I 
100 
MODE OF HEATING BY STEAM. 
In lieu of the paving on the joists, hoards, hurdles, or any other 
material capable of supporting the weight above, is equally applicable. 
This mode has been in successful practice, nearly four years, in the 
garden of Mr. Sturge, of Lambridge, near Bath, who considers it 
greatly superior to the use of either dung, leaves or tan, &c.; the 
temperature being at all times under the absolute controul of the at¬ 
tendant. 
This mode seems to have originated [with Mr. Sturge, I having 
heard of no other person using it previously to his trying the experi¬ 
ment. 
For Bulbs, Cacti, &c. —Figs. 7 and 8 represent an elevation 
and plan exhibiting the mode in which bottom-heat is applied to 
stoves for bulbs, cacti, &c. by the agency of steam. A paved water¬ 
tight bottom heat he- 7 
ing built on 
stones, 
earth, or any suitable 
support, with a decli¬ 
vity towards any con¬ 
venient part of about one inch in ten feet to allow of drainage; 
channels are formed about three inches deep, and the same width, 
Q 
crossing each other, as 
shewn in figure 8, which 
also represents two small 
steam pipes, each three 
quarters of an inch in 
diameter, closed at the 
further end, and having 
perforations about one 
tenth of an inch diameter opposite each other, and in the middle of 
the channels. 
The result is, that when steam is admitted into the pipes, it is dis¬ 
charged in opposite directions, through the orifices, filling the whole 
space of the channels with hot vapour; the channels being covered 
with brick or stone, jointed without mortar, as shewn in fig. 7 ; the 
vapour which percolates between the joints, is arrested by a bed of 
stones or broken bricks, similar to those used in fig. 5, and about four¬ 
teen inches in depth above the paved bottom ; on this again is placed 
a bed of sand about one foot deep, in which the pots are plunged to 
any suitable depth. 
The vapour is so completely arrested by the strata of stones, &c. 
and sand, beneath the pots, as to communicate a heat congenial with 
the health of the plants, without the least excess of moisture. 
