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WARMING AND VENTILATION. 



WARMIKG AND VENTILATION. 



he carrying trade. " I am certain,- ha said, " tbt it will be of great 

 benefit to lie revenue, and will tend to mke London a free port, and, 

 by coneequenoe, the market of the world." ThU wiae plan, unfor- 

 tunately for F.ngliah commerce, was nut permitted to be carried into 

 effect. 



The advantages of the warehousing system were mort forcibly pointed 

 out by Dean Tucker in 1748, in his ' Essay on the Advantage! and 

 Disadvantages which respectively attend (in-at Britain and Franoe with 

 respect to trade,' and afterward! by Adam Smith, in hia ' Wealth of 

 Nationi ;' but it was not established before 1803 (43 Qeo. III., o. 132). 

 The act! by which warehousing is now regulated are the 8 and 4 Will 

 IV.. c. 57 ; 4 and 5 Will IV., c. 89 ; and 6 and 7 Will. IV., c. 60. 



The main objection to Sir Robert Walpole's scheme was that the 

 warehousing was compulsory, but, under the existing law, it U at the 

 option of the importer. Amongst other privilege! enjoyed by the 

 merchant, he may remove any merchandise from one port to another, 

 cither by Ma or inland carriage, to be warehoused again. A com- 

 mittee of the House of Commons reported, in 1840, " that the privilege 

 of having bunding warehouse! may be conceded to inland towns, under 

 due restriction! and regulations, with advantage to trade and safety to 

 the revenue. An Act (7 & 8 Viet, c. 31) conferred this privilege 

 upon Manchester. Since then the power of appointing warehousing 

 port! has been conferred on the Treasury by the Customs Consolidation 

 Act of 1S33 ; and a similar power as to inland towns by the 23 & 24 

 Viet, c. 86. 



The advantages of warehousing have been understood in various 

 foreign countries as well as in England. So long since as 1664, M. 

 Turgot established it in France; but it was discontinued in 1668, 

 except for mercharfdise imported from the East and West Indie! and 

 Guinea, or exported thereto. In 180S the system was re-established in 

 a more extensive manner, but was confined to certain sea-ports, until 

 1832, when it was extended to several of the principal cities in the 

 interior. Warehousing both at the ports and at certain inland towns 

 is permitted in Holland. In Belgium, Denmark, and most other 

 commercial countries the system has also been adopted. 



WAKMINO AND VENTILATION. References having been 

 made from SMOKE, STOVE, and VENTILATION to the present article, it 

 will be desirable here to glance rapidly at the principal modes em- 

 ployed for warming and ventilating buildings generally. 



Open June-placet. A "cheerful English fire" is associated with so 

 many ideas of comfort and social enjoyment, that we are apt to forget 

 how dearly we pay for it. Dr. Franklin and Count Rumford did some- 

 thing to call attention to the subject, but Dr. Arnott has done more. 

 In order to understand this matter, it will be necessary to bear in mind 

 that, while some fire-places or stoves give out heat by conduction chiefly, 

 others do so mainly by radiation. Open fire-places are of the latter 

 kind, and a serious loss of heating-power results from the arrangement 

 The burning coals radiate heat into the room, and another portion of 

 heat is reflected from the metallic portion! of the grate; but the 

 heated air, which ought to contribute to the desired effect, is mainly 

 allowed to escape up the chimney with the smoke and other results of 

 combustion. 



Dr. Arnott enumerates about a dozen evils which are more or less 

 inseparable from the familiar open fires of our apartments. Among 

 these are : Watte of fuel. There is, first, the heat which escapes with 

 the smoke ; then the current of wormed air from the room, which 

 ascends the chimney ; and, lastly, the valuable fuel contained in the 

 smoke itself. From all these causes Dr. Arnott estimates a loss of 

 seven-eighths of the whole heating-power, while Kumford estimated it 

 as high as fourteen fifteenths each basing his conclusions on the kind 

 of open fire-place chiefly in use in his own day. Unequal heatin;i. In 

 a cold wintry day, when seated near a large fire, we may frequently 

 bear persons complain of being scorched on one side and frozen 

 on the other. This arises from the circumstance that, as most of the 

 heat received from an open fire is radiated from the burning fuel, 

 instead of being conducted by the air, this heat, diminishing in inten- 

 sity as the square of the distance increases, is very unequal, being too 

 great at a small distance, and too weak at a greater; while the 

 draught, or current of cold air which feed! the fire with oxygen, acts 

 like a chilling blast against the side of each person or object which is 

 turned away from the fire. Strata <if cur uiiei/ually Heated. Besides 

 the inequality just alluded to, there is another, arising from this cir- 

 cumstancethat the entering current, being colder and specifically 

 heavier than the air previously in the room, occupies the lowest 

 stratum, and subject! the feet to a cold bath, which is frequently 

 Mended with bad consequences. Other objections are the tmokc 

 and d<ut arising from the use of open fires ; the lou f time attendant 

 on the care which they demand ; the danger to property and to penon 

 which accrues from them ; the necatity (until lately supposed to be 

 indispensable) of employing climbing t*>y$ ; and many others. 



