232 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUP.E AND COITAGE GAKDENEE. 



Slarcb 28, 1SG7. 



be satisfied ^Y^th tliis arrangement, for though the stove is 

 placed in the middle of the house, 7.3 feet in length, we have 

 frequently tested the temperature of the ends and centre, and 

 in still weather found them within very little of each other. 



Now, though we found this stove very useful, we have been 

 thus particular in noticing its details that others may beware 

 of trying long horizontal-pipes, or even those rising a little 

 from the stove as ours did ; for in very misty weather we found 

 a difficulty in securing a draught, and when the wind was from 

 the north, we were often obliged to take out the plate outside 

 the wall, which we had left for sweeping purposes, and light 

 a fire there, which, heating the outside chimney, gave us a 

 draught from the stove. The collection of a tarry substance 

 and hard soot in the coiu'se of years, in the long horizontal- 

 pipe which the brush passed through without taking it out, 

 helped also to impair the draught. On Wednesday, every man 

 was thoroughly beaten after trying eveiy conceivable plan to 

 make smoke pass from the stove to the chimney, with a 

 northerly wind as it was. This determined us to do at once 

 what, but for the circumstances referred to, we would have 

 done years .ago. We had our blacksmith in the morning to 

 drill holes all round the old pipe, and then use the cutting- 

 chisel between so as to sever the pipe 2 feet from the stove. 

 We would have preferred it nearer, but there was a copper 

 band round the pipe at that distance, which we thought would 

 be security for getting it more easily cut ; for if we had been 

 at all rough the old stove would have dropped to pieces. A 

 few of the garden men did all the rest. The pipe previously 

 passed through a small brick-drain ; the sides of this formed a 

 cesspool as it were for the shortened pipe to end in. An old 

 nine-feet cast-iron pipe with a three-inch bore, was set on the 

 top of the cesspool, the other end passing through the roof, a 

 square of glass being removed. The bottom end was secured 

 by two layers of bricks and mortar, the end of the opening 

 filled so as to be easily pulled out for sweeping, and a piece of 

 zinc the size of the large square of glass, with a hole for the 

 pipe, fastened as a square of glass ; the fire waslighted, and the 

 stove that would not draw the day before would, with an open 

 ashpit-door, have sent the half-burned shavings out at the end 

 of the chimney-pipe. The whole alteration was done in a few 

 hours of the forenoon, and but for having the three-inch pipe 

 beside us, we would have preferred one of four-inches, or even 

 greater diameter, with a piece of zinc bent over the outer end 

 to prevent the rain or snow falling into it. 



Some who have not been satisfied with their small stoves, 

 may now perceive that their want of success, so far as plants 

 are concerned, may be owing to a horizontal-pipe being too long, 

 to the pipe proceeding from the top of the stove becoming too 

 hot, or to the fire-box abutting at once against the sides of 

 the stove and making them almost red hot, which is very 

 destructive to vegetable life, the air being burned and deprived 

 of its moisture and oxygen. For all such iron stoves, broken 

 coke is a gjod fuel. It is less injarious to pipes, &c., than coal. 

 Cast metul makes the best chimneys. Plate iron is expensive 

 and soon corrodes and wears out. 



In the boisterous morning of Friday, when the dry snow 

 was finding its way into the house through every little cranny, 

 the stove, with the consumption of less than a peck of coke, 

 soon raised the general temperature of this 75-feet house to 

 60' ; then the pipe-chimney, which has 7 feet of its length 

 inside the house, was pretty warm ; but on the draught being 

 stopped by putting the ashpit-box close in, and leaving only 

 two of the oue-eighth-ot-an-inoh slits open, the upper end of 

 the pipe-chimney gradually cooled, whilst the heat of the stove 

 long remained uniform. The open space all round the firebox 

 renders the bottom of the stove outside almost as warm as the 

 top. Vi'e would wish to impress on all who contemplate an 

 iron stove for their little houses, to rest assured that a mode- 

 rately large one will be truer economy in the end than a small 

 one, and to think seriously of the importance of having the 

 firebox free of the outside of the stove. If the small openings 

 for air are properly managed there is no need of a damper. 



We hp.ve not yet had the management of one of Hays's 

 stoves, th-rngh from what we know of stoves we feel suie they 

 will be very useful, especi.ally with a soiall pipe to take off the 

 gases, but two things are against them, the price of the fuel 

 and the difticulty as yet involved in obtaining it only in London. 

