21 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 9, 1860. 
[ rivate communication between it and the workshop, by opening 
a doorway into that part which will be over the lobby. A more 
public entrance should also be secured from the living-rooms. 
Of these matter’s nothing is said. Readers under similar cir¬ 
cumstances will now be able better to follow us. 
The heating both places from the kitchen fire we would 
do by a close boiler placed round the fireplace. If the boiler 
is to be placed there we would prefer one with water on the 
three sides, and so placed that the heat should pass beneath 
and round it. If there are only two inches or so between the 
sides of the boiler for containing the water the more freely would 
it act. If the boiler is there already, and of the common de¬ 
scription in kitchens—that is, water at one side and back, its 
power will be increased by having it set rather open below. If, 
as is generally the case, there is a lid to such boiler, that must be 
fixed with red lead, or common lead, or otherwise, so as to be 
water and steamproof. A weight should be placed over it for some 
time at first. In future the boiler must be supplied from a ball- 
cock and cistern in the yard, a few inches higher than the heating- 
pipes in the greenhouse, &c.; or the water must be kept supplied 
from an open cistern in either of the places to be heated, and in 
connection with the heating-pipes. If no water was drawn from 
the boiler in the kitchen little supply would be needed. In 
general, there would be plenty of heat from such a boiler under 
ordinary circumstances in the daytime. In severe nights in 
winter a little coal would require to be placed close to the boiler 
at bedtime; and then, if there was a plate of iron over it, and 
one iu front inside the grate, and leaving only openings for 
draught, the boiler would get the benefit of most of the fire. As 
already intimated, the more surface of the boiler exposed to the 
fire, and the less the water it proportionally contains, the better 
will the boiler act with the minimum amount of fuel. 
Now for getting the heat from the boiler to the greenhouse, &e. 
If water is to be drawn from the boiler, the tap may remain as it 
is. According to wbat is stated above, if the supply equals the 
waste the boiler will be always full. A hole must be drilled in 
the top, or near the top, of the boiler to receive a one-inch pipe 
as the how-pipe, and another near the bottom for the return-pipe. 
If these pipes were placed where the fire had access, they would 
require to be iron for three feet or so in length. But they may 
as well be placed on the sides or front of the boiler, to which the 
fire has no access, and then lead pipes would do admirably, and 
have the advantage that they may be bent any way at pleasure. 
They will be all the firmer fixed if the ends protrude an inch or 
so into the boiler. These pipes can be easily carried into the 
greenhouse to the space most suitable; and after getting clear of 
the fireplace had better be enclosed against the kitchen wall in a 
wooden box packed with sawdust, so that the water shall not be 
cooled in getting to the places to be heated. 
Now the economical is to be a first matter of consideration, and 
that will be kept in view. There is just one little point omitted 
by our correspondent—and that is, whether or not the floors of 
the greenhouse and the workshop are on the same level, or so 
nearly alike that the heating-pipes in both places can easily be 
placed on a level. So far as the mere heating of the places is 
•concerned, it will not be of great importance whether the pipes 
are two inches or two feet from the floor, though it will make 
much difference as respects the comfort of the workmen and the 
state of their feet in winter. 
Before supposing several cases, so as, if possible, to meet 
exactly the present one, I may mention that to heat such a 
greenhouse efficiently would need two flow-pipes and one return 
of from three to four inches in diameter. If doors, &c., did not 
come in the way, a flow should go along the ends and each side, 
a return coming back on one side. One flow and return should 
go round at least two sides of the workshop ; three sides would 
be better. The flow in the greenhouse I should connect with 
the lead pipe from the top of a boiler with a T'piece, if I could 
take the pipes round the sides ; and if doors &c., prevented 
that, I should take two four-inches along the side of the green¬ 
house next jj the workshop, connected with the lead pipe with 
a rounded | so that the pipes may be near each other. These 
pipes may be of metal, or tin, or galvanised iron, if the work¬ 
men do not kick them. These latter will last a long time if 
rested on wooden blocks, with air around them, and where 
there would be a boarded floor under them. The flow-pipes 
might be nine inches from the floor, and the return a few inches. 
The joints could easily be formed with red or white lead, and 
no painting would be required. In joining the inch-lead pipe 
to these larger ones, I should use a plug of seasoned wood, to 
fit tightly with a little lead round it, having previously drilled; a 
hole in its centre to receive the lead pipe securely. 
