VARIOUS METHODS OF HEATING DESCRIBED IN DETAIL. 219 



ought to be all exposed, as far as possible, and of easy access. 

 Moreover, let it be simple in its arrangements ; the simplicity 

 of any system is a plea in its favor. Some people, however, 

 despise simplicity, and would baptize everything about them with 

 confusion and complexity. We have met with people who fancy 

 that their green-house could not be heated without an array of 

 pipes, winding here and there, as intricately arranged as the 

 wheels of a watch, and as useless for the heating of their house 

 as the pillars that support the portico of their dwelling. One 

 would think that they admired cast metal pipes more than their 

 flowering plants. 



One of the chief commendations of hot water, as a heating 

 power, is the facility with which you can bring it in contact 

 with the atmosphere of the house ; however simple the manner 

 in which it may be applied, it is not the less effectual ; and how- 

 ever commendable in other respects the warming of hot-houses 

 by improved methods of hot air may be, the channels and 

 chambers, the numerous hot and cold air drains, the under- 

 ground building of brick-work, and the multifarious intricacies 

 of its arrangements, are sufficient to deter any person from the 

 erection of such a complicated affair. This will be apparent 

 from a glance of the drawing of Meek's improved method of a 

 hot-air heating-apparatus, given on page 197. Such a concern 

 may do very well on paper, but it will not do in practice. It 

 may answer admirably as a plaything for amateurs, who have a 

 fancy for it, and nothing else to do with their time but to amuse 

 themselves with the motions of air ; but, as a method of warm- 

 ing a hot-house, no sane person will adopt it, when he can have 

 the thing done by a simple tank and boiler at half the expense. 

 As a system, it is good for naught. No person who understands 

 it will adopt it ; and those who do not know it, but will have it, 

 let them try. 



The tank system may justly be regarded a real improvement 

 in heating, whether for top or bottom ; and it is the simplest, 

 and perhaps the cheapest, that has yet been brought under pub- 

 lic notice. The sketches we have given are probably not the best 

 that could be adopted. It is yet open to great improvement, and 

 it would be premature, at present, to hazard an opinion upon 

 19* 



