23 
Vol. LX III, No. 2822, 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 27, 1904. 
81 PER YEAR. 
HEATING THE FARMHOUSE. 
HOT WATER, STEAM AND HOT AIR ADVOCATED. 
Advice About Hot Wafer. 
The R. N.-Y. asks those of us who have had ex¬ 
perience in either hot air, steam or hot water heating 
for farmhouses to give preference and reasons for it. 
I am heating my own house with hot water under 10 
pounds pressure, and consider it the best possible heat 
obtainable for the farmer. As compared with stoves, 
it costs absolutely nothing because every room to ac¬ 
commodate stoves has to be made one-fourth larger 
and that 25 per cent additional cost of the house will 
buy and install a perfect heating plant. Besides this 
the carrying of wood or coal and ashes all over the 
house, with the consequent dirt and dust on carpets 
and furniture, is a further loss. As to hot air or what, 
is known as furnace heat, in practically nine cases out 
of 10 it is totally unfit for plants, and where plants do 
not thrive it is suicide, pure and simple, for human 
beings to attempt it. I 
know this because I have 
have had years of experi¬ 
ence in greenhouse heat¬ 
ing, first with stoves, 
then steam, lastly hot wa¬ 
ter. A furnace has the 
one merit of being cheap¬ 
er in first cost. If small 
they have to be forced, 
and if large (at times) 
they will be, and when¬ 
ever the furnace surface 
is hotter than 250 degrees 
the healthful moisture of 
the air is burned out of 
it. The fact is, that much 
of the time the furnace 
surfaces are above 1,000 
degrees, and often red 
hot. It is true attempts 
are made to resupply this 
moisture by the use of 
evaporating pans, which 
are all better suited to 
places where they keep a 
regular janitor than to 
the farmer. 
Steam is good, nearly 
as good as hot water. 
However, there is this 
difference in favor of hot 
water; with steam, when¬ 
ever the heat in the boiler drops below the boiling 
point, the heat in pipes and radiators throughout the 
house at once ceases; whereas with a hot-water sys¬ 
tem the warmth continues in a lessening degree as 
long as any heat remains in the boiler. Steam costs 
less than hot water only because when under greater 
pressure it evolves greater heat, and so takes less 
radiating surface, and as I said before, where a jani¬ 
tor is kept is all right, but, in my opinion, for the 
farmer the ideal heat is hot water. I would make it 
indirect and under 10 pounds pressure. By indirect 
we mean that we do not place our radiators in the 
several rooms, but heat the air elsewhere and con¬ 
duct it into the rooms through registers in the walls 
or floors. By this system we lose one-third our heat, 
and so must add 50 per cent to our heating surface in 
the cellar or basement, but we gain in points that 
are of vital importance to the farmer. If the pipes 
are not located where he and his man can readily get 
at them the whole plant (in case of an accident), from 
cellar to garret might freeze up before he could get a 
plumber to leave town work and go out into the coun¬ 
try during a cold snap, and I am certain they would 
remain so the rest of the Winter if he inquired before¬ 
hand as to the probable charge. Have your pipes 
where you can repair, if not put them in yourself. In 
my own house I have run all the heating pipes, ex¬ 
cept those to bath room and conservatory, where I 
have direct radiation, back and forth on the ceiling 
of my basement cellar, they being so boxed in that 
they are easily “come-at-able.” The boiler is also 
jacketed except at each end, which saves enough heat 
for two rooms. Another point gained by this indirect 
system is that of perfect ventilation, the air being 
changed in each room several times an hour whether 
anyone looks after it or not. 
In my own house I have conducted the hot air 
only to the rooms of the lower floor, and find it quite 
satisfactory. By ceiling registers we heat the cham¬ 
bers at night. Leakage by day makes it so they are 
never cold, and from the warm air passing up through 
the lower rooms all night they too are warm in the 
morning. As we want an expansion tank in the attic 
anyway, and hot water in the bathroom, we have a 
flow and return pipe to the latter with direct radia¬ 
tion there. At natural sea-level pressure water boils 
at 212 degrees, while under 10 pounds pressure it boils 
at 240 degrees. That is why we want some pressure. 
