The Weekly Florists' Review, 



ApHil 2, 1908. 



srefrioeration 



FOR THE FLORIST 



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Modern Places Use Many Maduhes. 



With the development of the big mod- 

 ern ranges of glass has come the need 

 of mechanical equipment, in heating, 

 lighting, power and other lines, that 

 would have been considered outside the 

 bounds of reason had it been predicted 

 before the days of 1,000-foot greenhouses 

 and single establishments of acres prac- 

 tically under one roof. With the vacu- 

 um system of heating, and the need for 

 powerful pumps, many a florist 's serv- 

 ice building now resembles a first-class 

 engine room and machine shop. And the 

 end is not yet. While it uiight seem 

 at first thought that artificial refrigera- 

 tion would find little place in an indus- 

 try consisting of the "growing of flow- 

 ers under glass, where artificial heat 

 is the prime requisite many months of 

 the year, as a matter of fact it will soon 

 be extensively employed, not in the grow- 

 ing of the flowers, but in cooling them 

 after they are cut, and for storage be- 

 fore they are sent to market ; also, for 

 the retarding of lily bulbs, valley pips, 

 lilacs and other forcing stock, and the 

 keeping of cut ferns, galax and other 

 decorative greens now kept in public 

 cold-storage establishments. 



A recent installation for this purpose 

 has l)een made by Poehlmann Bros. Co., 

 at Morton Grove, 111. 



Adjacent to the office building shown 

 in Fig, 1 are located houses 500 to 600 

 feet long, shown in Fig 2, which is a 

 view of part of the houses devoted to 

 carnations and shrrwa the power house at 

 the left. To provide^^oiLTa farm of six- 

 ty-five acres jp utilizetlTtne soil removed 



frdm the houses being returned to the 

 farm. The fresh soil is run through a 

 portable soil mixer which is operated by 

 a six horse-power gasoline engine. 



Heating Equipment. 



Heat is supplied by direct radiation, 

 the mains passing overhead in the walks 

 connecting the houses and the condensa- 

 tion being taken care of by a vacuum 

 return system and by traps. In this 

 system, four benches, as in Fig. 3, form 

 a heating unit. Three -steam pipes lie 



Fig.l. Exterior of Office Building. 



underneath the full length of the two 

 right hand benches, which are about 

 250 feet long, the pipes under the other 

 two benches forming the return loop, 

 and the steam passing to a manifold 

 from which the condensation is returned 

 to the surge tanks in the pump room. 

 By referring to Fig. 3 the flexibility of 

 the radiating system will be understood. 

 In mild weather the coils under benches 

 2 and 3 may be in use while those under 



1 and 4 are not. If more heat is re- 

 quired the Nos. 1 and 4 loops can be 

 put into service, which will furnish many 

 times the radiation of 2 and 3, or all may 

 be used together in the coldest weather, 

 making an arrangement which i^^able to 

 meet any demand. Each flow is valved, 

 80 any pipes can be cut out as desired. 



Boiler Rooms and Pumps. 



A total of nine boilers supply heat 

 to Plant A and these are divided into 

 two boiler rooms, the larger of which 

 is shown in plan in Fig. 4 and contains 

 five boilers varying from 150 to 200 

 horse-power, three of the horizontal re- 

 turn tubular type, which can be seen in 

 Fig. 5, and two of the horizontal water 

 tube type, all furnished by S. Freeman, 

 Sons & Co., of Racine, Wis., and fitted 

 with Reliance safety water columns. 

 Eighty /pounds gauge pressure is ordi- 

 narily required on the boilfers. This boil- 

 er plant is served by a circular brick 

 stack 100 feet high, shown at the left 

 in Fig. 2. 



The pumping equipment consists of 

 three Worthington feed pumps, taking 

 water from the return tanks of the heat- 

 ing system at a temperature of about 

 200 degrees, and three Marsh vacuum 

 pumps. Two Worthington duplex pumps 

 supply water to the waterworks system 

 at 125 pounds pressure. These water- 

 works pumps take their supply from two 

 ilrilled wells 200 feet deep and another 

 similar well is used to supply water 

 pumped by compressed air, supplied from 

 an air compressor located in the pump 

 room. * 



Heating mains leave the pump room in 

 various directions, the pressure being re- 

 duced to from five to seven pounds by 

 the means of Davis reducing valves, and 

 the mains are drained of condensation 

 by both Victor and Squires traps. 



The Engine Room. 



Passing through the pump room is a 

 5-inch steam main supplying the elec- 

 tric generating apparatus. This line has 

 two pockets for condensation as shown 

 in the elevation. Fig. 6, one located at 



Fig. 8. Plan of Refrigerating Plant and Office Building. 



