262 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



PEBRUART ar, 1833. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEB. 27, 1R33. 



HEATIJtCt BY HOT 'WATER. 



Fiirthe Neto Enghmd Farmer. 



Mr. Fessenden, Sir, In one of your papers of 

 the last year some acconlit was given by my friend 

 Gen. Dearborn, of ihe Hot Water Pipes used in my 

 green house.* Tliose if you recollect, were of the 

 kind recommended, and indeed first applied to the 

 pupose of heating liot houses, by Mr. Mkinson of 

 London, an account of wliich is also given in Lou- 

 don's Gardener's Magazine. From the experience 

 of two winters, 1 am satisfied, that there can be 

 uo heat applied, better suited to the preservation 

 and growth of green house plants than tliis; which 

 is, if you recollect, composed of a boiler ami reser- 

 voir of about 80 gallons each, and about 220 feet 

 of iron pipe of 4J inches bore, the whole contain- 

 ing when filled, between 3 and 400 gallons of 

 water. Tlie heating of this (piantity of water ne- 

 cessarily takes some hours ; with good fuel, about 

 three hours brings the water up to the desired 

 heat of 180 degrees of Fahrenheit. AVIien once 

 heated it is found to keep the house at the desired 

 state with a moderate fire, and is pronounced by 

 my gardener as the best heat he has used for ex- 

 otics, and giving but little troul)le to the gardener. 

 From a notice in one of the English periodicals, 

 and the observations of a friend in England, who 

 had seen it in operation, I have been inihiced to 

 import a new invented apparatus, by Mr. A. SI. 

 Perkins, son of our countryman Jacob Perkins, 

 Esq. which is described in Loudon's Gardener's 

 Magazine, No. 38, for June 1832. The machine 

 consists of what Mr. P. calls a coil (somewhat re- 

 sembling the worm used by distillers) which con- 

 tains about 130 feet of pipe. This coil is jjlaced 

 in a cavity in the stack of the furnace, and sur- 

 i-ounds it, so that the heat is communicated through 

 the brick work, and also passes directly from the 

 furnace to the pipes by an open door. The top 

 of the coil, and the bottom of it, are connected 

 with the pipes which lead into the house; and as 

 the heat is raised in the coil, the water is driven 

 by its expansion into the tubes in the house, and 

 thus the water in all the pipes, is kept in a high 

 state of heat and rapid circulation. The whole 

 length of the pipes, including those in the cod, is 

 about 450 feet, by i an inch bore of wrought iron, 

 and they i^ontain, when filled, about _^een gallons 

 of water. There is a pipe to sufi'er the expansion 

 of the water. When the pipes are filled with 

 water, the whole is liermetically sealed up by a 

 screw ; and if there is no escape of the water at 

 the joints by steam, it is said by Mr. Perkins, that 

 there is not the loss of a thimblefull of water from 

 the beginning to the end of the season. It has 

 been in operation but a short time — during the cold 

 weather in the early part of thi.« month, when the 

 thermometer was at 10 degrees in the open air, 

 the heat in the house was 75 degrees in an hour 

 after the fire was applied. As far as I am enabled 

 to judge froui the report of my gardener, there is 

 a greater economy of fuel in this mode of heating, 

 than where a boiler or flues are used. I should have 

 mentioned that the coil is 4 feet long, 2 feet wide, 

 and 26 inches high, or thereabouts. 



If you consider the above as worthy of commu- 

 nicating to the luiblic, through the niedium of the 



* See iN. Ji. Farmer, vol. x. p. oti. 



paper you so ably conduct, you are at liberty to 

 do so. Your obt. servt., T. H. Perkins. 



P. S. The room heated with the small pipes is 

 60 feet long and 15 feet wide, and appropriated to 

 grapes altogether. T. H. P. 



By the Editor. We are always happy to be the 

 herald of any improvements in the economy of 

 heat ; one of the most useful topics, which can 

 occupy the faculties of the student of nature. 

 Without the art of producing and distributing heat, 

 a large part of the earth, which is now so popu- 

 lous, powerful and highly civilized, would be meet 

 for nothing but the haunts and habitations of quad- 

 rupeds, and other irrational beings. It was there- 

 fore well observed by the celebrated Lord Bacon, 

 " It is certain, that of all powers in nature, heat is 

 the chief both in the frame of nature and the 

 works of ar<." 



