AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultubal Wabehodse.) 



VOL.. XVII.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 3, 1638. 



[NO. 13. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 



WARMING HOUSES. 



Some of our subscribers and correspondents, who 

 propose building houses, have requested some in- 

 formation as to the best method of heating them 

 during our winters, and this may serve as an apol- 

 ogy, should one be deemed necessary, for the in- 

 troducing of a topic more properly belonging to 

 anotlier season of the year. 



The saving of fuel is daily assuming a gi-eater 

 importance among the inhabitants of this country, 

 where the forests are rapidly disappearing, or 

 ■where, as in many sections of the wide west, the 

 country has always been destitute of timber. The 

 broad fire places of our paternal mansions have 

 been superseded by stoves ; and to supply these 

 with fuel where a number are required, as in the 

 usual method of warming houses, is found to occa- 

 sion heavy drafts on the income of most individuals. 

 The great waste of heat that takes place in all the 

 ordinary stoves and fire places, has turned the at- 

 tention of men of science to the providing a rem- 

 edy for the evil, and to efforts to provide a suitable 

 temperature at a less expenditure than is usually 

 incurred. Various methods have been suggested 

 for econimizing heat, some of which we shall no- 

 tice. All are on the principle of warming a house 

 by a single fire, and all are more or less efficient 

 for that purpose. 



A few years since, Mr Fessenden, late editor of 

 the New England Farmer, devised, and patented, 

 we believe, a plan for warming rooms by hot wa- 

 ter, and the system has been acted upon to a con- 

 siderable e.xtent in some of the eastern cities and 

 large manufactories. It is founded on the well 

 known fact that warm water always rises, and will 

 continue to do so until the whole mass is brought 

 to the boiling temperature, should tlie lieat be con- 

 tinued to that point. A copper boiler is placed in 

 the lower part of the building to be warmed, and 

 pipes of copper connected with the boiler rise and 

 pass through the various rooms to be warmed. These 

 pipes, as well as the boiler, are water tight, and 

 are filled to the top with water. When the fire is 

 kindled, the water in the boiler being first warmed 

 rises in the tubes, and displaces the cold water, 

 which sinks into the boiler to be heated in its turn. 

 Thus the circulation is kept up, and the rooms are 

 gradually and equally warmed by the hot water 

 contained in the pipes. This method has been 

 highly approved for heating green houses, the heat 

 being considered less drying and injurious to grow- 

 ing plants, than air heated by direct contact with 

 iron stoves. Tliat it will come into general use 

 can hardly be e.xpected, however, the apparatus re- 

 quiring a nicer adjustment than can in ordinary ca- 

 ses be expected. It has one great advantage to 

 recommend it, and that is, fires can hardly ensue 

 from the use of such pipes; a difficulty which ren- 

 ders the ordinary stove moat objectionable. 



