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MISCELLANi:OUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



■ Mr. Perkins's Mode of healing hy Hot Water. — This is one of the most 

 extraordinary improvements tliat have yet been made in lieating by this 

 fluid. The advantages wliich are expected to result from it are, great 

 economy in the first erection, as there is no boiler, and the pipes in which 

 the water is circulated are not thicker than a man's thumb ; a power of 

 conveying heat to a greater distance than by any mode hitherto in use ; 

 of producing a much higher temperature than has hitherto been done by 

 either water or steam, even to the extent of 400° or 300° ; lastly, a more uni- 

 versal applicability of hot water as a medium for conveying heat. The words 

 of Mr. Perkins's patent are : — " The object of my im|)rovements is to obtain 

 considerably higher degrees of temperature to the water circulated ; and thus 

 I am enabled to ajjply my apparatus to a variety of purposes w Inch require 

 the heating medium to bc^ at a degree of temperature higher than that of 

 boiling water. And my improvements consist in circulating water in tubes 

 or pipes which arc closed in all parts, allowing a sufficient space for the 

 expansion of the water contained within the ap[niratus, by which means 

 the water will at all times be kept in contact with the metal, however 

 high the degree of heat such apparatus may be submitted to, and yet, 

 at the same time, there will be no danger of bursting the apparatus, in 

 consequence of the water having sufficient space to expand." (Rep. of 

 Patent Inventions, vol. xiii. p. 130.) Mr. Perkins has employed his mode 

 of heating in the Bank of England, in his own manufactory in Fleet Street, 

 in some other houses and manufactories in London, in the elephant-house 

 at the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, and in a range of hot-houses 

 at Mr. Palmer's, Parson's Green, Fulham. We have seen the apparatus 

 at work, both ni the Zoological (Jardcns, and at Mr. Palmer's ; and we 

 are so highly satisfied with the [ilan, that we shall have our small hot- 

 house and green-house heated by it before this Magazine sees the light. 

 It was our intention to employ Witty's smoke-consuming furnace, to 

 heat water, which we intended to circulate by the si[)hon mode ; but 

 Perkins's method will not cost above a third of the expense which this 

 would have led us into ; and, what is an object in all small green-houses, 

 it occupies very little room. Perkins's fireplace is iilso calculated to con- 

 sume tiie greater part of the smoke; not perhaps so completely as Witty's, 

 but still nnich more so than by any other mode, hitherto brought into 

 notice, which can be applied upon a small scale. To gentlemen residing 

 in the country, Perkins's mode of heating presents an additional advantage 

 in point of economy; and this is, that the pipes, being small, and conse- 

 quently light (in comparison with the cast-iron |)ipes of 4- in. or G in. in 

 diameter usually employed), can be sent to any distance by coach; while, 

 the mode of joining them being entirely mechanical, tliey may be put toge- 

 ther by any [)erson who can use a screw-wrench. But we shall have a 

 great deal more to say on the subject in our next Number, when we shall 

 be able to speak from ptTsonal experience. In the mean time, it may be 

 useful to inform our readers, that Mr. Perkins has made an arrangement 

 with Messrs. Walker and Co., of St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, for. 

 manufacturing and putting up his apparatus. — Cond. 



