J. Starlde Gardner — Underground Heat. 405 



is undertaken by the brothers Zsigmondy, partially at the expense 

 of the city, which has granted £40,000 for the purpose, with the in- 

 tention of obtaining an unlimited supply of warm water for the 

 municipal establishments and public baths. A temperature of 161° 

 F. is shown by the water at present issuing from the well, and the 

 work will be prosecuted until water of 178° is obtained. About 

 175,000 gallons of warm water stream out daily, rising to a height 

 of 35 feet. This amount will not only sujoply all the wants of the 

 city, but convert the surrounding region into a tropical garden. 

 Since last June the boring has penetrated through 200 feet of dolo- 

 mite. The preceding strata have supplied a number of interesting 

 facts to the geologist, which have been recorded from time to time 

 in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Among some of the in- 

 genious engineering devices invented during the course of the boring 

 are especially noteworthy the arrangements for driving in nails at 

 the enormous depth mentioned above, for pulling them out (with 

 magnets), for cutting off and pulling up broken tubes, and, above all, 

 a valuable mechanical apparatus by means of which the water rising 

 from the well is used as a motive power, driving the drills at a rate 

 of speed double that previously imparted from the mouth of the 

 well." 



Whether, having obtained a supply of heat, it would be practicable 

 to lay it on to our houses, is a question apart, but one which seems 

 to have been solved in America. 



" A very successful experiment has been made at Lockport, New 

 York State, in suppljang heat to houses by steam supplied from a 

 central station, in much the same way as gas is supplied. The ex- 

 perimental works in Lockport were commenced last year, and during 

 the late winter about 200 houses in the city were heated from the 

 central supply, through about three miles of piping, radiating from 

 the boiler-house, containing two boilers 16 feet by 5 feet, and one 

 boiler 8 feet by 8 feet. These boilers were, during the winter, fired 

 to a pressure of 35 lb. to the inch, with a consumption of 4 tons of 

 anthracite, costing 4|- dols. a ton ; during the summer but one boiler 

 is fired, consuming a ton and a half of anthracite in twenty-four hours, 

 and a pressure of 25 lb. per inch maintained. The boiler pressure 

 of 35 lb. in winter, and 25 lb, in summer, is maintained through the 

 entire length of the three miles of piping up to the points of con- 

 sumption, where there is a cut-off under the control of the consumers. 

 The distribution of heat in the apartments is by means of radiators, 

 consisting of 1 inch pipes 30 inches long, placed vertically either in 

 a circle or as a double row, and connected together, top and bottom, 

 with an outlet pipe for the condensed water, which escapes at a tem- 

 perature a little below boiling, and is sufiicient for all the domestic 

 purposes of the house, or is used as accessory heating power for 

 horticultural and other purposes. The steam has also been applied 

 at a distance of over half a mile from the boilers for motive power, 

 and two steam-engines of ten and fourteen horse-power are worked 

 from the boilers at a distance of half a mile, with but a slightly 

 increased consumption of fuel. The laid on steam is being also used 