Several plans for warming rooms with heated air 

 have been devised, one of which was described in 

 the Gth vol. of the Fanner ; but as our list of sub- 

 scribers has since that time greatly increased, we 

 sliall for their benefit give the plan there presented, 

 and which has, where adopted, succeeded admira- 

 bly. The apparatus " consists of a large box stove, 

 surmounted with two flatcast iron drums, and these 

 again by two sheet iron ones. These four drums 

 are made to communicate with each other, and with 

 the stove by short pieces of pipe, joined to their al- 

 ternate ends. The smoke and heated current of 

 air, after it leaves the stove, is thus broken in its 

 course eight times, and is deprived of its heat be- 

 fore it finally passes away. The heat is coumui- 

 nicated to the air outside the drums, which rises in 

 large volumes about them, in consequence of the 

 increased temperature ; and is retained from es- 

 caping by a brick wall around the whole apparatus, 

 except the door of the stove which is left even with 

 tlie outside of the wall. A chamber is thus formed, 

 from which tlie heated air (in tubes) is at once con- 

 ducted to any part of the house. The apparatus is 

 placed in a small open cellar, and renders all fires 

 above stairs unnecessary." Perhaps if the drums 

 were placed vertically, instead of horizontally, as 

 suggested by the inventor, the current from the 

 stove would be sooner and more efiectually de- 

 prived of its heat 



In Prof Silliman's Journal for April, 1838, there 

 is a communication on this subject from a gentle- 

 man in Virginia, in which the objections against 

 this mode of warming houses are pointed out and 

 obviated. His dwelling was warmed by such a 

 furnace and air chamber, and as the air was admit- 

 ted into the chamber of the furnace from tlie hall, 

 or basement room, the air ascended to the parlors 

 loaded with coal dust and other impurities. This 

 evil was at once remedied by obtaining the air in 

 pipes from without the house. This, besides ob- 

 viating the difficulty of the dust, furnished a con- 

 stant supply of fresh air. In rooms warmed by 

 heated air, (and the difficulty attends nearly in an 

 equal degree those warmed by a common stove,) it 

 is found that the thermometer indicates a higher 

 temperature in the upper part of the room than in 

 the lower part, frequently as much as six or eight 

 degrees, thus keeping the feet almost constantly 

 cold, while tlie person is comfortable in other res- 

 pects. This state of the air, reverses the injunc- 

 tion of Boerhave, to keep the feet warm and the 

 head cool, and as far as its influence extended was 

 injurious to health. As the rooms were tight, it 

 was evident that the warm air after parting with 

 its caloric settled to the floor, and remained there 

 causing the reduction shown by the thermometer. 

 To remedy this, a pipe was led from the floor to the 

 bottom of the air chamber in the furnace, and the 

 cooled air passed off so rapidly, that when a sup- 

 ply of fresh air was admitted by a pipe into the 

 parlor, to keep up the purity of the air, the quanti- 

 ty of which could be regulated by a valve, the ther- 

 mometer gives a diflfercnce of only a degree and a 

 half between the lower and upper part of the room. 



This arrangement has been tested for five years, 

 and has been perfectly satisfactory. 



It may be here remarked, that where it is re- 

 quired to give out heat, as in the case of the stove 

 and drums to the air chamber, rough and black 

 bodies are far preferable to bright or polished ones ; 

 and for the same reason, the pipes that convey the 

 heated air from the air chamber to the several rooms, 

 should be smooth and briglit, that the heat may not 

 be given out on its passage. That a house may be 

 warmed in this way from a single fire, does not ad- 

 mit of a doubt; and tliat it is far more economical 

 than the usual process, is equally clear. We may, 

 however, be permitted to suggest to those about to 

 build, that a little additional expense in building, 

 will do much more towards making a house com- 

 fortable, than a greater sum after it is built ; and 

 that it is better to shut out the cold air, than to de- 

 vise ways and means for heating it, after it is once 

 admitted. This is the true economy, and this our 

 climate demands of us. 



Since writing the above, we have seen in the 

 London Chronicle an account of a new invention 

 for wanning rooms, which promises to supersede all 

 others. A stove six inches in diameter and eigh- 

 teen inches high, is enclosed in a cylindrical case 

 of thin copper, the bottom of which, as well as that 

 of the stove, is perforated for the admission of air, 

 and the top of which is furnished with a damper or 

 regulator to determine the heat. Such an appara- 

 tus will warm a room 25 feet square, and 12 feet 

 high ; does not require to be fed with fuel but once 

 a day, and the expense of fuel daily is four pence. 

 The fuel is charcoal. This fireplace has the form 

 of a small column, is moveable, and may be made 

 ornamental. It is evident from the fact of there 

 being no flue or chimney required, that the char- 

 coal is prepared in such a way as to prevent the 

 formation, or secure the absorption, of carbonic 

 gas ; and since the patent has been secured, this 

 preparation is all that remains a secret in the appa- 

 ratus. Should it realize the benefits prophesied of 

 it in the English journals, we may soon expect the 

 method will be transplanted to our shores, and the 

 wonderful properties of " Joyce's Heating Appara- 

 tus," as it termed, be tested amoBg ourselves. 



From the Farmer's Cabinet. 

 SOILING NEAT CATTLE. 



The system of soiling has strenuous opponents, 

 as well as many ardent advocates. But I believe 

 that the system has never been fully settled by 

 thorough and long tried experiments. A system is 

 not to be established, nor overthrown in a day. We 

 do not arrive at certain results in agricultural im- 

 provements by jumping conclusions. Ali improve- 

 ment is the result or consequence of steady, pro- 

 gressive and judicious means. Those who under- 

 take experiments are apt to abandou Iheni at once, 

 and in disgust, if success does not attend their first 

 eg"ort. This is wrong. It is important for us in 

 establishing results to view both sides. It is alto- 

 gether necessary that we know the failures of at-. 



