246 Polmaise Method of Heating 



amount of caloric lost by abstraction from the building is 

 seldom calculated to its fullest extent, and, were this point 

 alone duly considered, it is not too much to say, that one- 

 third of fuel would be saved. 



From the vexatious dissappointments which constantly 

 occur in the construction and heating of hothouses, it is not 

 uncommon for people to be driven from one expedient to 

 another, and to endeavor to improve the efficiency of a sys- 

 tem, by adding to the cost, without gaining an equivalent 

 advantage. Any attempt to improve a system is commend- 

 able, whatever may be the results ; and those who, in their 

 alterations and expedients, make no advances towards supe- 

 riority, may, at least, stand as beacons against the commis- 

 sion of similar faults. But to warm a house by flues, pipes, 

 hot-air chambers, &,c., and call it Polmaise, is not less absurd 

 than building a four-horse wagon, and insist on calling it a 

 wheelbarrow. To argue that Polmaise is cheaper in the be- 

 ginning, is a position which I believe incapable of demon- 

 stration, and though an attempt has been made to establish 

 this position, practical experience has proved the reverse ; 

 therefore we are justified in being dubious until the fact be 

 more clearly demonstrated, the impossibility of which is 

 evident, from the simple fact, that the materials which would 

 make hot and cold-air drains would make smoke-flues, and 

 the materials that would be required for a Polmaise furnace, 

 would nearly make two common ones. These facts alone 

 are sufficient to show the absurdity of the assertions made 

 regarding its original cost. The improved method of Mr. 

 Meek, which is described in the Gardener^s Chronicle as 

 absolute perfection in a heating apparatus, has neither the 

 recommendation of economy nor simplicity, nor does its im- 

 prover claim these in favor of it. In fact, it is as complex as 

 the wheels of a watch, and so fickle and precarious in its 

 working that it cannot be trusted for six hours consecutively, 

 except in a house where the plants may be equally valuable, 

 dead or alive. Notwithstanding all that can or has been said 

 in favor of Meek's improvement, it is difficult to discover 

 wherein it is superior to the old smoke flue, and I am quite 



