Juno 18, 1874. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



481 



HEATING. 



HE articles wliicli have lately appeared on 

 this subject have heen particularly interest- 

 ing. We have bad the science and practice 

 of the matter by contributors competent to 

 deal with the subject ; but the very di- 

 vergence of the views put forth only proves 

 that a standard of perfection is not yet 

 reached. Heating is a vital point in garden- 

 ing, and every line treating on the subject 

 is sure to be read carefully. Messrs. Abbey 

 and Kinnear have given exhaustive treatises of much 

 value, " A R.4mbling C.E." a lucid and readable theo- 

 retical essay, and the veteran Mr. Robson some hard- 

 headed practice. I feel it somewhat presumptuous to 

 enter the lists of " heaters," and I approach the field 

 with great diffidence, and would not approach it at all 

 if the matter had not been left in a state calculated to 

 perplex many vyhose sole guidance is the columns of this 

 Journal, who want to heat but cannot decide by the 

 " differences of doctors " that bewilder. First, the mind 

 is made up to have a saddle boiler, and anon confidence 

 is shaken, and the tubular idea is paramount, but only 

 in turn to be put aside, waiting for something on which 

 all are agreed is " the best." 



From time to time it has fallen to my lot to work 

 saddle and tubular, conical and spiral boilers, and all 

 successfully, and I have come to the conclusion that there 

 really is not so much difference between the merits of 

 one boiler and another as sometimes appears on paper. 

 A great deal more depends on the setting and manage- 

 ment than can easily be shown in writing. The goal to 

 be attained is to extract heat from fuel, and diffuse it in 

 a given structure with a minimum of waste, guarding 

 against — as Mr. R. Fish used to quaintly put it — heating 

 the external atmosphere. As much heat is frequently 

 wasted in the stokehole and by the chimney top as would 

 warm another house of the size of that the boiler is heat- 

 ing, and this with all boilers, unless special care is taken 

 in setting and economising the elements of combustion. 

 The limekiln system of heating appears on the face of 

 it to be the most economical of all modes, as heat is not 

 only extracted from coal, but by it from stone also. I 

 carefully examined the apparatus at Manchester, where 

 it certainly worked admirably, and for extensive estab- 

 lishments I must confess to being favourably impressed 

 with the system. For small and medium-sized places, 

 however, I have an idea that the plan cannot bo so 

 advantageous ; the body of fire required to reduce the 

 stone involving more coal than is demanded by the old 

 system. Some experience of the adaptability of this 

 mode to places of hmited extent seems to be required. 



In point of economy I well know which mode of 

 heating carries the palm when applied to small iso- 

 lated structures, and that is the Arnott stove. It is so 

 simply because all, or within a modicum of all, the heat 

 of the fuel is difiused in the house, very little indeed 

 finding its way out of the chimney. This is clear from the 



No. 690.-TOL. XXVI., New Series. 



fact that the stove may be kept hot while the smoke pipe 

 above it is comparatively cool. These stoves, however, 

 will not become general, as the notions that they produce 

 dirt and dust and a parching heat from their surfaces are 

 not easily dissipated. The simple fact is they can be 

 worked and made to do their duty in a perfectly satis- 

 factory manner if the attendant takes an interest in them, 

 and will do them justice ; hut this or any other mode of 

 heating will never' succeed if any prejudice exists against 

 it in the minds of stokers or managers. That may be 

 set down as a fact. It is much more easy to drive 

 out cold than prejudice. I once expressed an opinion to 

 a visitor that if a boiler and piping were connected with 

 the " Arnott," it would be difficult to beat it as an 

 effectual and economical heating medium. His reply 

 was, " Ah, just the same as Mr. Rivers has." That is 

 the first anil last word I heard as to this combination 

 being really in practice, but if it is the fact we may take 

 it for granted that it is of value, as a horticulturist of Mr. 

 Rivers's fame and experience would never be content 

 with anythmg of a doubtful nature. Does this combina- 

 tion exist, and with what result '? 



A s to the relative value of saddle and tubular boilers 

 there is no real difference to quarrel about when both 

 have fair play. Despite "A Rambling C.E.'s" terms, 

 divisional and non-divisional, gardeners will prefer the 

 old designations as more truly descriptive and distinctive. 

 We think of tubulars as a series of tubes imited into a 

 skeleton form, and fed with fuel from the highest point ; 

 of saddles as a body fed from the lowest point. Yet some 

 of the latter are as truly divisional as are the former. 

 Ormson's, .Jones's, Green's, and CanneU's are to all in- 

 tents and purposes divisional, yet they are accepted as 

 saddles; and I have a strong opinion that as in general 

 things the truth is a mean between two extremes, so in 

 these boilers the future will recognise an apparatus ful- 

 filling their requirements as efficient heat-diffusors^ with 

 not over-dainty appetites, and over which "C.E." and 

 Mr. Robson may well shake hands without any qualms 

 of conscience. In fact, the most purely divisional boilers 

 of the day are one a tubular and the other a saddle— viz., 

 Dennis's and CanneU's, the separate parts of each being 

 as portable as bricks, and as easily piled into a complete 

 structure. 



Tubular and saddle boilers, as such, are frequently un- 

 justly or hastily condemned, and if one of either kind 

 'fails in its duty 'it is too much tlie fashion to rail against 

 the whole type. The only fair way is to judge each 

 individually, and in accordance with its own surround- 

 ings. Some time ago I was extremely uneasy at the 

 working of a saddle boiler. It was a regular glutton of 

 fuel. It was my duty to lay the matter before the owner 

 of coal and boiler, w'ith a tabulated account of consump- 

 tion. Of course I might have denounced all saddle boilers, 

 and clamoured for a tubular. The boiler was examined ; 

 it was sound, but of the rudest description, and was set 

 in such a manner that only about one-eighth, really less, 

 of its surface was exposed to the fire, the main volume 

 of heat gliding past it and shooting up the chimney. 



No. 1342.— Vol. LI., Old Series. 