Many contrivances have from time to time been brought forward to 

 obviate on* or other of these inconveniences. Count Rumford sug- 

 gested the register-stove, the peculiarity of which consists in nar- 

 rowing the entrance or throat of the chimney by a plate which can bo 

 moved to vary the size of the aperture ; by this means, particularly if 

 the opening be near the fire, the very hot air directly from the fire 

 enters before it can mix with much colder air from the room, and thus 

 the draught is increased so as to lessen the chance of smoking. But 



the very circumstance which constitutes the excellence of this stove, 

 namely, the rapid ascent of heated air up the chimney, illustrate! the 

 waste of the method generally by showing how much of the heating 

 agent is lost The almost interminable variety of open fire-places, both 

 in the form of the grate itself and in that of the opening in which it is 

 placed, have been introduced either for an ornamental purpose or for 

 the prevention of smoking; the other evils enumerated are almost 

 inseparable from the system. 



Dr. Arnott, in 1855, published a volume " On the Smokeless Fire- 

 place, Chimney-valves, and other means, old and new, of obtaining 

 healthful Warmth and Ventilation." Hia chief object waa to describe 

 a kind of open stove which he had invented, as the result of combining 

 many principles long known, but only in part acted on. In this, as in 

 other cases, he generously threw all patent privilege! aside, and sought 

 how best he might serve the public generally. The chief fault! of open 

 fire-places being the production of smoke, waste of fuel, unequal beating, 

 and troublesome management, he devised a plan for lessening, if not 

 preventing, all these evils. One day's charge of fuel is supplied at 

 once, in a box beneath the grate. The coal is borne upwards, when 

 wanted, by a moveable false bottom in the box, which is raised easily 

 by the poker as a lever, with notches and ratchets to retain the falsa 

 bottom at any height The box is from 8 to 18 inches deep, and con- 

 tains from 201bs. to SOlbs. of fuel. In warm weather, the fire is kept 

 dull by not raising the bottom so high or so often as in cold weather. 

 To light the fire, paper and wood are laid on the coal ; and on this 

 three or four inches of cinder or partially coked cool. The wood soon 

 kindles the cinder, and the pitchy vapour from the coal rises through 

 the wood-flame and cinder-flame, ignites, and adds to the heat, without 

 producing smoke. It is important that no air should pass up through 

 the coal-box ; to insure this, the false bottom moves up tightly. The 

 coal only burns at the top, but it keeps a-light with great tenacity. 

 Even if no fuel were left in the grate, the coal in the box would burn 

 gently downwards, and endure through a whole night The grate is 

 accompanied by an improved form of chimney-valve, &c. Any kind 

 of coal, culm, or coke will do. A room may be kept warm all night, 

 by leaving the valve and throat of the chimney only a little open, and 

 thereby drawing away only a little of the warmed air. Dr. Arnott, 

 having tried his new open smokeless fire-place in many ways, han 

 found that it eaves one-third of the fuel, cures a smoky or ill-drawing 

 chimney, ventilates the room through the valve, diffuses the heat about 

 the room, requires no tending for twelve hours together, renders 

 chimney-sweeping unnecessary, and colls for very little personal attend- 

 ance. We may add that Dr. Arnott combats an opinion, now very 

 prevalent, that a modern low grate warms the floor of a room better 

 than one of greater height. In the usual position of a hearth m^. 

 more heat comes down upon it if the grate be moderately high. If 

 the grate be low, hardly any heat itrU a it; it merely passes horizon- 

 tally over it, while cold air rushes along the floor in the opposite 

 direction, on its way to feed the fire. 



Clote Store*. The common Dutch stove is one of the simplest 

 examples of a close stove. It generally consists of a cylindrical case of 

 sheet iron, within and near the bottom of which is a grating for con- 

 taining the fuel. There is on ash-pit beneath the grating, and three 

 openings to the interior one to the ash-pit, one for introducing the 

 fuel above, and one leading to a flue or chimney. When the fuel-door 

 is closed and the ash-door open, there is then one aperture by w hi.-h 

 cold air can enter to feed the combustion, and another by which the 

 smoke can escape. In this form of stove the heated iron case warms 

 the air of the room by conduction rather than radiation , and ail this air 

 becomes much more nearly equalised in temperature than by a common 

 fire. There is also great economy of fuel, and an absence of smoke and 

 dust On the other hand, inconvenience arises from the highly heated 

 iron, the temperature of which is so great as to decompose many of the 

 heterogeneous particles always floating in the air. The air acquires a 

 burnt and sulphureous odour ; it exercises a dry and shrivelling effect 

 on objects in the room ; and it often gives headache and giddiness to 

 those who are exposed to it In Germany the stoves are made on tluH 

 principle, but are often more ornamental in their character. 



The Russians contrive their close stoves on a different principle. 

 Earthenware and brickwork are largely used, instead of metal, as a 

 means of making the heat less intense near the stove, and of keeping 

 up a reservoir of heat after the fire is extinguished. The stove is 

 built in a massive style, and consists of a series of chambers, of which 

 the lowest serves as the fire-place, and the up|r ones as flues ; and 

 being composed almost entirely of brick and porcelain, the outer surface 

 remains at a moderate temperature for a very long period. 



Within the last thirty years many forms of stove have been devised, 

 with the view of obviating some of the objections urged against those 

 used on the Continent. Where, as in a common German or Dutch 

 stove, the burning fuel comes in contact with the metal of which the 

 stove is formed, this metal becomes so highly heated a! to ) 

 upon the surrounding air the deleterious effects before alluded to. Dr. 

 Arnott has the merit of having drawn attention in a particular manner 

 to this subject The problem whir.h I )r. Aruott sought to solve wax, 

 to obtain a considerable extent of surface heated not much abov. 

 as a means of warming apartments. He first caused a kind of water- 

 stove or tank to be constructed, having a fire-box in its centre ; ami 1-y 

 certain arrangements for the admission of air and the emission of 



