HEATING BY HOT-AIR STOVES. 



227 



season, when the thermometer was little, 

 if anything, above zero, when we found the 

 cost of the anthracite or Welsh coals was 

 within threepence for the twenty-four 

 hours." 



The opinion of Thomas Sabine Pasley, 

 Esq., on hot-air heating, taken from the 

 same authority as the last, accords in 

 many respects with our own. Although 

 advocating this system of heating as 

 applied to churches and dwelling-houses, 

 having had ten years' experience of it, 

 he says, "The principle of my apparatus 

 is to heat a large quantity moderately, and not 

 a smaller quantity to a high temperature; and 

 for this reason, that the air may not be 

 burned, as it is called, by a too hot iron sur- 

 face. Nevertheless, the close dry feel which 

 we sometimes experience when the same 

 air is circulating, would be insupportable 

 if we could not remedy it by the admis- 

 sion of fresh air. My heating surface, and 

 that of our church, are iron. I am in- 

 clined to think brick would be a better mate- 

 rial. First, because the air could not be 

 burned by passing over it, since the brick 

 would hardly ever, if ever, become so hot as 

 iron does; and secondly, because the tem- 

 perature would be more equable. For I con- 

 sider it a very great objection to my 

 furnace and heating apparatus, that, unless 

 it has constant attention, the fire burns low 

 and goes out. The metal then rapidly cools, 

 and we find a stream of cold air rushing into 

 the house, instead of hot; — and this although 

 the hot-air chamber is in the cellar, 

 where, by theory, nothing but warm air 

 can ascend; but we do find cold air blow 

 in." He further observes, "that he has 

 no objection to this mode of heating on 

 the score of salubrity, provided a sufficient 

 quantity of air be admitted from the out- 

 side, and that the heating surface be not 

 too hot." But he continues, " It is cer- 

 tainly dry, and subjects all unseasoned 

 wood, whether in stairs, doors, floors, or 

 furniture, to a severe test. We find much 

 dust carried about the house when the 

 slightest defect occurs in the heating appa- 

 ratus; then, of course, noxious gases must 

 escape, and danger is incurred of setting 

 fire to the house" Such is the opinion of 

 one very competent to form a correct 

 estimate, and of one who is unprejudiced. 

 We have put those parts in italics which 

 accord most with our own views. 



The following critique upon the work- 



ing of the Polmaise hot-air stove as exist- 

 ing in the pine-house of Mr Meek, the 

 well-known advocate of the system, and 

 whose arrangements, as the most com- 

 plete, we have already fully detailed, is by 

 Mr W. P. Ayres, one of the most intelli- 

 gent gardeners of the day. "At the time 

 of my visit," says Mr Ayres, " December 

 5th, I was suffering from a very severe cold; 

 but, notwithstanding this, I could recog- 

 nise the old enemy of over-heated masonry, 

 and its concomitant effects of scorched 

 leaves, mildew, and the usual accompani- 

 ments of the old flue system. The heat 

 was perfectly dry; the water, for some 

 reason which did not transpire, having 

 been drawn off from the evaporating tank, 

 — probably because Mr Meek found that, 

 when throwing in heat at 194°, charged 

 with moisture, into an atmosphere of 57°, 

 he obtained more moisture than was alto- 

 gether consonant to vegetation in mid- 

 winter. Hence, then, to avoid Scylla, he 

 was obliged to run upon Charybdis. I 

 have little doubt that to maintain a tem- 

 perature of 70°, with the external ther- 

 mometer at 10°, and a tolerably sharp 

 wind, Mr Meek would be obliged to throw 

 in his heat at 300° ; and as the whole air 

 of the house must pass over this plate 

 scores of times every hour, I will leave 

 practical men to judge what kind of an 

 oven these plants would be in, and what 

 drains there would be upon them for 

 moisture under such circumstances; or, 

 even supposing moisture was supplied by 

 the tank, the plants would then be in a 

 Scotch mist. These things, it is true, 

 might be avoided by extending the radi- 

 ating surface, or by cooling the air in an 

 intermediate chamber before it was sup- 

 plied with moisture or admitted into the 

 house; — but where, then, would be the 

 economy?" Mr Meek's present arrange- 

 ment is calculated by Mr Ayres to have 

 cost not less than £20, and, with hard 

 forcing, would require new plates every 

 second or third year ; while £30 expended 

 upon a hot-water apparatus would give 

 any required temperature, and last a life- 

 time. " As for economy in the consump- 

 tion of fuel," Mr Ayres proceeds, "the 

 thing is absurd, and I have no hesitation 

 in asserting that Mr Meek loses more 

 heat up the chimney of his stove than I 

 do from a hot-water apparatus which has 

 six times the work to do." In regard to 



