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LXXXII. Account of Count Zubow's Steam-Pits, at St. Pe- 

 tersburgh. ^Frederick Ernest Lewis Fischer, M.D. 

 Inspector of the Botanic Garden at Gorinki, near Moscow, 

 Foreign Member of the Horticultural Society. 



Read June 1st, 1819. 



Public attention having been of late a good deal exci- 

 ted relative to Count Demetrius Zubow's Steam House, at 

 St. Petersburgh, I take the liberty of presenting to the Hor- 

 ticultural Society, the following details respecting it. The 

 operation has hitherto been performed on a very small 

 scale, but with a success which will, no doubt, lead to im- 

 provements, of which I think the plan is capable. 



Count Zubow's Steam House contains two pits, each 

 nearly twenty feet long, by six feet wide ; and between these 

 a steam boiler is placed. The whole of the bottom of 

 each pit is a reservoir, about eighteen inches deep, formed 

 of inch and three-quarter planks, closely jointed, and 

 caulked ; this chamber is filled with water to the heighth of 

 about ten inches, and about three inches above the surface 

 of the water, another planking of boards, one inch and a 

 half thick, is laid horizontally, the ends of which are well 

 secured in the sides of the pit : these upper planks are perfo- 

 rated with numerous holes, disposed in quincunx, to allow 

 the steam from the water below to ascend ; on this perfora- 

 ted planking are laid two or three strata of faggots, to pre- 

 vent any earth falling through the holes into the water be- 

 neath, and above the faggots the pit is filled with earth. 



