1841.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



301 



ON WARMING BUILDINGS WITH HOT WATER. 



4n Answer to Afessrs. J. Davies and G. V. Ryder's Report on Perkins' System 



of Warming Buildings by Hot Water. (See tlie Journal for April last, 



page 137.) By A. M. Perkins. 



The excitement that has been occasioned by the destruction of Messrs- 

 Craft and Stell's premises in Manchester, by fire, arising from tlie bursting of 

 the furnace-coil of a hot water apparatus, on " Perkins' system of warming 

 buildings by means of hot watei'," and tlie measures taken in consequence by 

 the Manchester Assurance Company, have cieated an alarm as to the general 

 safety of his plan, which the patentee feels it incumbent ujjon him to show 

 is unfounded, and to prove that whenever accident has occurred, it may in 

 every case be traced, either to the improper construction of the apparatus 

 in the first instance, or to carelessness and mismanagement in the use of it. 

 It appears by a report which has been extensively circulated by tlie ilan- 

 chestcr Assurance Company, that a committee of the Directors of that com- 

 pany was appointed " to inquire into the nature of the accidents which have 

 recently occurred from the use of hot water apparatuses, and to report 

 thereon ; " in pursuance of which resolution Mr. John Davies and Mr. George 

 Vardon Ryder were directed " to institute a person.al investigation into some 

 of the cases referred to, and to make such experiments as might tend to 

 satisfy their minds as to the causes of the accidents which had occurred." 



In the report presented by these gentlemen to the directors, they commence 

 by describing "the appearances observed" at some of the places which they 

 visited. These appearances consisted of " wood, matting, and cushions, in 

 a variety of places contiguous to the hot water pipes, having l)eeu charred to 

 an alarming extent," and that Mr. Barbour's warehouse had " been on lire, 

 close to the pipes, at ditferent times and in diifeient places." The Unitarian 

 Chapel in Strangeways, also showed marked " appearances," the floor being 

 charred black, and at the Natural History Museum in Peter Street, the mat- 

 ting on the floor had been charred, and the floor itself appears to have been 

 scorched. The whole of these appearances were produced by one and the 

 same cause — the overheating of the pipes ; and this was doubtless occasioned 

 by the disproportion of the furnace-grate and draught to the furnace-coil, 

 like that erected upon Mr. Walker's own premises, for the purpose of Messrs. 

 Davies and Ryder's experiments. Mr. Rawthorne's communication respecting 

 the Strangeways Chapel affords suflicient evidence of an ill-proportion and 

 ill-constructed api)aratus, the deficiency of heat, great consumption of fuel, 

 offensive scent, and charred wood, are convincing proofs that the quantity of 

 tubing laid down in the chapel was insufficient to afford a proper supply of 

 warmth ; and the endeavoui' to jjrocure more heat by extra firing sufficiently 

 accounts for the great consumption of fuel, and the offensive scent given out 

 by the pipes when thus overheated. In au apparatus justly proportioned, 

 the water circulating in the jiipes can receive but a given quantity of heat, 

 and =ny fv.c! added bcycr.d that pciiit wo\il;l n:t cause thoni to bcccrnc over- 

 heated. It is necessary here to describe what " Peikins' system of warming" 

 really is ; for the patentee utterly disclaims the apparatus experimented upon 

 by Messrs. Uavies and Ryder as his, any further than that the pipes were 

 closed in all i)arts. 



Perkins' apparatus, then, consists of a continuous or endless tube, closed 

 in all parts, a portion of wliich is coiled and placed within a duly proportioned 

 furnace ; from this coil the rest of the apparatus receives its heat by the cir- 

 culation of the hot water flowing from its upper part, and which, cooling in 

 its progress tlu'ough the building, returns into the lowest part of the coil to 

 be reheated. The expansion of the water, when heated, is ftdly provided for 

 by the expansion tube, wdiich is of three inches diameter, and of sufficient 

 length to afford an expansion space of from fifteen to twenty per cent ; this, 

 long practice has proved, is ample for the greatest heat which can be attained 

 by the water, as it expands only five per cent, from 40', its point of greatest 

 density, to 212", the boiling point. This tube is placed at the highest part 

 of the apparatus, and is empty when the water is cold ; the furnace is pro- 

 vided with a damper, by which the fire may be regulated at pleasm-e. In a 

 well managed apparatus tins damper is in general nearly closed after the fire 

 has become well ignited, and the draught is so regulated that little more 

 than a slumbering fire is kept up, which at once economises fuel and prevents 

 the possibility of the pipes being overlieated. Tlie degree to which the 

 damper should be closed depends entirely upon the goodness of the draught ; 

 and a very few days' — even a few hours' experience will show the person in 

 charge of the apparatus the point at which it is desirable to keep it. To 

 most of the apparatuses recently erected by the patentee, a self-regulating 

 damper has been attached, acting from the expansion and contraction of the 

 pipe ; when this becomes heated beyond any given point to which the 

 damjjer has been previously regulated, the elongation of the pipe by the 

 excess of heat acting upon the handle of the damper, partially closes it ; the 

 draught is thus checked and the fire lowered ; the pipe consequently cools, 

 and, in cooling, contracts ; the contraction again opens the damper and the 

 fii'c is revived. By this action of the self-regulating damper any degree of 

 heat from the pipes may be maintained within a few degrees ; if the damper 

 be so fixed as to work tlie apparatus at 250", it will be found that the heat 

 of the pipes will range between 255° and 245°, whatever quantity of fuel may 

 be thrown upon the fire ; thus again the overheating of the pipes is effectually 

 prevented, and an equal temperature at the same time obtained. 



