St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-18
COLD AND DISEASE
In Our Winter HOmes---A Serious
Question of Health and Econ

|
Question of Health and Econ
omy.
If one thing more than another has
impressed itself on the keepers of
Northern homes the past winter it is the
desirability of keeping warm and well,
without spending the years income in
paying coal bills and doctors bills. Peo-
pie are in mood to accept any reason
able solution of the problem of heating
their dwellings with economy and COM
pleteness and at the same time thor
0ughly ventilating them. Medical eX-
perts and scientists have faithfully
pointed out the long train of evils that
| follow living in rooms superheated at
the ceiling, cold at the floor, and with no
other fresh air than what works in
through cracks and doors at temper
ature of one to forty below zero. AT a
! emv of Medicine it was shown that if
| the condensed breath collected on the
| cool window paneS of room where
number of persons have been assembled
| be burned, a smell as of Singed hair will
| show the presence of organic matter;
| and if the condensed breath be allowed
to remain on the windows for few
| days it will be found, on examination
| by microscope, that it is alive with ami
malcula. The inhalation of air con-
tanning such putreScent matter causes
untold complaints which might be
avoided by a circulation of fresh air.
The question of the hour has become,
Chow may we help ourselves and yet
be within the means of average peoplew
The attention of the GLOBE was
20 I,o Of
| tenn for heating and ventilating dwell
ings, patented by Nh Henry Tilden, of
| this State. The claim was made for
them that with the same expenditure
| of fuel four times the space could be
well warmed which is but inditferently
heated by the ordinary appliances; that
they give an even warmth in all rooms,
including walls, corners and floors;
that they remove all cold and foul air;
| that they furnish in winter constantly
renewed summer atmosphere indoors
as fresh and vital as that out of doors
no gas, dust, drynesS or overhead.
To be certain that so desirable results
were really accomplished by these de-
vices before laying the alleged facts be-
| fore the readers of the GLOBE, an eX-
pert was sent for the purpose of max
| ing personal investigation and report.
now place before the public the results
of that Investigation;
Mr.. Tilden, the inventor, was sought
at his home in Calhoun Park, Mime
apolis, and some general account of
the new system obtained. 1t is en-
bodied in both furnace and a stove
or heater, which he has been patiently
developing and testing for several years.
The chief invention lies in series of
tubes with wings or flangeS, external
and internal. In the heater, as well as
the furnace, fresh air is brought from
the outside in cold-air pipes. 1t is not
permitted to come in contact with the
fire-pot or any red-hOt iron, but reaches
the winged tubes through ducts and
which are numerous and twenty-four to
forty inches long, the currents of air
are broken and minutely Subdivided,
while they are exposed to multiplied
surface, heated, though not super
heated. BY law we'll known, though
not understood, the heat taken up on
the outer f1anges or wings of the tubes
is carried almost undiminiShed to the
inner extremity of the fiange, and thus
to the center of the fresh air current.
AS a result, the amount of heat thus
arrested on its way from the fire-pot to
the chimney is greatly multiplied. Asa
matter of fact, so to 80 per cent of the
heating power of the fuel is thus taken
up. 1t is a well known fact that by the
ordinary appliances so to so per cent OF
the heat escapes out of the chimney.
1t is easily seen that, as practical re-
suit, the amount of fuel consumed to
heat given space will be greatly less
ened.
The other leading feature of the sys-
tenn, and which supplements the first, is
the device for ventilation.
BY means of flueS and their cOnnec-
tons at all corners most remote from
the heater Cor regiSter) and passing
under the floor to device in heated
stack, there is a constant current of air
drawn from the rooms at such corners and
made to pass out through the chimney.
The fresh warm air from the top of the
heater. Or from the furnace register, riS-
ing into the rooms, is drawn toward
those remote corners. 1t goes gently
and naturally. 1t has nothing to over
come. There is no stratum of cold air
at the floor pressing the warn, air to-
ward the top. The cold air is the first
to get out of the rooms-and always
moves away from the registerS-aWay
from the heaters. The very air from
combustion in the heater is not drawn
from the rooms, and hence no current of
air moved towards it.
AS first practical result of this proc
ess, the warmed air easily distributes
itself over the entire room, and notice
ably so at the floors, walls and corners.
A second practical result is that cold
air from poor window-joints and door
cracks is drawn toward the remote cor
nerS Of the rooms, as all air currents are
tending thither, and passes out. Of
course foul and vitiated air is drawn the
same way, while fresh air, evenly
warmed, is taking its place. A third
practical result is that less fuel is
needed to heat a given space uniformly.
The results of health, particularly for
children, and comfort to all, and econ
my, suggest themselves.
There are various other minor devices
which go simply to the more perfect
working of the two main features de-
scribed, or to the mechanical conven-
fence of the apparatus.
All these points were given by Mr.
Tilden with a heater as an object of
study before us. 1t has been in use in
his own house the past two winters.
1t has heated seven rooms, a
main hall, and a conservatory.
Three OF those rooms were
chambers. The rooms below have been