230 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15. 



was pondering on the matter of using a similar 

 apparatus for warming our dwellings, one of 

 our subscribers made the following suggestion: 



SAVING SOME OF THE HEAT THAT GOES UP THE 

 CHIMNEY. 



Now for invention. If " nine-tenths of the 

 heat goes up the chimney, and only one-tenth 

 is utilized for warming the room " (Gleanings. 

 p. 31), can not this waste be utilized? It may 

 be necessary that the gas from our stoves rise 

 to the top of our houses while hot, in order to 

 obtain a good draft; but then, why can it not 

 be carried sidewise in a flue in the peak of the 

 house in order that it may there impart its 

 heat to water which is to be carried down lo the 

 lower part of the house, there to impart its 

 heat to the air of the room? I know that the 

 hot water running down would not force up 

 other water from which the heat had been ab- 

 sorbed. Probably there are ninny other diffi- 

 culties in the way of the practical working of 

 this scheme, but a saving of nine-tenths of all 

 fuel used in heating dwellings is no mean sav- 

 ing. If the wind or a windmill could be made 

 to cause a draft, then the gas from the stove 

 would not have to rise to the top of the house 

 while hot. but could be drawn off after the heat 

 had been extracted. B. D. 



Eagle Point, Wis. 



Friend D.. you have struck upon a very im- 

 portant matter, without question. This sur- 

 plus heat that goes up the chimney in almost 

 every home can be utilized. Run your iron 

 pipe into the bottom of the chimney, or, still 

 better, into the stovepipe. Have it put up in 

 such a way that it will come almost in the 

 center of the draft. Then lead it out through 

 the chimney at the point where you wish a 

 room warmed. Make a coil of pipes, or let the 

 water pass through any of the various cheap 

 hot-water radiators now on the mai'ket; then 

 carry it back to the point where it goes into 

 the stovepipe or bottom of the chimney. Fix a 

 standpipe at some convenient place, and the 

 apparatus will run itself as long as you want it 

 to run. The heat of the chimney will be suffi- 

 cient to keep the pipes hot enough all night 

 long, so there will be no danger of freezing and 

 bursting, even if the tire does go out in the 

 stove or stoves connected with said chimney. 



j Staii(li)ipe. 



ARRANGEMENT OF THE PIPES FOB HOT-WATER 

 HEATING. 



The diagram above will scarcely need expla- 

 nation. Of course, the size of the pipe is great- 

 ly exaggerated in the diagram. The stand- 

 pipe is simply to allow the water to contract 

 and expand, as it does at different temperatures, 

 and to allow the air that accumulates, to get 

 out. If you live where there are town or city 

 waterworks, this standpipe can be dispensed 

 with, and a very small water-pipe may be let 



into the heating-pipes at any point. In fact, 

 my apparatus didn't work well with a stand- 

 pipe; but when I attached it to the regular 

 waterworks, letting on a pressure of 30 lbs. or 

 more to the square inch, it worked perfectly. I 

 have never had any trouble with air collecting 

 in the pipes. 



When it is attached to waterworks, just open 

 the valve a little so as to let water enough into 

 the coil of pipes, and you can then draw hot 

 water from your heating pipes anywhere you 

 choose— upstairs or downstairs. My impression 

 is. that it is a very easy matter to arrange it so 

 the water will keep circulating. All that is 

 needed is, that the temperature be a little high- 

 er along some point of the circuit where the 

 pipe is ascending; and letting it run up inside 

 of the chimney will answer admirably. The 

 water becomes warm when it first goes into the 

 chimney, and continues to get warmer and warm- 

 er. This makes it lighter, and therefore the 

 warm or hot water rises to the highest point in 

 the piping. Then it parts with its heat and be- 

 comes cool and heavier, and therefore falls to 

 be heated over again. You can warm in this 

 way a single room, or even a small corner of 

 any room. As long as there is any heat in the 

 chimney, there will be heat in the corner. 

 When once started, the thing goes itself for 

 ever— that is, where there is any tire to furnish 

 heat for the chimney. There is no need of any 

 valve anywhere, unless it is to stop the hot- 

 water circulation when your rooms are too 

 warm. If the weather turns colder, and you 

 want a little heat, just open the valve, and off 

 starts the hot water again, doing its work. My 

 impiession is, that, by a considerable coil or 

 series of pipes so arranged that the waste heat 

 that passes up the chimney shall come through 

 them we may be able to utilize almost every bit 

 of this waste product from our fuel; and hot- 

 water pipes give us the gentlest, cleanest, and 

 quietest way of heating, of any thing that has 

 ever been invented. I say '"quietest;" for 

 where buildings are warmed by steam, pretty 

 soon there is sure to be bumping, or pounding 

 and hissing. The hot water is silence itself. I 

 would suggest that your water-pipes be of gal- 

 vanized iron. In that case 1 do not believe that 

 the water inside, and the smoke, soot, and tar 

 outside— that is, where they pass through the 

 chimney, would ever have any effect on them 

 at all. Ordinary black iron pipe is a little 

 cheaper in the outset: but rust and corrosion 

 would in time hinder its working, so that the 

 galvanized would probably be cheaper in the 

 end. 



On Sunday evening, Feb. 19, we had a tre- 

 mendous gale of wind and snow. I had decid- 

 ed to turn on steam in case the weather turned 

 very cold Sunday evening; but some way I did 

 not get at it; and on Monday morning, when I 

 found the thermometer ■'>° below zero. I feared 

 that my plants were all frozen up and the wa- 

 ter-pipes burs ted, for there had been no steam at 

 all through the underground tile since Saturday 

 night; and during vSunday night the wind blew 

 a fearful gale from the north, with the low tem- 

 perature I have mentioned. About 6 o'clock I 

 started the little engine, but did not 0[jen the 

 doors of the greenhouse until after breakfast. I 

 was greatly fearful of the result; but (ivery 

 thing was all right, as it was Saturday night. 

 The tomatoes and summer squashes looked as if 

 it were the month of June. The water-pipes 

 were doing their duty as usual. By the way, a 

 friend suggests that my new model greonhou.se 

 must have been patterned after the ironclad 

 ram Merrimac, of war-times memory. You will 

 remember the Merrimac was covered with rail- 

 road iron, disposed in such a way that shot and 

 shell would be deflected, and bound off without 



