The Case for Steam Heating 
A CORRECTION OF POPULAR FALLACIES IN REGARD TO THE STEAM SYSTEM —THE MODERN IMPROVE¬ 
MENTS IN CONSTRUCTION WHICH HAVE RENDERED IT EASY TO REGULATE AND MORE ECONOMICAL 
by A. Masterson Plummer 
Editor’s Note.—“What heating system shall I use?” is the constant que ry of the home-builder. To assist in solving his difficulty, HOUSE & 
GARDEN has had experts in heating engineering present the advantages of their own favorite types of apparatus. For the first time the whole case 
of the best heating method will be presented to the public as a jury. The first article was on hot water heating, others will follow presenting the char¬ 
acteristics and advantages of hot air, and the indirect system. 
T HE relative desirability of the three methods of artificially 
warming the house is not determined by their relative first 
cost, nor is it wholly dependent upon the matter of expense of 
maintenance in fuel and repairs and efficiency in securing to all 
portions of the house that degree of temperature necessary to 
physical comfort during any and all conditions of weather. 
In manufactories where a large number of operatives are em¬ 
ployed ; also in school rooms, 
cheap heating was at one time 
the desideratum, but it has 
been found, by the introduc¬ 
tion of modern apparatus and 
methods of heating, that ab¬ 
sence due to- impairment of 
physical and mental vitality 
has been very considerably 
lessened; that in the former 
case the output has very ma¬ 
terially decreased in cost and 
improved in quality, and in the 
latter case sluggishness of 
brain has been superseded by 
mental activity and greater 
progress in study. The effect 
upon the general health 
chargeable to the method of 
heating as noted above is hard¬ 
ly less potent in the home, 
and especially is this true as 
regards those members of the 
family who spend the greater 
part of each twenty-four 
hours in the house. Anything 
which contributes to that con¬ 
dition summed up as “a 
sound mind in a sound body” 
necessarily contributes to in¬ 
creased efficiency of man, 
woman and child, and coin¬ 
cidentally cuts down expense 
in the matter of medical at¬ 
tendance. The system which accomplishes this will be our choice. 
Following the subject in all its bearings to a logical conclusion, 
there seems no escape from proof that “the best is the cheapest.” 
Confronted and perplexed at the outset by convincing catalog 
data bearing upon the several methods of heating and types 
of apparatus, viz.: steam, hot-water and hot-air, the prospective 
builder of the house is driven to consult his friends who have 
had experience. The result in such cases can usually be summed 
up thus. “ ’Tis with ‘their’ judgments as ‘their’ watches; none go 
just alike, but each believes his own.” 
Not the specious arguments of the salesman nor the advice of 
friends, but facts should determine the selection of apparatus, and 
facts are sometimes hard to come at. 
It is now generally comprehended that ventilation is a prime 
necessity, and that ventilation and heating should be the insepar¬ 
able achievements of any method or type of apparatus. 
To such readers as have never sought to define what the word 
ventilation really means, it might be sufficient to say that a room 
in which the percentage of carbonic acid is less than io parts in 
10,000 parts of air and consequently not to be detected by odor, 
is sufficiently ventilated, that is, the air is of a sufficient 
degree of purity to support 
healthful respiration. This 
chemical condition of the air, 
coincident with the most near¬ 
ly uniform temperature pos¬ 
sible of 68° to 70° indoors in 
our American climate, consti¬ 
tutes perhaps the best defini¬ 
tion in a few words of the con¬ 
ditions sought. 
Considering the possibili¬ 
ties within the scope of the 
hot-air furnace, the usual 
claim that it comprehends, in 
the method of which it is a 
part, both ventilation and 
heating, whereas steam and 
hot-water heating do not, may 
be dismissed as a mischievous 
half truth. Steam and hot- 
water heating by means of 
“direct” radiators in the rooms 
exclusively do not, it is true, 
provide for ventilation, but a 
single “indirect" radiator will 
provide, through its fresh air 
supply pipe and one or more 
registers, sufficient renewal of 
the air indoors to maintain 
good and sufficient ventilation. 
On the other hand the hot¬ 
air furnace is dependent for 
its success upon the heating of 
a quantity of out-door air far 
in excess of that required by the exigencies of ventilation and at 
an expense for fuel which is prohibitory. 
The usual failure of the hot-air furnace to deliver heat to ex¬ 
posed rooms during severe windy weather is too generally known 
to require a demonstration of the reasons here. Its cheapness in 
first cost is too inconsiderable an advantage to weigh against its 
large expense of maintenance and failure to give entire satis¬ 
faction. 
So far as it may constitute a menace to health, not even stoves 
in the rooms can vie with the average hot-air furnace in the dis¬ 
semination of dust, ashes and coal gas. In short, this type of 
heating apparatus may be dismissed at the outset as having no 
place in the domestic economy of modern life. 
Hot-water heating, only until recently, has possessed the inherent 
The German architect makes his heating apparatus a decorative feature 
by using unfinished radiators and covering them with a removable screen 
(383) 
