Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-11-09
IN DEFENSE OF FIREPLACE$

One of the considerable differences be-
tween British and American customs is IN
the matter of house-heating.
The deviation was started out by that pa
triotic scientist. old Ben Franklin, famous as
the inventor of the Franklin stove. From
this beginning America has developed most
elaborate and perfect heating systems by
which thousand rooms can be kept at an
even temperature all the year round.
On the other hand the British have stuck
to their open fireplaces, cumbrous, dirty,
wasteful, and, as it seems to us, uncomfort-.
able. Americans, returning from a foreign
tour, rejoice in the comfortable atmosphere
of their apartments and declare, "This is the
first time have felt warm since left home"
The British fireplace roasts one side of the
body while leaving the other side to freeze.
One must revolve before it as on perpendic-
ular spit to give all sides an even chance,
and even then the air is chilly and damp to
breathe. It makes one SILVER the more to
see all that hot air escaping up the big
chimney, when it is so much needed to warm
the room.
We Americans have been disposed to at
tribute the retention of the inadequate and
inconvenient fireplace to British backward
ness and indifference to comfort. But now
it seems that the British have some scientific
justification for their preference besides per-
sonal prejudice and native conservatism.
In the first place the fireplace is not SO
wasteful as it seems to be. An investigation
made in Manchester of all sorts of coal-fired
CRATES showed the best gave out "a per cent
and the worst 20 per cent of the heat of the
fuel consumed. A gas Fireplace is twice as
good, for its efficiency of radiation is SO per
cent of the net heat value. of the gas con-
At.
economical way of using coal, since in gas
making the ammonia and tar are saved and
coke is obtained. An electrical heater is best
of all since it sends out rs per cent of the
energy Of the current in radiant heat and
light.
Another point in favor of the fireplace is
that radiant heat has been found to have
certain physiological advantage over warm
air from steam-heating apparatus. Heat
can be conveyed in two ways:
First it can be carried by a current of
hot air. This is called convection"
Second, it can go by itself as ether waves.
This is called radiation
In the case of radiation no air or any other
medium is necessary. The suns rays come
to us through 100000 miles of empty
space without heating it or lighting it in the
least. So, too, any glowing body, such as
bed of hot coal, or gas log, or an incadescent
electric wire, gives off radiations that travel
straight across the room without heating the
air much, although they heat up any solid
body they may strike. But what we call
steam radiator would be more properly de-
scrlbed as a steam-coil air-heater, for most of
the heat we get from it comes to us in cur
rents of warmed air.
Now the Englishman, rightly or wrongly,
does not want warm air. He wants cool air
and a hot CRATE. He does not want an even
temperature and a still atmosphere. He wants
an uneven temperature and drafts. Prof. W.
A. Bone, chairman of the fuel economy COM
mittee, stated the British ideal clearly in his
report to the Association for the Advance
ment of Science meeting recently at Hull
when he said:
The more nearly the conditions under
winch our living rooms are warmed and ven
tilated approach those of warm summers
day-a cooling breeze blowing around the
head, the varying sunshine warming one side
OF the body, and the warm ground for the
feet-the more comfortable and healthful
they will be. The desirability of such condi-
tlons, which may be contrasted with the
warm air OF rooms heated by convection from
steam coils, probably explains the English
mans decided preference for the radiation
from an open fireplace during our dreary
British winters, over the various forms of
centraF heating which are favored in Amer
lea and other countries where the winters
are colder but brighter"
Perhaps also we have gone too far in our
endeaVor to secure uniform temperature
without drafts, even where we have provided
thorough ventilation and proper humidity
in our big buildings
Prof. Huntington, of Yale, says that the
hardest work and highest thinking of the
world is done where the Temperature is yari-
able and winds are frequent His argument
seems to point to the conclusion that the
more uncomfortable the climate the better
Off are the people. Perhaps the same applies
| to houses.-Science Service
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