596 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



take care of itself. This plan answered well while wood was abundant, 

 and people lived in a mild climate. It has, however, been abandoned for 

 the furnace, placed in the basement, and warming the air for the whole 

 house. Of 5,000 houses in New York and Brooklyn which have furnaces, 

 Bot one in 500 use the open fire grate. Fire-places are still made, but they 

 are not necessary for ornament and they are not used. 



Professor Hedrick. — The fire-place is not the best device either for heat- 

 ing or for ventilation, but it has been employed on the principle that " a 

 half-loaf is better than no bread." Whirligigs in windows and other new- 

 fangled devices, are below contempt. The stove is still more defective. It 

 enables us to use heated air to sufi'ocation, but the open fire-place does not. 

 There must be two systems of ventilation — one for winter, one for sum- 

 mer — and, to Idc thorough, they must be independent of us in their action, 

 though under our control. Hot air tends to rise and will reej[uire a high 

 chimney to give a draft. 



Mr. Garbanati has his back parlor heated by a stove, his front one by an 

 open fire, and he finds more sufi'ocation in the back one. In England there 

 are valves in the chimneys, near the top of the wall, which open when there 

 is a pressure upon them from the room ; but close, if the pressure is from 

 the chimney. These facilitate ventilation and are the invention of Dr. 

 Arnott. 



Mr. Baker slated that the only heat from the open fire was the radiant 

 heat, for the draft is directly from the inlet to the fine, and all the diffused 

 heat escapes through the chimney. He proposed to create a draft in a ven- 

 tilating flue by means of a steam pipe to heat the air and give it an ascend- 

 ing force. There ought to be some small vent towards the ceiling, to take 

 away the carbonic acid. 



Mr. Brown asked whether the gentleman would have a steam pipe in 

 every ventilatiug flue in a schoolhouse, or would use one flue only for a 

 ventilation in all cases. 



Mr. Baker. — I would use a stSam pipe in every flue where I want a draft. 



Mr. Godwin. — That is an old iilea. 



Mr. F.eed. — The mere fact of getting in cold air is not ventilation. We 

 want an equal distribution of warm air with a sufficient change. The 

 ancient Romans used a more scientific mode of heating. They introduced 

 heat under a tile floor. This Ave cannot do because of our carpets. A plat- 

 form of metal perforated with small holes can be used for all purposes. 

 Apartments to be used as sitting or sleeping rooms, need no fire-place, but 

 a warm supply of diffused air. Heated air if admitted in a heated column, 

 rises to the top and does not diffuse itself, but if admitted in small jets it 

 mixes with the air of the room equably. 



Dr. Gould, in his experience, found that the nearer to the floor the fouler 

 the air, hence people raise their beds above the level of the floor. For the 

 same reason all air drawn from the cellar, and warmed, and sent into the 

 apartments above, is foul and unhealthy. 



Mr. Brown, by means of diagrams on the black-board, illustrated his 



