The Portland daily press., 1871-06-23
steam Heating Apparatus i'm the state

-st nd House. ..H ...f
MIR. EDITOR..-I perceive in a recent issue
OF the PRESS that the Council have accepted
the proposition OF some Boston contractors to
put steam-heating apparatus into the State
House for $4,000. r
Although it is not stated, yet every man of
common Information on the subject must see
that this cannot provide for a suitable appa-
ratns, to say nothing of the obvious objec-
tions to the location of the boiler. and fire ap-
paratus in the basement of the Capitol in
stead of in separate adjoining building.
venture to predict that no provision has
been made or will be made, for one of the
most indispensable requisites for the warm
ing of public building b5 steam. ..
Every intelligent child knows that the
great point of superiority of the hot.air fur
mace over the ordinary stove is that pure
warm air is constantly introduced into the
warmed room and necessarily an equal guam
tity OF vitiated air must escape as fast as the
pure warm air flows in or the room would
burst. And the colder the day the more rap
i'd is the publication again, if any defect OBJ
structs this publication it is instantly mani
Tested by the falling temperature in the room.
So that you secure increasing ventilation
with the increasing coldness of tfe weather
and are sure that you have it without the
possibility of mistake.
warns the vitiated air already in the room
and in no way tends toward fresh supply
except by consuming very small quantity to
feed the fire. Again all ventilation from win
dOws, doors, or regular artificial chimney VEN
tilators instead OF aiding the increase OF tenn
peratule, as is the case when you use the hot
air furnat e, OEly tends to lower it and to
make your room colder-therefOre the more
imperfect your artificial ventilation is, the
easier will your room be warmed by close
etepe. HeEee the constant experience of
foul air in all crowded apartments warmed by
close stoves, in spite of all artificial ventila-
tors, all Of schich are miserdbly Inadequate
do not hesitate 10 challenge any architect to
show me an artificial ventiator capable OF
giving decently pure air in any room in
Maine heated by close stoves whenever a
large number OF persons are present.
NOtc aohen a room is heated by steam you
get no uentitoti0n uhateuer, unless the rddia-
tOo VIZ PsVCOU OuCotUC " CHS TOOU, anu
fresh ar admitted from out of doors and
made to Jto,o ooer the hot radiators into the
room through registers.
Where this is done, of course the air is
changed precisely as by hot air furnace.
When the radiators are permitted in the
room, then the result is even worse than with
air-tight stoves, for those wretched pollutors
OF the household atmosphere do consume a
small quantity OF foul air or the fire would 60
out, and an equally small quantity of fresh
air must enter by door or window, to supply
its place, while the iron steam coil of the ra-
diator merely warns the foul air of the room
without changing it single particle.
The stedntrddidtOr suithin the room is the
most eIecrGble means of ,oarn.inq public
buildings euer deUised while the indirect ra-
diator is perhaps the best.
The object OF this article is to call the at
tention of the intelligent public to the fact
that the State House is about to be overhaul
ed and $4,000 expended in manner which is
sure to give dissatisfaction and TO require
the work TO he done over again after seri-
GUS experience OF its failure.
1t is incredible that $4,000 can give indirect
radiation, which is Of course more expen-
sive and if the radiators are to be placed in
the rooms, then you get an UNANIMOUSLY foul
atmosphere not only in the Hall of the House,
which has always been so bad that perhaps
the members may have become accustomed
to 1t, as eels have become TO skinnipg. but in
the Senate. Executive Chambor Secretary of
States office aud the rooms where open fire
places have hitherto secured an atmosphere
approximating to purity.
II any man in Maine is pig-headed
enough to question the truth OF these posi-
tions let him look at the registers in our CITY
Hall which is wholly warmed by indirect ra-
diation and which is one of the very Jew pub
lie rooms in the State where large audience
can assemble and sit with comparative i'm
puniLy to their lungs and their noses in win
ter. AN Ex-MEMRER