HEATING BY HOT-WATER PIPES. 



153 



recently registered by the Grangemouth 

 Coal Company, which promises to be a 

 valuable addition to this mode of heating. 

 The general appearance of this flue is that 

 of a highly ornamental balustrading — the 

 base or plinth forming the flue proper, 

 the top rail and balusters forming the 

 radiators of heat, as well as the elegant 

 vases which surmount the whole. This 

 flue is, however, only adapted to peculiar 

 situations. 



§ 3. — HEATING BY HOT-WATER PIPES. 



An invention so important as that of 

 heating by the circulation of hot-water 

 soon became extremely popular, and, as 

 a natural consequence, men of science 

 turned their attention to the subject. 

 The most prominent of these were Bon- 

 nemain, Count Rumford, the Marquis de 

 Chabannes, W. Atkinson, A. Bacon, Kew- 

 ley, Fowler, Weeks, Perkins, Bailey, 

 Cottam and Hallen, Walker, Tredgold, 

 Hood, Eckstein and Busby, Price, Smal- 

 ley, Stephenson and Co., Rogers, Ainger, 

 Penn, Burbidge and Healy, Corbett, 

 Davis, Smith, Thompson, Watson, Kendall, 

 Wood and Co., Garton and Jarvis, Ale- 

 cock, Barchard, Bramah, &c. 



Notwithstanding all that has been 

 written on the system of heating by hot 

 water, it is somewhat extraordinary that 

 its history has only of late been traced 

 beyond the period of the French Revolu- 

 tion, when M. Bonnemain applied it for 

 the purpose of hatching chickens for the 

 Paris market. 



Sir Hugh Piatt, at a much earlier 

 period, not only hinted at the possibility 

 of heating plant-houses by steam, but 

 also says that hot water might be used 

 for the same purpose. He also recom- 

 mends it as a substitute for steam in the 

 process of making gunpowder : " To dry 

 this substance without all danger of fire/' 

 he says, " a vessel of lead, pewter, latten, 

 or copper to be made, having a double 

 bottom, between which bottoms you may 

 convey scalding water in a pipe, which 

 water may be also heated at another 

 room." And, farther on, he says : " A 

 vessel may be made to brew or boil in, 

 by making a fire under a brass boiler, 

 and conveying the steam or water into 

 a wooden tub or receptacle." It is 



VOL. I. 



said that the late Anthony Bacon first 

 took his idea of heating by hot water 

 from having seen some rustics boil a leg of 

 mutton in a wooden horse-pail which com- 

 municated with the fire by a gun-barrel. 



Rudolph Glauber proposed to heat 

 brewers' vats by connecting them, by 

 means of a metallic pipe, with a kettle 

 placed on a fire. We are also informed 

 by " Stuart on the Steam-Engine," vol. ii. 

 p. 587, " that Sir Martin Triewald, a 

 Swedish gentleman, who for many years 

 lived at Newcastle-on-Tyne prior to 1716, 

 about which time he retired to his native 

 country, described a scheme for warm- 

 ing a greenhouse by hot water instead 

 of by vegetable fermenting substances. 

 The water was boiled outside of the 

 building, and then conducted by a pipe 

 into a chamber under the plants. It 

 does not appear that either Sir Martin 

 or Sir Hugh Piatt had any idea of the 

 circulation, or of causing the cold water 

 to re-enter the boiler. Triewald's plan 

 was adopted in St Petersburg in 1812 ; 

 and, about the same time, Count Zubow 

 in that city heated tanks of water by 

 causing steam-pipes to pass through 

 them. About the same time, Mr Braith- 

 waite of Kendal heated his office by a 

 small boiler, having its furnace enclosed 

 in a small cast-iron case placed against 

 the wall. A pipe was led from this 

 boiler to the condenser, which was a 

 copper vessel, 18 inches in diameter, 

 placed under his writing-desk. The 

 steam gave out its heat to the water in 

 the condenser, which was found, when 

 once heated, to retain the heat for many 

 hours. That the Romans were to some 

 extent acquainted with heating by hot 

 water is quite clear, for Seneca speaks 

 of dracones, or small brass pipes, made 

 in a serpentine form, and placed in a 

 fire, so that water entering cold at one 

 end of the pipe or draco — so called from 

 its convolutions through the furnace — 

 came out boiling at the other end. He 

 also mentions the milarium, which 

 appears to have been a large leaden 

 vessel or tank containing water, in the 

 middle of which was a furnace having 

 its bottom and sides formed of brass. 

 The dracones, or small brass tubes, were 

 bent round the inside of this furnace, 

 and enveloped in the flame, upon, we may 

 presume, the same principle as Perkins 



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