406 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— September 2,1856 
HOT-WATER HEATING APPARATUS. 
As the subject of boilers and boating has been 
treated upon very ably by Mr. Fisli, in his description 
of the apparatus in use at Messrs. Weeks’, and as the 
subject is one of such vast importance as not to be 
treated lightly, I venture to record a few facts 
which have presented themselves to me at various 
times since heating by hot water first became fashion¬ 
able, or rather, since I became acquainted with it, 
which was practically in 1830; and though there aro a 
few instances in which this agent was used some time 
before that period, still I believe there are few hot¬ 
houses which date its introduction more remote than 
i that, and though hot-water pipes and tauks have 
! assumed many different forms, and doubtless, in some 
cases, some improvements, 1 cannot efface from my 
memory the simplicity and efficiency of the system by 
which two vineries were heated by one boiler, erected 
about that period, and which I liad the management 
of some two or three years after. So easily and effi¬ 
ciently were these worked that I have often thought 
J that “ hot-water heating,” as a branch of horticultural 
j science, came into the world in a greater state of per- 
I fection than that of most other things; in fact, I 
j am far from certain if it has not degenerated, for 
the fire-place, boiler, and pipes which heated the houses 
! above mentioned required less attention than any similar 
] contrivance I have had to deal with since, and, as J 
i have before said, did their work so well, that 1 have since 
j wondered why the principle on which they acted was 
! departed from. I am certain nothing has been gained 
J by it in a general way; but in certain cases another 
system might be requisite. Now, I believe the general 
principle on which hot-water apparatus first appeared 
was to have the top of the boiler and the top pipes on the 
same level, and the return-pipe lower. The pipes of the 
houses alluded to above were much larger than those 
generally in use now, and a flow and return-pipe alone 
traversed the front and ends in the usual way, the one 
being above the other, and both connected by an elbow 
turn, or small box cistern, in the usual way, there being 
openings on the top of the top pipes, with lids, whereby 
a little steam could be let off at times as wauted, these 
i openings serving, at the same time, the means of filling 
J the pipes with water; but I always found the houses 
were most easily heated when the pipes were about 
] two-thirds or three-fourths full; of course, I mean the 
! top pipes, the bottom ones being in all cases full. 
J The boiler was a large, old-fashioned saddle-backed 
: one, with a good, capacious fire-place, and the whole 
exceedingly simple in construction, the top of the boiler 
being large. There was a lid to take off, large enough 
I for a man to get into it to clean out any accumulation 
of dirt, &c., and as there wero no stop-cocks, a large 
I wooden plug was sometimes put into the mouth of the 
pipe leading into the house not intended to be heated 
j at the time. This, of course, was not so easily got in 
i and out as the turning of a tap; but a tap that has 
got rusted with neglect or want of usage is not in every 
case so easily turned as might be expected, and these 
appendages are expensive. Now, we all know that the 
present system of heating by hot water is to place the 
boiler as low as possible, and lead a pipe, or series of 
pipes, from it to some eminence, from which it is allowed 
to descend again, both routes being often circuitous, the 
ascent, whether long or short, being called the flow- 
pipe, and the descent, in like manner, the return- 
pipe, the latter entering the boiler at some low 
point. I believe that practice has decided that hot 
water will travel to a greater length when on the 
ascent than when its road is on a level; still, I am 
far from certain that this fact has been proved so satis¬ 
factorily as has been assumed, especially in the cases 
of solitary hothouses of moderate dimensions, where it 
is not necessary to travel far. The old-fashioned mode 
gave the most positive proof of the rate at which the j 
water travelled; for it was only to drop a small piece of 
paper into one of those openings spoken of, and wait for j 
its appearance at the next opening. This unequivocal I 
proof of circulation was much looked into at that time, | 
boys and young people being much amused to see its j 
motion so far from the fire. Now, what I most admired j 
in the old-fashioned mode of heating was the simplicity ! 
and ease with which it was accomplished, and the non- : 
liability of any of its parts to get deranged. A capacious j 
wrought iron boiler is not so likely to fall a prey to hard : 
work as a small cast iron one, when they have both the 
same amount of heated pipe to work; only it is proper l 
to obsorve, that the above was put up in a land j 
abounding in large boilers, there being several within 
the circuit of a very few miles that might vie with ! 
moderate-sized haystacks for size. Of course, these last- i 
named were for driving ponderous machinery, but I ! 
never could learn that anything could be gained by cur- j 
tailing the boiler to such small dimensions as some | 
have been. It is all very well to talk of exposing a 
large surface of it to the action of the fire. I have ! 
seen some that would not hold sufficient fuel to serve j 
them more than two hours, besides the trouble they give 
to those having the management of them in other 
respects, their parts all being too small, from a mistaken 
notion that economising fuel was the most necessary 
merit, whereas time or labour is as valuable as firing, 
and to amateurs and others doubly so. 
I now enter on the question which has latterly been 
broached by my worthy coadjutor, Mr. Fish—the one- 
boiler system, which the Messrs. Weeks, of London, so 
strongly recommend. Unfortunately, I cannot enter 
into the views of those who advocate the one boiler 
alone, and 1 am glad to find Mr. Fish of the same 
opinion. I happen to know the evils of boiler¬ 
bursting to some extent, having had two accidents 
of that kind the present winter at the place I write 
from. Fortunately they were small boilers, heating one 
house only, but supposing that a large one, heating a 
series of houses, was to fail in very severe weather, 
and there was no other mode of communicating heat 
to those houses, I guess the advocates of such heating 
would be reconverted to the old system again ; and 
large boilers are liable to such accidents as well as 
small ones, and the more so when they are corrugated, 
intersected with pipes, or carried into fantastic forms, i 
which they often are, to suit the taste or whim of some j 
hunter after novelty; all these nonsensical appendages : 
adding to the cost of the articlo, without improving its j 
utility in like proportion; for though the increased J 
amount of surface exposed to the fire may economise j 
that article, it may be obtained at too great a sacrifice 
of time; the old proverb that “ gold may be bought 
too dear” at times being applicable to this case, as in j 
many others; and though there may be a saving by > 
having only one fire to attend to, when one boiler heats | 
a number of structures instead of several, I am fearful 
of the consequences when an accident does happen, j 
The Messrs. Weeks being in the trade, with all the 
staff and materials at hand to repair such disasters, i 
ought not to be compared to those living a hundred i 
miles or more inland, and possibly several miles from ‘ 
where such a misfortune could be rectified in less than 
a week; and 1 need not picture the evils of having the 
whole of the exotic and forced productions subjected to 
such a calamity. 
I confess being a disciple of the utilitarian school, in 
many respects, and, consequently, discard novelty, ex- ; 
cept in flowers and some other things, where the eye 
and other senses affected by it are to be gratified ; there- ] 
fore I cannot admit the plea of one boiler coming under 