We can thus make the water even hotter than with 
ordinary steam. 
Now a word about boilers. Buy an ordinary sec¬ 
ond-hand steam boiler, not paying for it till you see 
it tested to at least 30 pounds pressure. Such a boiler 
is not worth much for power, and can be bought for 
$25 to $75 of 12 to 40 horse-power. My own is a 38 
horse-power, and with wood usually runs 24 hours 
without attention. I think I could keep good even 
heat in moderate weather for two days with coal. 
Large boilers, like large stoves, pay best. When you 
put it in set your safety valve at 10 pounds, lifting It 
occasionally, but never changing it from that. With 
hot water if a leak should occur from any cause, don’t 
worry, it is simply water from cellar to attic, and the 
most it can do, if very hot, is make steam as it leaks 
out. Not half the danger there is when the leg of a 
big coal stove gets knocked out, scattering hot coals 
and damaging carpets, if not burning the house. 
Maryland. chas. t. sweet. 
Well Satisfied With Steam. 
Some years ago I introduced steam into my farm¬ 
house, which is a long, low, rambling structure of the 
old-fashioned kind, consequently I could not install a 
hot-air apparatus, and, on account of the extensive 
area, deemed it imprudent to introduce hot water: 
therefore I decided upon steam. As I was obliged to 
install 19 radiators and three medium and one large 
pipe system, you can realize the extent of the build¬ 
ings. The steam apparatus has given great satisfac¬ 
tion, more especially the past year, as I ha-ve finally 
learned what size of coal to use. I have always been 
led to believe that broken and egg coal mixed half 
and half was the proper combination for boiler use, 
and continued using this mixture for some years. 
Three years ago I was led to experiment, and changed 
to a mixture of three-fifths egg and two-fifths broken 
sizes; the following year I changed to a mixture of 
three-fifths egg and two-fifths stove size; the next 
year, or last year, I changed to three-fifths and two- 
fifths egg, and the pres¬ 
ent year I am using ex • 
clusively stove size, 
which gives so great sat¬ 
isfaction that I will make 
no further changes; as, 
notwithstanding this is 
the coldest Winter we 
have had for many years, 
my farmhouse has been 
more comfortable than 
during any preceding 
year, and with no in¬ 
crease in the consumption 
of coal. I now can raise 
steam in from one to 
three minutes, when 
formerly it would take 
from 10 to 30 minutes. 
Fire boxes should be kept 
free from ashes so that 
the fire throughout will 
consist of live coals. On 
account of the exposure 
of most farmhouses, they 
cool off quickly, and it is 
therefore n e c e s s ary to 
use such apparatus and 
such kind of coal as will 
heat up quickly on cold 
mornings and when one 
gets home chilled after a 
long drive. e. 
Worcester County, Massachusetts. 
Steam Good Enough for Me. 
I have put steam into two farmhouses. One was a 
nine-room house, rather small rooms. We had five 
radiators there, and used an average of one ton per 
month for several years. Having sold that farm 
and purchased the one here we found ourselves 
compelled to install another heating plant here. Of 
course the women folks ought to be the best judges 
as to what they want in the line of heat, and mine 
said with one accord steam, so we started out to look 
for some one to put it in. The first man was a local 
tinsmith, and he told me that steam was no good, and 
the only thing was hot air, and hot air I must put in. 
I thought it a case of hot air on the brain, and started 
to look for some one who was willing to do what 1 
wanted. In New Britain we found a firm of plumbers 
ready and willing to put in a steam plant on a writ¬ 
ten contract, which they have done, and certainly 
they know their business. This is a large 12-room 
house situated on a hill with full exposure to the west 
and northwest, and during this extreme Winter with 
the mercury 30 degrees below zero part of the time, a 
HOME OF MAPES THE HEN MAN. Fig. 63. 
