52 
September, 1919 
CONCEALING THE RADIATOR 
Successful Methods by Which It Can Be Boxed Or 
Incorporated Into Built-In Furniture 
COSTEN FITZ-GIBBON 
T O have a radiator standing forth in full 
view in any room is a piece of inexcus¬ 
able barbarity. It is just as objectionable 
and just as unreasonable as it would be to 
obtrude a kitchen sink in full sight of a 
dinner table. To permit it to occupy a point 
of vantage and prove a chronic eyesore is 
likewise sheer stupidity. It is a confession 
of helpless incapacity and weak-minded sur¬ 
render to the jobbing steam fitter, who im¬ 
poses the monster wherever it suits his con¬ 
venience. 
Any self-respecting architect will see to it 
that radiators are placed in the least obtrusive 
position feasible, and with a little additional 
expense will conceal them with more or less 
ingenuity. The contractor who installs radi¬ 
ators at a subsequent date will not be so con¬ 
siderate. He must be closely watched as to 
their placing. This article is quite as much 
for the victim of late installation as for the 
reader who has the architect’s aid. 
The radiator must be concealed. That 
much is plain, unless the appearance of every 
room where direct radiation is used is to be 
seriously marred. The question is, what are 
the possible and which are the best methods 
of concealment? One help to convenient con¬ 
cealment, a method employed by some of the 
Hig 
This radiator grille is made of plaited iron 
strips, behind which the radiator is set 
best architects, is to use radiators of very 
thin material with a minimum volume of 
metal to be heated. This has the advantage 
of flatness, for convenient enclosure in walls 
beneath window sills. Unfortunately in this 
arrangement, the expense is greater and the 
durability supposed to be not so great, so the 
bulkier, common variety of radiator is the 
kind more likely to be encountered. 
When radiator concealment can be planned 
for at the time the house is built, it is much 
easier to manage successfully than when radi¬ 
ators come as a later addition. The most 
logical position for radiators is either under 
or near windows. If they can be let into the 
wall under windows—and unless the wall is 
very thick this will require the thin material 
and flat radiators—they can be concealed by 
a panel even with the wall or the wainscot. 
The panel itself should either be hinged or 
divided into doors to give access to the 
mechanical attachments, all of which ought 
to be out of sight. Line the enclosing space 
with asbestos air cell, an asbestos preparation 
with corrugated surface. 
The stiles and rails of the panel or doors 
will be of wood. Protect the inside surfaces 
of the panel or door-framing with a layer of 
asbestos. The panels themselves must be 
Beneath a long window or a row of windows the radiators can be concealed by a built-in seat with the grilles set low in front. Cupboards on either 
side give a balanced grouping 
