Mode of Heating Rooms hy Steam. 173 



Reference to ilie Engravings of Mr. Snodgrass^:. Method of 

 Heating Rooms by Steam. 



The proposed inode of heating rooms will, perhaps, , be 

 most distinctly explained by a brief history of the first ideas 

 of the rtieniorialist on the subject; of his attempts to put 

 them into practice ; and of the successive improvements 

 which have been suggested to him by experience. 



In April 1 79S he was engaged by G. Macintosh and David 

 Dale, esqrs. to manage a cotton mill near Dornoch, in the 

 countv of Sutherland. He remained in Glasgow for six 

 months after this, superintending the ccnstructiou of ma- 

 chinery for the mill. During this period he was led to con- 

 sider of a cheap method of heating the mill, as he had learnt 

 that fuel was extremelv scarce and dear in the county in 

 which the mill was situated. It was evident that none of 

 the methods which he had seen practised could be applied 

 but at an enormous expense; and his experience bad pointed 

 out to him important defects and inconveniences in them 

 all. Having observed a mode of drying muslins by wrap- 

 ping them round hollow metal cylinders, filled with steam, 

 practised at the bleach-fields near Glasgow, it occurred to 

 him, that, by means of a proper apparatus, steam might be 

 applied to heat a cotton mill, or any other large manufac- 

 tory. It was evident that this not only would be an ceco- 

 nornical mode of producing heat in large works, so far as 

 fuel was concerned, but that it would prevent the danger of 

 fire, to which such works, when heated in the usual manner, 

 are much exposed. He communicated his notions to a 

 number of cotton spinners and others, from whose sugges- 

 tions he expected assistance. But he met with nothing but 

 discouragement; the project being every where treated light- 

 ly, or pronounced to be impracticable. Strongly impressed, 

 however, with the advantages of the plan, the memorialist 

 persevered in his resolution to make trial of it, and ordered 

 tin pipes 10 be made for the purpose. These he erected in 

 the mill in May 1799. When filled with steam they at 

 once produced the necessary degree of heat; but the pi|)es, 

 having been damaged in the carriage, proved not sufiiciently 



strong. 