 For all purposes where only a temperate genial heat is required 

 there is no mode of heating that in economy of fuel will equal 

 that of stoves placed inside a house. When wc mentioned 

 60° above, that was only to satisfy ourselves what could be done 

 quickly in a stormy day. Stoves, if of iron, are best used when 



the fire heat in the house should only range from 45' to 55° in 

 mild weather, and ii' less in severe weather. With iron stoves 

 large enough, or brick stoves, which are less easily made 

 dangerously hot, much may be done in economical gardening 

 in houses cheaply enclosed with glass. 



Iron stoves are better for small greenhouses than brick stoves 

 in respect to the ease with which they can be moved out in 

 summer. One complaint against them is that the sheet-iron 

 pipes generally used so soon wear out. Cast metal cleaned at 

 times would last a lifetime. A reducing elbow to fit into the 

 stove, and the upright pipe fitted into it with cement or good 

 mortar, could be taken out at any time. The over-heating is 

 the chief evil to be guarded against. Where such care and 

 such large stoves cannot well he used, it would be well to sur- 

 round the stove with a water jacket. 



Boilers. — Some time ago we alluded to the waggon saddle- 

 back boiler, one of the peculiarities of which is that there is a 

 pipe at the bottom connecting the two sides at the farther end, 

 so that by one tap you can empty the boiler. A correspondent 

 in praiaing the terminal saddle-back boiler (which, though we 

 have not seen, we have no doubt is a good one, and so is every 

 fair-sized saddle-back so far as burning all sorts of rubbish of 

 fuel is concerned, if well set), took occasion to point out the 

 defect of the property referred to in the waggon boiler, inas- 

 much as the pipe between the two sides would soon bum out. 

 This may be the case, ihough it has not come to our notice. 

 This cross pipe placed at the bottom would always be at the 

 coolest part of the furnace, more especially as it would be be- 

 yond the fire bars, and, therefore, little liable to a knock from 

 the poker. In some cases that we have seen this end pipe is 

 also covered with a sloping fire lump, to give a quick draught 

 round the sides of the boiler. Be this as it may, we think it 

 of importance that Ijy such means, or by the improved terminal 

 boiler, or by having a tap at each side of the saddle-back, 

 there should be an opportunity of emptying both sides of the 

 boiler at times. AYe have had some experience in tinkering in 

 a simjde way the sides of saddle-backs, after they have been 

 worn out in places, and wo have uniformly found that they 

 first gave wny on that side where there waa no tap, and if the 

 1 boiler was so far gone as to compel removiil, we as uniformly 

 found a lot of mud collected at the bottom of that side. How- 

 i ever clean the water used a sediment will form in time, and in 

 many cases water is sometimes used for this purpose with less 

 attention to its state than ought to be exercised. 



Uuntinij of Boihrs. — Since January, 1861, we have not heard 

 of more boilers giving way than this season. When worn out 

 by gradual decay we cannot speak properly of a boiler bursting ; 

 but such no doubt is the case when the failure of the boiler is 

 attended with the throwing up of the brick setting, &c. There 

 can be little question that in such a case steam has been geue- 

 j rated. "How," says '• Ixquikek," ''can steam be generated 

 I in a boiler kept regularly supplied with water?" How, we 

 ! might ask, could air jiass into such a boiler? How can it collect 

 i in pipes pretty constantly supplied with water? how become as 

 j firm and incompressible as iron or granite ? It will be obtained 

 from the water itself ; it will find an entrance wlienever from 

 over-heat and expansion there is a loss of waier. and even 

 from contracting into less space as it cools. " Inquibek," 

 however, su;>plies a sort of confirmation that in his case steam 

 was the destructive agent. He says that "to produce heat 

 enough the water in the pipes was boiling hot, the fire was 

 very strong, .and the boiler very hot." As the supply-cistern 

 was very elevated and ci/u-municated with the top or ijoarly he 

 top of the boiler, the pressure of the water and the great heat 

 below the boiler would be very apt to cause air or steam to 

 accumulate close to the iron of the boiler : and this iron, 

 from the water not touching it, would become very hot, and 

 when from a charge the water again came in contact with the 

 over-heated ^ides of the boiler, steam would be so quickly 

 formed that there must either be a rapid overflow of water or 

 the lioiler from the pressure must give way. When some of 

 our corresiiondeuts told us, as in a late case, that the water 

 was thrown out so fast from the supply-cistern that they had 

 to keep almost constantly supplying it, and then could not 

 keep it full ; there was more than the increased bulk from the 

 eipausiou of the water, and but for the rmming over, or boil- 

 ing over rather, there would have been a bursting. The 

 remeiiy is just as in the ease of stoves ; have enough of boiler 

 and of piping thai; there may never be any uecesjity for having 

 the water near the boiling point instead of beyond it. 



U'roiirikt Iran a'id Cciit ilrla! Bo'diTS. — Which are the better? ■ 

 iuquii-e many — that is, which are the more lasting. This is a 