So much for economical minutiae. I shall now suppose that 
the pipes can be placed in both places on the same level, and 
that it is desirable to heat both together, or the greenhouse by 
itself chiefly at night. To avoid the expense of a ball-cock 
cistern and valves in the pipes, make a stout box of good deal 
1£ inch thick, 20 inches long, 15 inches wide, and 15 inches 
deep—larger if you like—provided with a lid, and set it at the 
right level at the north-east corner of the greenhouse, or just 
inside the boundary wall of the workshop. The flow-pipe or 
pipes may enter this watertight box about the middle, and the 
return-pipe near the bottom. This will complete the circulation 
for the greenhouse. Two pipes on the opposite side will give 
the flow and return for the workshop ; and when heat is not 
wanted there, both ends of the pipe in the cistern may be 
stopped with wooden plugs, or the box may be divided in the 
middle by a moveable board, working between fillets in the way 
of a sluice. When in summer no heat is wanted in the green¬ 
house the water may be reduced, so that the flow-pipes should 
be empty, or a common tap may be fixed on the lead flow-pipe, 
which will stop the flow at once. The return-pipes will npt 
trouble you under such circumstances. 
Any amount of heat may be obtained in the workshop when 
not wanted in the greenhouse by taking the flow from the boiler 
there first; but I have supposed above that the shop is only to 
be kept comfortable, and extra heat in the greenhouse can be kept 
down by a greater amount of air. 
If it should happen that- the pipes in the workshop must be 
lower than the pipes in the greenhouse, the same mode of heating 
will answer, and you may have what piping in the workshop you 
like ; but one hole for the flow-pipe in the cistern will be suffi¬ 
cient, and you will require a lead pipe or any other you prefer, 
on a lower level through the kitchen to join the pipe that come* 
from the bottom of the boiler. Under such circumstances the 
heated water from the cistern will descend freely, but it will not 
ascend again so freely to keep up the circulation. 
If the pipes in the workshop must be much above the pipes in 
the greenhouse, then, whether the supply-cistern be in the green¬ 
house or the workshop, it must stand higher than the highest 
pipe, and the flow-pipe go direct to the cistern. On this sup¬ 
position the flow-pipe could either come along the kitchen wall, 
or, better still, through the greenhouse. Two pipes from the 
other side of the greenhouse would heat it amply, and at the 
west end above the fireplace communicate at once with the 
return-pipe that enters the bottom of the boiler., All will be 
simplified if you bear in mind, that with a close boiler and a close 
pipe you can heat the water in a much greater height than you 
are likely to want it; that from a flow and return pipe on a 
lower level but close, you can take branch pipes to any moderate 
height, arranged in levels, stacks, or columns, if there is an air- 
pipe at the highest point; that from an open cistern at the 
highest point, you may heat different levels below that point, 
but each level must have a separate communication with the 
main return-pipe ; and that once the main flow enters such a 
cistern, you cannot afterwards take heat higher from it. 
Under the circumstances the best floor for your greenhouse 
will be well-seasoned boards, joined at their edges by plough and 
tongue. You need never have more water than is used for the 
common washing of a floor. You could also use saucers for.your 
plants, and if very particular, might cover the floor with oil 
cloth. 
In forming the greenhouse I should prefer to have side-walls 
of wood above the floor of from two to three feet in height at 
least; if four or five all the better. The roof I would have 
fixed, all stout bars—say 2|- inches deep, and 2 across, and 1 foot 
apart, to receive glass of that width ; and the bars fixed to the 
sides and ridge-board, that ridge-board being from 7 feet from 
the floor. The ends might be made to open, or three slides 18 
inches in length for bottom ah’ might be placed on each side. 
Some half a dozen openings at least should be made at the ridge 
a foot or fifteen inches long, made to swing on pivots or to slide 
above the other glass. An additional thickness in the sash-bar 
there would make all that easy. If a little more expense were 
no great object, there might be two ridge-boards, separated nine 
inches from each other by cross pieces every four feet; and these 
pivots would also support a cowl of two boards outside to keep 
the wet out, and yet leave openings along the side to admit air 
freely. Boards could be hung on pivots between the openings, 
as frequently described, and opened and shut at. pleasure. It .will 
i 
