204 Account of Heating Stoves by means of Hot Water. 



objections are : — the great expence of a steam boiler, and the 

 apparatus belonging to it ; the frequent repairs that are re- 

 quired, and the necessary attention to the fire, which is as 

 great upon a small scale as on a large one. Besides this, 

 there is a greater risk of explosion in a hot-house steam boiler 

 than in that of a steam engine ; for steam engines have gene- 

 rally persons properly instructed to manage them, but gar- 

 deners, or their assistants, cannot be so competent. 



The heating with hot water, has none of the objections I 

 have mentioned as belonging to flues and steam. The ap- 

 paratus is simple, and not liable to get out of order. The 

 boiler has only a loose wooden cover, and no safety valves 

 are required. The fuel consumed is very moderate; and 

 when once the water is heated very little attention is wanted, 

 for it retains its heat for many hours after the fire has gone 

 out. 



The plan of heating with hot water was used by Mr. Bacon, 

 and put in practice on a small scale, with success, at his seat 

 at Aberamen, in Glamorganshire, in the year 1822 ; and I 

 understand that Mr. Atkinson, who furnished the plans and 

 working drawings for the erection of the houses here, con- 

 structed in the same year a model of a similar apparatus, 

 without at the time having had any communication with Mr. 

 Bacon, with which he tried the experiment successfully. 

 This garden contains four houses for Vines and Peaches that 

 are heated with hot water, and also a Pine-pit heated in the 

 same manner, except a trifling variation noticed hereafter. I 

 shall describe one of the houses, a Vinery, as shewn in the 

 annexed engraving. 



