uni- 

 form descent to the pipe or pipes conveying the 

 condensation back to the boiler, thereby avoiding 

 the unpleasant cracking noises heard in pipes im- 

 properly placed. Make all your connections from 

 the main pipe to the heating coils of uniform size ; 

 say 34 or I inch for very long lines ; observe the 

 same rule in your connections with your, return 

 pipe, for which, however, you may use a size 

 smaller valve, as, for instance, lA inch valves on 

 return connection to -4 inch for live steam, and 3/jf 

 inch valves on returns to i inch for live steam. 



The relative amount of your radiating surface 

 in your heating pipes to the area to be warmed, of 

 course varies with climate and exposure. For our 

 locality, where the mercury occasionally falls to 

 20° below zero, and on reasonably well-constructed 

 houses I give the following relative figures : 



Area of hotise 

 in cut)io leer. 



70 



50 



Temperature 

 wanted. 



6-5° 



Radiating Surface 

 of pipe 

 in stjuare feet. 

 1 

 1 



The size of pipe which 1 find best adapted to the 

 purpose is 2-inch or larger (wrought iron, of course), 

 designated in the trade as black pipe (lap-welded) 

 and I cannot but repeat my warning against the 

 use of too small pipe, a mistake I have had to per- 

 suade against in every new attempt at steam heat- 

 ing ; people are led thereto by a notion of supposed 

 economy, than which nothing can be more erro- 

 neous. There are two reasons against the use of 

 small pipe on long lines. The first is the rapid con- 

 densation going on in comparison with that in large 

 pipe, thus necessitating a much higher initial steam- 

 pressure, and second, the waste of a large percent- 

 age of heating power in friction. It would be 

 feasible to convert the steam into electricity instead 

 of heat by carrying it in pipe sufficiently small in 

 diameter. 



On the other hand, the introduction of steam as 

 a heating medium in establishments already pos- 