In the arrangement and fixing of any apparatus, regard ought always to be 

 had (as has been already stated) to the due proportions of grate surface, 



heating surface, conducting and radiating surface, and draught ; and where 

 these have been duly oljserved, accident becomes impossible, even if the 

 damper should be left wide open. It is not deemed necessary here to state 

 the proportions the above surfaces should bear to each other, but their ne- 

 cessity is sufficiently obvious ; au unlimited sujiply of heat arising from an 

 excess of fire or Iieating surface and draught, witli a limited means of carry- 

 ing off that heat, must cause overheating somewhere, as is ])roved by the high 

 temperature of the apparatuses at Uirch Chapel, Air. Barbour's Warehouse, 

 the Strangeways Chapel, and the Natural History .Museum; while, on the 

 other hand, the due observance of these proportions renders an apiiaratus 

 upon this system perfectly safe. Nor can it be considered that, in claiming 

 attention to the foregoing points in constructing an apparatus, the patentee 

 demands too much ; it is the duty of every tradesman who undertakes to 

 erect these apparatuses to understand them ; and to such an one what has 

 been said presents no difficulties ; and surely common care and the usual 

 degree of prudence required from evei-y person attending upon fires may 

 reasonably be asked for in the management of a hot water apparatus. 



After this brief description of what a hot water apparatus erected upon 

 Perkins' system ought to be, it is necessary now to examine whether the 

 ap))aratus erected in Mr. Walker's premises, and experimented upon by 

 Messrs. Davies and Ryder, is to be considered as an apparatus upon Perkins' 

 system, and what degree of weight ought to be attached to experiments con- 

 ducted as they were, and upon such an apparatus. It appears from the 

 report of those gentlemen, that it consisted of 140 feet of tubing, of which 

 26 feet were coiled in the furnace. With these proportions of tubing no 

 fault is found ; but it seems from the diagram annexed to the report, that 

 only 15 inches of expansion tube was attached to it (at least only tiiat quan- 

 tify was left unfilled with water), which, sujjposing it to be of three inches 

 diameter, the largest size used, is six inches less than the apparatus required. 

 This, in so small an apparatus, is a serious difference when worked at a very 

 high temperature ; still, however, under ordinary circumstances, the a])paratus 

 would have worked. The damper is not once mentioned in the report, nor 

 does it appear that it was ever made the slightest use of during the experi- 

 ments, so that the full force of the draught was admitted to the furnace at 

 all times unchecked, even when it was loaded with fuel to repletion. This 

 might suit the purpose of tlnse who erected this apparatus with the express 

 view of making it as dangerous as air, fire, and water, recklessly employed, 

 could make it ; but what tradesman would introduce one so constructed into 

 his employer's premises ? But more could yet be done to increase the dan- 

 gerous tendency of this apparatus; and, accordingly, in the absence of Mr. 

 Walker, a stop-cock was introduced, which, cutting olf the greater part of 

 the circulation, left on\y forty feet of t/ic tnling out of the furnace, to carry 

 ofi"all the heat that could be communicated from tiventy-si.r feet loithin it, 

 with a fire out of all proportion to those surfaces, and a draught totally un- 

 checked. With the apparatus in this state — a state in which no man in his 

 senses ever before tlioizg'.it of working or.;, and which., it may be safely 

 asserted, had never before occurred since the introduction of warming by hot 

 water — preparations were made for au exjilosion. The process of "igniting," 

 " destroying," " fusing," " inflaming," and " charring," various substances, 

 went on most prosperously, and, at length, the desired explosion took place, 

 the fire was thrown violently out of the furnace, and the ignited enibers were 

 scattered in profusion over every part of the place. Some gray calicos spread 

 around the furnace were alone wanting to complete the scene, and put the 

 finishing touch to this exquisite specimen of " Perkins' Hot-w,ater Apparatus." 



But can it be seriously intended that an apparatus thus erected, and thus 

 worked, is to prove the danger, and caution the public against the use of 

 Perkins' system of warming by means of hot water ? Is the abuse of a thing 

 to be used as an argument for discontinuing the use of it ? To what inven- 

 tion will not such reasoning apply } Steam-engines, railways, all must vanish 

 before it, since, if great skill and care are not employed in their construction, 

 and ranch caution and prudence in their application, they become imminently 

 dangerous. 



Messrs. Craft and Stell's premises were burnt down; the fire was caused 

 by the bursting of the furnace coil of the hot-water apparatus, which threw 

 the ignited embers among combustible materials, and set them on fire. But 

 was common precaution used in placing the furnace in such an apartment 

 (the very walls of which were boards), and in surrounding it with grey goods ? 

 Would not a vault or a cellar have been a more appropriate place .> and had 

 the furnace been so situated, would the premises have been destroyed by the 

 explosion which took jilace .' This explosion was caused by a stoppage in 

 the pipes ; the water in them was frozen. It appears the warehouse was 

 closed on Saturday evening, and not opened again before Monday morning ; the 

 frost being intense during the two intervening nights. A fire lighted in the 

 furnace on Sunday morning was an obvious means of preventing such an oc- 

 currence ; and it might have been supposed would have naturally suggested 

 itself Weather of such extreme severity is not very frequent in England, 

 and the short time required for such a purpose (the necessity of it being evi- 

 dent) could scarcely be considered a desecration of the day. .\ni even after 

 the pipes were frozen up, common attention on the part of the fireman would 

 have shown him the circumstance in a few minutes after the fire was lighted : 

 the want of any circulation in the pipes being always indicated by their great 

 heat near the furnace and their coldness in every other part. Had the fire 

 then been raked out and the most exposed part of the pipes been thawed by 

 the application of heat to them externally, the circulation might have been 

 restored, and all would have been well. No precautions, however, of any 



