J30 



THE FLORISTS^ MANUAL. 



boiler. This is the most important 

 point of all. 



All kinds of boilers are used, in fact 

 half the florists in the country have 

 invented one of their own, and it 

 looked a few years ago as if it was a 

 case of "every man his own boiler 

 maker." There are any amount in the 

 market, some most excellent and some 

 I have that cost a good deal of money, 

 that as soon as I can afford it will 

 be broken up and sold to "Isaac" for 

 junk before they have a chance to 

 cripple me by cracking on a cold 

 night. 



Some people praise or condemn a 

 boiler without a fair test of what work 

 it is doing, and unless they have houses 

 of the same dimensions and piped alike 

 they can't compare one with the other. 

 Now, I happen to have four houses, 

 each 19x125, built exactly to an inch 

 alike and piped to one inch the same. 

 One pair of houses leads out of the 

 shed to the west, and the other pair to 

 the east. As before stated everything 

 is identical about the two pair of hous- 

 es except the heaters. They are of a 

 different make. I notice the boys at- 

 tend to one twice as often as the other. 

 I also have noticed that a third more 

 ashes are taken from that one than 

 the other. The damper of the first one 

 is frequently wide open while of the 

 other it is never more than half out. 

 And it is also well known to my son 

 that the one that takes the least fuel 

 (hard coke, not gas house coke) will 

 keep the houses five degrees higher 

 than the extravagant one. And re- 

 markable to say, but absolutely true, 

 the economical one had a small violet 

 house 125x11 tacked on to it three 

 years ago, which is finely heated by 

 six runs of 1 1-4 inch pipe and the fol- 

 lowing winter it took actually less fuel 

 than it did the previous winter. That, 

 of course, was on account of its being 

 a mild winter. 



Now here is a test. I can speak of 

 the relative merits of these two boilers 

 with some authority, and it is only 

 fair as I am writing for the benefit of 

 my brother florists, to say that this 

 most excellent cast iron sectional boil- 

 er is "The Royal," made by Hart & 

 Grouse, of Utica, N. Y. For that kind 

 of boiler it is about ideal, and the one 

 tested with it is by no means the one I 

 am going to sell for $1.75. 



If I describe how the houses are piped 

 it will' be a better means of conveying 

 my ideas than any instructions. The 

 top of the boiler is about two feet be- 

 low the floor of the greenhouse. It 

 would have been lower could I have 

 got sewerage. The flow pipe, a 3-iuch 

 (there is one on each side of boiler 

 but that makes no difference), rises up 

 straight to about 8 feet above floor of 

 shed. There is an elbow on top with 

 a piece of 3-inch pipe leading over 

 close to wall of greenhouse, and then 

 a T with 2-inch openings from which 

 a pipe leads to right and left, running 

 over the door ways. 



Now the elbow on top of the upright 

 3-inch pipe is the highest point in the 

 whole system, and from that elbow 

 there is a very slight drop till the 2- 



inch pipes enter the house, one on 

 each side, where they drop 4 or 5 ft. 

 In the elbow is drilled in a "'4-inch 

 pipe which runs up 20 feet or a few 

 inches above a large tank which sup- 

 plies the houses with water. The top 

 of the pipe is bent over merely so that 

 any drip from it would drop in the 

 tank. From the bottom of this 150- 

 barrel tank a 1 1-2-inch pipe leads 

 down and enters the return pipe close 

 to the boiler. Now, of course, the 

 water in the %-inch pipe, which we 

 will call the air pipe, is always on a 

 level with the water in the large tank, 

 and I think I have made out that I 

 have about 7 Ibs. pressure from that 

 cause. 



Remember it is height of water that 

 makes pressure, not volume. There 

 would be no more pressure at the bot- 

 tom of a funnel ten feet high that was 

 three feet wide at the top and one 

 inch at the bottom than there would 

 be at the bottom of an upright 1-inch 

 pipe of the same length as the spread- 

 ing funnel. How much importance to 

 attach to this little pressure I don't 

 know, but I am safe in allowing none. 



The 2-inch pipe passes through the 

 shed wall and runs along the wall of 

 the house about eight inches below the 

 glass. The houses have a gradual but 

 true down grade of two inches in their 

 length and the flow pipe runs parallel 

 with the plate. At the further end the 

 pipe goes into a 2-inch manifold with 

 five 1 1-4-inch openings from which 

 drops a 1 1-4-inch pipe with elbows 

 which start the five 1 1-4-inch returns 

 on their journey back. And they have 

 a drop back to the shed of two inches, 

 going into a 2-inch manifold again and 

 joining the return pipe from the other 

 side of the house go through the wall 

 about even, or just below, level of the 

 walks, and then drop perpendicularly 

 to bottom of boiler. So you can call 

 this the down hill plan if you like, for 

 after leaving the first 3-inch elbow at 

 the highest point it is one continuous 

 drop, although for 125 feet the drop is 

 not perceptible. 



Why this is better than having a 

 rise in the pipes to the further end 

 is because you would have to put 

 cocks at the highest point to let out 

 air, or open stand pipes, or a small 

 pipe tapped in and running up higher 

 than the tank which supplied the 

 heater. In the way I have described 

 there are no air valves to watch, no 

 feeding cistern to fill, no thumping or 

 cracking of pipes. It works smoothly 

 and perfectly and as long as you have 

 water in the tank your pipes are full. 

 The big tank is no advantage and a 

 barrel holding a few gallons, raised 

 above the highest point in your sys- 



EXPERT ADVICE 



On All Matters Pertaining to 



GREENHOUSE HEATING. 

 HENRY W. GIBBONS, 



Steam and Hot Water Keating' Engineer, 

 136 Liberty St.. NEW YORK, N. Y. 



CATALOGUES, FOUR CENTS. 



THE 



SCOLLAY 



HOT WATER 



AND 

 STEAM BOILER 



... FOR.... 



Greenhouses, Conservatories, Dwellings, Etc, 



INVINCIBLE. 



HEATING 



PJPES, 



FITTINGS, 

 VALVES, 



TANKS, ETC. 



Plans and 

 Estimates Given. 



Send Stamp for Catalogue. 



41 SIZES 



AND 



5 STYLES 



OF 



BOILERS. 



John A, Scollay, 



Myrtle Avenue BROOKLYN, N, Y, 



