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MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Mr. Perkins's Mode of heating by Hot Water. — This is one of the most 

 extraordinary improvements that have yet been made in heating by this 

 fluid. The advantages which are expected to result from it are, great 

 economy in the first erection, as there is no boiler, and the pipes in which 

 the water is circulated are not thicker than a man's thumb ; a power of 

 conveying heat to a greater distance than by any mode hitherto in use ; 

 of producing a much higher temperature than has hitherto been done by 

 either water or steam, even to the extent of 400° or 500°; lastly, a more uni- 

 versal applicability of hot water as a medium for conveying heat. The words 

 of Mr. Perkins's patent are : — " The object of my improvements is to obtain 

 considerably higher degrees of temperature to the water circulated ; and thus 

 I am enabled to apply my apparatus to a variety of purposes which require 

 the heating medium to be at a degree of temperature higher than that of 

 boiling water. And my improvements consist in circulating water in tubes 

 or pipes which are closed in all parts, allowing a sufficient space for the 

 expansion of the water contained within the apparatus, by which means 

 the water will at all times be kept in contact with the metal, however 

 high the degree of heat such apparatus may be submitted to, and yet, 

 at the same time, there will be no danger of bursting the apparatus, in 

 consequence of the water having sufficient space to expand." (Rep. of 

 Patent Inventions, vol. xiii. p. 130.) Mr. Perkins has employed his mode 

 of heating in the Bank of England, in his own manufactory in Fleet Street, 

 in some other houses and manufactories in London, in the elephant-house 

 at the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, and in a range of hot-houses 

 at Mr. Palmer's, Parson's Green, Fulham. We have seen the apparatus 

 at work, both in the Zoological Gardens, and at Mr. Palmer's ; and we 

 are so highly satisfied with the plan, that we shall have our small hot- 

 house and green-house heated by it before this Magazine sees the light. 

 It was our intention to employ Witty's smoke-consuming furnace, to 

 heat water, which we intended to circulate by the siphon mode ; but 

 Perkins's method will not cost above a third of the expense which this 

 would have led us into j and, what is an object in all small green-houses, 

 it occupies very little room. Perkins's fireplace is also calculated to con- 

 sume the greater part of the smoke ; not perhaps so completely as Witty's, 

 but still much more so than by any other mode, hitherto brought into 

 notice, which can be applied upon a small scale. To gentlemen residing 

 in the country, Perkins's mode of heating presents an additional advantage 

 in point of economy ; and this is, that the pipes, being small, and conse- 

 quently light (in comparison with the cast-iron pipes of 4 in. or 6 in. in 

 diameter usually employed), can be sent to any distance by coach ; while, 

 the mode of joining them being entirely mechanical, they may be put toge- 

 ther by any person who can use a screw-wrench. But we shall have a 

 great deal more to say on the subject in our next Number, when we shall 

 be able to speak from personal experience. In the mean time, it may be 

 useful to inform our readers, that Mr. Perkins has made an arrangement 

 with Messrs. Walker and Co., of St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, for 

 manufacturing and putting up his apparatus. — Cond. 



