The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-02-17
Economic Heating.
From the Technologist for January.

just now there Is no subject comes
more appropriately TO our minds than
that in which so many thousands are
concerned in these winter months
namely, heating as large space with as
small supply as possible. This is a
problem in which the poor are not the
only ones concerned it is as interesting
to that large class possessed OF slender
means as to the very needy for the po-
sition they have to maintain renders
them as careful of their means as the
very poorest should be. The great
enemy of this unhappily large commu;
nifty is the cold, and this must be guarded
against by all available means. Where
a cooking stove is in use it can be made
to heat two rooms on the same floor, by
having an aperture in the partition, in
which the back of the stove may be set,
taking the precaution against accident
by fire, Of setting frame of tin or zinc
between the stove and the woodwork of
the partition. A third room, over that
in which is the cooking stove, might be
heated by sheet iron dummy through
which the stove-pipe might pass on its
way to the chimney hue. And even a
fourth room may be heated to some ex-
tent by passing the pipe through the
partition, dividing the two upper rooms,
before it discharges into the chimney.
1t is true that all this calls for many
lengths of pipe, and it is comparatively
costly; but when compared with the
amount of comfort thus conveyed, and
regarding the economizing Of fuel at the
same time, it is at least worthy of con-
sideration. In a one-story cottage or
tenement, wherein the floor is divided
into four rooms by two partitions,
intersecting each other at right
angles, the best plan to adopt would be-
to have the cooking stove or the fire.
place, as the case may be, located at the
point Of intersection, having each side
facing a room. If the fireplace be of
brick, the back and two sides should
have sheet iron plates inserted in them,
and the fireplace itself, being in an
angle of the room, would necessarily
project into the other rooms, making
angular heating places at each. Three
rooms could be heated to some degree
by one cooking stove, without interior
ing with the oven or other fixings in the
least, by having the front in the kitchen
ranging with the partition wall, and
having the body of the stove project
back into the other room, having a suffi.
cient height of alcove over the griddles
to permit of the perfectly free opera
tons of the boiler, etc. This can be
easily understood by supposing cook
stove completely inserted in fireplace,
as kitchen ranges generally are. Here
there is but little stove-pipe required,
and that which is used gives out heat to
the room in which it is set at the back
of the cooking stove. To avoid the ex-
pense Of chimney building in cheap
cottages, fue may be safely construct
ed to rest on the ceiling joists 10y having
the latter sufficiently strong to bear the
weight. 1t is we'll also to prop them up
with two-inch planks placed upright,
one at each side of the perpendicular
line of the fue. The two upright
planks, being set against the chimney
back, could be readily made to form
the sides of shelved closet or small
pantry.
1t not unfrequently happens that
stores are so situated as to present no
opportunity for heating by stoves placed
in them, unless by marring the general
appearance or having to accept the in
conveniences of a lengthy and uncouth
looking stove-pipe, with its necessary
suspenders of wire nailed up at inter
walls. In such case heat may be intro
duced from the cellar beneath, through
a register in the floor, or cast-iron or
namented pedestal, appropriately pierced
for the purpose. The heat would be
generated by a furnace in the cellar,
having hot-air chamber i'm connection
with the floor of the store, by means of
a short pipe and a register; the smoke
to be carried off through stove-pipe,
hung beneath the cellar ceiling, and
discharged into the nearest chimney
fiue. A simple, ready and economical
heater, to answer the required purpose,
may be formed in the following manner:
Under the point fixed upon for the loca-
ton of the register, in the store place
large-sized sheet iron box stove. Around
this build a hollow wall chamber, say
treble the dimensions of the stove.
This hollow wall may be made of two
parallel walls laid up on edge, and
bound at intervals with pieces of hoop
iron. The inner wall might be com.
posed of fire brick-the outer wall of
common brick. The inter-space might
be two inches wide, and be packed with
ground charcoal, bed of which should
likewise be laid on the floor of the hot.
air chamber, with a layer of sand over
for the stove to stand upon. The OBJ
.ject of this introduction of charcoal is
to prevent the escape Of heat, it being a
non-conductor. Plaster of Paris. or
gypsum, would answer the same pur-
pose. The door of the stove should be
taken off, and set in the brickwork in
front, taking care that tire opening be
secure against any escape of fire into
the hot-air chamber; in fact, placing
the brickwork in close connection with
the front of the stove. 1t is evident
that the space surrounding the stove
will, when the fire is going, become
filled with hot air, which will rise
through large pipe to the register in
the store. And lest any heat may be
lost, it would be well to have second
pipe outside of this one, with space of
an inch or so between the two, thus re-
tanning, without any loss, all the hot air
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