The improvement introduced by Col. Perkins, 

 and described above, has met with much approba- 

 tion in England. The conductor of Loudon's 

 Magazine, in the No. for April last states, tliat 

 " this is one of the most extraordinary improve- 

 ments that have yet been m.ide in heating by this 

 fluid. The advantages which are expected to result 

 are great economy in the first erection, as there is 

 no boiler, and the pipes in which the water is cir- 

 culated are not thicker than a man's thumb ; a 

 power of conveying heat to a greater distance than 

 by any mode hitherto in use, and producing a 

 much higher temperature than has hitherto been 

 done by either water or steam, even to the extent 

 of 400 degrees or 500 degrees ; lastly, a more uni- 

 versal apidicability of hot water as a medium for 

 conveying heat." 



The conductor n)entions a number of buildings 

 in and about London, in which Mr. Perkins's in- 

 vention had been introduced with great success, and 

 says " we are so highly satisfied with the plan that 

 we shall have our small hot liouse and green house 

 heated by it before this magazine sees the light." 



The June number, p. 292, contains Mr. Perkins's 

 plan engraved, in a communication from the in- 

 ventor to the conductor. In this Mr. Perkins ob- 

 serves as follows : 



" I beg leave to submit to your judgment my 

 l)lan for heating hot houses by circulating hot water 

 in hermetically sealed tubes of small diaujeter. In 

 the infancy of this plan, in consequence of my 

 successful application of it to the heating of the 

 juinter's plates of the bank of England, John Hors- 

 ley Palmer, Esq., the governor, very liberally pro- 

 posed to erect an apparatus in one of his hot- 

 houses, with a view of ascertaining its power of 

 heating it. I therefore put up an apparatus, con- 

 sisting of a series of pipes of only an inch in diam- 

 eter, so connected together as to form a complete 

 circuit round the house. The result was a gradual 

 rise of the thermometer in the house from 45 de- 

 grees to 90, in four hours, without once stoking 



[replenishing] the fire from the time of light- 

 ing," &c. 



The conductor of the Magazine again expresses 

 his high opinion of this improvement, and observes 

 " it is stated that the water may be circulated, un- 

 der ordinary circumstances of attention to the fire 

 at from 300 degrees to 600 degrees ; and with ex- 

 traordinary strengtli of pipe and apjilication of fuel 

 to a still higher degree. It is found that 400 de- 

 grees will roast meat. The workmen of the bank- 

 note printing office of Messrs. Perkins and liacon 

 have dressed a beef steak at the farther extremity 

 of the ])ipe of hot water, used for heating the steel 

 l)latcs ; and Mr. Perkins is constructing for him- 

 self an oven for roasting by hot water." 



Water in an open vessel sustains the pressure 

 of the atmosphere equal to about 15 lbs. to a 

 square inch ; with this weight upon it it boils as 

 soon as it is heated to the temperature of 212 de- 

 grees, and unless it is confined it cannot be heated 

 above that degree, however great the quantity of 

 heat applied. The boiling point, however, of all 

 liquids, is found to depend on the degree of pres- 

 sure to which the fluid is exposed. If the pres- 

 sure be diminished the liquid boils at a lower tem- 

 perature; if it is increased a higher temperature 

 is nccessiiry to produce ebullition. From the ex- 

 periments of Professor Robison, it appears that, 

 in a vacuum, all liquids boil about 140 degrees 

 lower than in the open air. Thus water in an ex- 

 hausted receiver will boil at 72 degrees, alcohol at 

 44 degrees, &.C.* By the mere removal of atmos- 

 pheric pressure ether will boil and be converted 

 into vapor at any temperature above 20 degrees. 



Water, when raised from the common temper- 

 ature of the atmosphere to 212 degrees, or boiling 

 heat, occupies about one-twentyfiflh part more 

 s[-,ace than it does before it is heated. In other 

 words 24 quarts of ice-cold water will fill a vessel 

 holding 25 quarts of boiling water. It is this ex- 

 pansion or tendency to expand, which causes the 

 circulation in hot water pipes. In closed pipes, 

 like those of Mr. Perkins, room must be left for 

 this expansion. And even then we should apjjre- 

 hcnd danger from the greatest j)ossil)le ap|)lication 

 of adding heat to the Coil around the furnace. 

 We admire the invention, but hope the inventor 

 will discover some method of measuring and adapt- 

 ing the power applied by heat to the strength of 

 his pipes. And in using this apparatus, in our 

 climate, we should think care would be necessary, 

 in very severe weather, not to let the water freeze in 

 the pipes, as water in freezing expands with still 

 greater power than in boiling. 



We have received ilip, " Mdrcss to the Members oftlie 

 Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, by 

 James Richardson, Esq." which well deserves attentive 

 ])erusal as well as general circulation. We shall soon 

 give it a place in our columns. 



' Black's Lectures, vol. i. p. 151. 



