The Portland daily press., 1888-02-04
THE WILLIAMS SYSTEM.
A System In Successful Use in the
Largest Institutions In the State
Conversation With Mr.. Peirce. the
Agent.

In conversation with Mr.. III. H. ID. Peirce,
the agent of the Williams System of heating.
and who contracted with the city to intro.
duce that system into the High School build
lug, Mr.. Peirce said that the trouble in that
building had resulted from various causes
A janitor unfamiliar with the system, and
not anxious to learn it. had occasioned part
of the difficulty. The freezing up of the
steam pipe took place just as this janitor was
leaving and another taking his place, and
was no way attributable to any defect in the
apparatus, but to carelessness in letting the
fires go down. There was some defects that
needed to be remedied. The ventilation of
the upper stories was not perfect, OCCASION
ally there was down draft. This had been
partly remeded by placing ventiating pipes
in the chimneys, but not entirely. Some
changes which he was about to make he be-
lieved would entirely remove this trouble.
The boards of which the ducts in the cellar
were made had shrunk some, causing cracks
through which air from the cellar entered,
but he had ordered them covered and when
this was done that trouble would be done
away with. Mr.. Peirce said be had informed
the committee on public buildings that the
want of knowledge of the system of the for
mer engineer had been great drawback to
its successful working. Now that another
engineer had taken charge of the apparatus
it was working more successfully, and with
the changes contemplated and about to be
made he believed it would prove entirely sat
isfactory. The construction Of the building
was faulty and that was another cause Of
difficulty. The extraordinarily cold weather
had been another. The defects in the work
ing of the apparatus had been greatly exag-
gerated and were not nearly as serious as
represented.
Asked concerning the Interpretation he
put upon DR.. Crandalps letter in the Argus,
he said he regarded 1t as an accusation of
bribery and corruption against himself and
some of the city officials. and he had no
doubt that was the Interpretation generally
put upon it, The Williams system he said
was now in operation in the Lockwood Mills
at Waterville, Bates Mills and Androscoggin
Mills at Lewiston; Cascade Woolen Mills in
Oakland, Maine Insane Hospital at Augusta,
Soldiers Home at Togus. Portland Compa-
ng's Works, Brown Block and II. N. Joss's
buildings, Portland; Westbrook Manufac-
turing Company's Works; S. ID. Warren &
Co.. mills at Saecarappa, and the Saco Wa
ter Power and Machine shop. Asked how
this $50 called system" as Dr. Crandall calls
1t was working in these places, he replied by
placing in our hands batch Of letters from
which I'VE make the following selections:
The others speak in equally high terms of
the system.
LOCKWOOD COMPANY,
WATERyILLE, Me-, June z, 1887
H. II. ID. Pefrce, Esq;
Dear Sir:--Your favor of the I'd received In
regard to the system Of steam heating that we
adopted last November, 1t has far exceeded our
expectations In the saving of labor and fuel. Last
winter was an exceptionally cold one, and we can
not make Just comparison with any previous
one, although we made saving OF 20 per cent In
fuel We had no repairing or leakage OF piping In
either mill. Yours truly,
(Sgned) >. i. ABBOTT, Agent.
MAINE INSANE HosPTrAL.(
AUGUSTA, Me-, July 10, 1887.
Mr.. Peirce.
NV Dear sir:-The system Of steam heating
which was adopted by this institution last fall,
am pleased to say has operated very SATISFACTORY
IN we have now subjected IL TO the test of
yerv severe winter, and am satisfied that your
system has produced saving OF 10 per cent In
the consumption OF fuel
Under our old arrangement OF heating the es
tablishment we were subjected to the annoyance
of water-hanmering, and the radiators nlling
with water from back pressure, from both OF