VOL,. X. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAV EVENING, DECEMBER 7, 1831. 



NO. 21. 



© ® sa saw sr :i >sii a a CO sr So 



HEATING HOT HOUSES BY HOT WATER. 



D.isloi,, Nov. S5,183t. 



Tiios. G. Fessenden, Esq. 



Dear Sir — Permit ine to ask your opinion on 

 the lullowing iioiiils in lelalioii to lieuting' liot 

 bouses with hot wuter, as you nre hetter informiHl 

 ])erlia[)s, th;ni :iny other person in this country upon 

 the principles of the niethoil generally ; auil heiiig 

 as I nmlerstiind nnicii interested in the suhject 

 may thiiilv it of itnportanre enongh to investigate 

 sucli facts as are not aheady familiar to yi)U. 



Having as you know erected an apparatus for 

 heating a house eighty feet huig wiih hot water 

 upon principles wliich I supposed to b:; correct in 

 relaliini to the ohject I hail in view; that is, to 

 keep up a regular and safe heat, during our long 



small one, than it can be with a large boiler and after the fire has gone out Inr^,- !..,il„,. ,7 



large reservoir ; hut ihe heating ..f the house quick- dispensed with. " '"''"""' *" 



ly is i,ot the only object to be obtained ; yon want There is another theory maintained hprp . „ 

 not only to heat your house hut to keep up a suf- of the gentlemen referred ,,?"!'""',! ! ""^ 

 ficent degree of beat many hours after the fire should have a small boiler and a hv^e r.«l ^"^ 

 has gone out: to accomplish this there must be a in place of two ke.tles of equal size- l,v wITk 



qual size ; by which 

 you can beat any given 

 s fuel, if not m le.«s time 



■winter nighis, without the necessity of an attendant 



after the usual time of retirement to rest, and with j to calculate 'the time the rooli'n.^ of the fluid wil 



a view to the economy of fuel by this method over maintain the heat of the house.' That gentleman 



quantity of water heated suHicient to produce means, it is contemhd 

 this effect. Mr Tredguld says in his letter to the quantity of water with 1 



secretary of the London Horticultural Society in re- ,h:,n you can if the wattVl'rqnnlly'div'ideri,,' th« 

 v.ewMtg a comm.m,catn,n Iron. Mr Atkinson to that [ two vessels. I confess 1 cant.ot understand ho^ 

 socjely on this subject, ' But the most nnportant of this can be done . 



the properties of the hot water method, as fir.st ( Suppose for instance the size of your house 

 tried, consists m the power it has of keeping up should require 2S0 gallons of water heater! t! 

 the temperature ot the house for a long period keep up the temperature of the house ei.ht hou™ 

 without attention from the attendant ; and it is en- af.er the fire has gone out ■ in one in-iL. 'T! 

 tnely owing to the excess of fluid that it has this f water is equally divided into two ke.il^s " feet 

 advantage over steam heat ; and the exact know- from each other, each containing seventy gallon, of 

 ledge we now have of the heat which water con- water, making 140 gallons ; the rest of tbe w„,«r 

 tains, m proportion to its temperature, enables us j is contained in two pipes each 



that of healing by smoke flues, [ have been some 

 what surprised by opinions that I understand have 

 been given by highly respectable genllemen in this 

 neighborhnod, which if correct, render my laburs 

 useless ami the expense I have been at a total loss ; 

 and for this error I am indebted to Mr Atkinson 

 the inventor. 



As some genlinnen have taken directions fron 

 me with a view to establish a similar apparatus, I 

 think it niy duty lo make public my error, if I have 

 committed one, that ihey may be prevented frori 

 falling into a like mistake ; under these circunn 

 stances you will oblige me by showing the de- 

 fects of my ap|>aratns, that others may profit by 

 your experience and knowledge on this subject, if 

 it be no hinger in my own power to do so. The 

 first objection, I understand, which is made is to 

 large boilers and large reservoirs ; and as mine are 

 of this description it is an important one to me. 

 The second is to placing the upper pipe three inches 

 below the rim of the kettles, it being contended that 

 it ought to be placed tit the highest point in them ; 

 and as my pipe is according to the first ])lan 

 it must be useless. The thin! is depending on 

 hot water alone ; it being urged that there ought 

 to be a brick or smoke flue also in the house. 

