HEATING BY HOT-AIR STOVES. 



225 



after being warmed by contact with the 

 tubes, is distributed over the different 

 portions of the house, being first com- 

 pelled, under the striking-pit d, to form 

 a bottom heat. By this extended radi- 

 ating surface, which has also the advan- 

 tage of being throughout its whole extent 

 in immediate contact with the source of 

 heat, the gardener has been enabled to 

 obtain an invariable temperature with 

 only two attendances daily. I bave," he 

 says, " the satisfaction of adding, that 

 this ventilating system of heating has 

 proved uniformly favourable for plants 

 in all stages, particularly when fruit is 

 setting ; and I have witnessed this pro- 

 cess going on most successfully under the 

 management above described, when the 

 old plan of hot-water warming has not 

 been able to produce the same result. 

 The vapour appendage only now remains 

 to be described : it is made of copper 

 pipe, attached to the water-cistern, and 

 resembles a fork with perforated prongs, 

 through which water is made to drop at 

 will upon the heated tubes, and may be 

 so regulated as to continue imperceptibly 

 saturating the atmosphere with moisture ; 

 or, by allowing a greater flow of water 

 through the perforations, a steam is raised 

 sufficiently dense to cloud the entire 

 house in the course of a few minutes. 

 Thus we have an unlimited power of 

 producing artificial dew, which a consi- 

 deration of the economy of nature shows 

 to be largely required in hot climates, 

 (else why so largely provided?) and 

 while we strenuously endeavour to make 

 an artificial tropic in our colder clime, 

 we must not omit to imitate its insepar- 

 able concomitant — refreshing dew." Re- 

 ferences to figs. — a stoke-hole ; b the 

 chamber for the apparatus ; k fire-box ; 

 c c hot-air drains ; d striking pit, with 

 bottom heat ; e e ventilators ; / mouth 

 of drain, h h for supplying fresh air ; i 

 the chimney ; jj melon pits. This mode 

 of heating is almost identical with that of 

 Polmaise ; indeed Mr Garaway, of the 

 Bristol nurseries, says in " Gardeners' 

 Chronicle," in addressing the talented 

 editor of that excellent paper, "With 

 you it is known as Polmaise, but here as 

 Hazard's system of heating." 



Here is another instance of two indi- 

 viduals, three hundred miles apart, and 

 in all probability entirely unknown to 



VOL. I. 



each other, inventing almost identically 

 the same mode of heating at precisely the 

 same period. 



Kendall's hot-air stove. — Mr Kendall has 

 taken considerable interest in the subject 

 of heating by hot air ; and as we think 

 him one of the most reasonable and sen- 

 sible advocates of the principle, we shall 

 transcribe the following communication 

 by him to the editor of " The Gardeners' 

 Chronicle :"— In fig. 306 " a is the ash- 



Fig. 306. 



^ ■ j mm 



} 



c 





\Q- = * m ' 





a 



m 





pit; b the furnace, with doors to shut up 

 cjose when the fire is made up for the 

 night, or when but little fuel is wanted — 

 the furnace door is 12 inches square, and 

 the bars 18 inches long ; c is the brick 

 box or flue, two courses high above the 

 level of the furnace, supporting the bot- 

 tom plate d d, which is of wrought-iron, 6 

 feet long and 22 inches wide, and about 

 | of an inch thick, and which rests 

 about 1 inch all round upon the brick- 

 work. This forms a hollow chamber, in 



which the fire has free play. On the top 

 of this is built one course of brickwork, 

 upon which is placed another iron plate e, 

 similar to the first, leaving an opening at 

 one end, (as shown by the arrows,) for the 

 heated air to flow into the second cham- 

 ber ; again, on the top of this is built 

 another course of bricks, upon which is 

 placed a third iron plate /, forming a 

 second chamber, through which the air 

 passes rapidly to the raised opening 

 formed by the chimney-pot h h, on fig. 

 309, where it escapes into the house just 

 above the shelf upon which the plants are 



