Forcing Houses or Pits. — 85 



not only saves fuel, but also gives the operator better control of 

 the heat, since there is but very little of it stored up in the cir- 

 culation ; but nearly everybody admits that hot water is prefer- 

 able for small houses, especially on account of safety, the pipes 

 distributing heat just as long as the water in the boiler is hot, 

 whether actually boiling or not. 



My own preference is for hot water ; but the use of a large 

 boiler with low pressure will render steam heating also perfectly 

 safe and probably satisfactory; only be sure to have the boiler 

 low enough, the chimney high enough, and the pipes at such 

 gradual inclination from the boiler upwards, that the condensed 

 water will freely return to the boiler and not accumulate in any 

 part of the pipes. If the latter is the case, the trouble makes 

 itself known by what is generally termed "hammering," which is 

 a sound repeated at regular intervals somewhat like that made by 

 striking a hard article against the pipe. The use of steam 

 also involves a smaller outlay than that of hot water, since one- 

 inch pipes will do, and are often preferred for the one system, 

 while two-inch pipes are usually considered the smallest suitable 

 for the other. 



The boilers used for steam heating are generally bought 

 second-hand, of four or five-horse power, such as have faithfully 

 served for high pressure, and are condemned for that purpose. 

 Hot-water and steam furnaces and boilers of any desired size, 

 from the simple self-feeding, base-burning water heater, to that 

 for heating buildings covering many thousands of square feet, 

 may be bought at reasonable figures from manufacturing firms 

 who make a specialty of them, as Hitchings & Co., of New 

 York City, and others. 



Mr. Baker's Method of Heating. — Mr. Baker's forcing 

 pit is constructed on the plan given on page 83, 26 feet wide by 

 100 feet in length. The boiler is a second-hand four or five- 

 horse power, and at an outside temperature of zero has to carry 

 about 5 pounds of steam in order to maintain a temperature of 65 

 to 70 degrees inside. Two-inch pipes conduct the heat from 

 the boiler, one line of pipe running up on each side of the house, 

 and both returning through the centre back to the boiler. The 

 furnace room is an excavation 10 feet by 12 feet, and 6 feet deep 

 at the north or northwest end of the house, walled up or cemented, 

 and covered with a roof Length of pipe required is 450 feet. 

 The entire cost of a structure of these dimensions, boiler and 

 pipes included, amounts to ;^450 for the material, to which the 

 cost of steam-fitting by a plumber will have to be added. Any 

 man of ordinary intelligence can do all the rest of the work on 

 the house. 