 The fourth is the enormous quantity of coal 

 fuel that this mode of heatin 



further says that gar leners object to large boilers 

 and large reservoirs, on account of the time it 

 takes to heat them ; but the excess of water over 

 and above what is necessary to heat your house 

 while the fire is kept up, is a reserve of heat to be 

 given out after your fire is extinguished and he re- 

 commends as an improvement of Mr Atkinson's 

 apparatus with a large boiler and huge reservoir to 

 pass the pipes through the water of the reservoir 

 as thus — 



Tbit Mr Tredgold is in favor of large boilers 

 and hrge reservoirs where a reserved heat is re- 

 quirid to keep up the temperature of the house 

 afte| the fire is out, and that he thinks them abso- 

 jlutcy necessaiy, appears in many instances in his 



requires where the j letter to the secretary. Referring to one of his 

 apparatus is large. And the fifth is one that does not | shajow boilers he says; ' if a boiler h^ive suffi- 

 immeiliately afiect me, but does others who have ciett surface to receive the efject of the fire, and 

 two pipes running from the upper part of their : thewhole apparatus contains as much water as will 

 kettles while they have but one lower pipe of cofvcy the heat from the fire to the heatiii" sur- 

 Bqnal size to return the water from the reservoir to J fae in the time corresponding to its velocity its 

 the boiler. It is said that if there he not two lower : capacity need not be further increased, except as a 

 pipes where there are two upper ones the one ibnt n-eervnr of heat lo act when thejire ceases lo burn.' 

 returns the water to the boiler ought to be equal in What does this mean? Why if you want a 

 size to both the upper ones. jtepporary heat, or one that can be kept up while 



In answer to the first objection, I must observe yoir fire is burning under the eye of an attendant. 



that the terms large and small in this case are 

 relative, and cannot be defined except in connex- 

 ion with the size of the house to be heated, that is, 

 the number of cubic feet of air which the house 

 contains, and the tiine that it is desirable to keep 

 up the heat after the fire is extinguished. 



There is no doubt that a house may be heated 

 much sooner with a shallow broad bottomed boil- 

 er without any reservoir at all, or with a very 



a hallow or small boiler will answer your pur- 

 pifee ; but not so if you want to keep up the heat 

 up,' time alter your fire has gone down. So he 

 si»p again. ' Where lieat is required onbj during 

 tlU action of thejire, a large surface in proportion 

 toits capacity may be used with ailvanlagi; to give 

 of heat over the descending pipe.' Mr Tredgold 

 eenis to think that where a reserved heat is re- 

 fliired to keep up the temperature of the house 



. . feet long with 



a bore large enough to contain the residue of the 

 water, or 140 gallons more, making- in all the 280 

 gallons to be heated ; this is the case in my house. 

 In the other case the water is distributed into' 

 two kettles, the boiler containing only twenty gal- 

 lons and the reservoir 120 gallons and the pijies, as 

 before, 140 gallons ; making, as in the |.receding 

 case, 280 gallons in all ; can the 280 gallons of 

 water in the last distribution be heated sooner, or 

 with less fuel, to the temperature of 135 deg. than 

 it can in the former one ? Tliis is a question of 

 importance and if it can be truly answered in the 

 ufBrmative, then I cannot account for the oversight 

 of jMr Tredgold in not mentioning it as an im- 

 provement on Aikins-n's plan, if it be one in fact. 

 But suppose that it could be heated with less 

 fuel and quicker too ; the question then arises, 

 would It answer as well to keep the house at a 

 proper temperature during the night at both its 

 ends ? The fire being extinguished the whole 

 mass of water soon becomes of the same tempera- 

 ture ; in the reservoir however you have six times as 

 much water giving out heat as you have in the 

 boiler ; will not ti.e end where the reservoir stands 

 be kept warmer and warm enough, when the other 

 end of the house will he cold .' — But Mr Tied- 

 gold has given plates of seven difl^ercnt modes 

 of heating hnt-houses by liot water, six of which 

 iliffer from Mr Atkinson's, four of the six are with 

 shallow boilers and no reservoirs ;— one with a 

 large deep boiler and no reservoir ; and one with 

 deep boiler and deep reservoir covered at the top 

 with high upright pipes, both in the boiler and re- 

 servoir for the purpose of carrying the w ater over 

 a door in the house ; but the apparatus with a smcUl 

 boiler and large reservoir, he seems to have for- 

 gotten.— This may be seen in his letter to the Sec- 

 retary of the Horticultural Society, No. vii., part 

 iv. of the Transactions. — It does appear to me 

 that if this mode of heating with a small boiler 

 and largo reservoir had possessed any advantages 

 over two large kettles of equal size, Mr Tred- 

 gold must have seen it. I am more particular oa 

 this point, because several gentlemen have men- 

 tioned it to me as an imjirovement on my appa- 

 ratus — not that I ever for a moment could under- 

 stand, or believe in its efficacy. 



The next objection made to Atkinson's appa- 

 ratus is the placing the upper pipe three iucbe* 



