Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-12

plant which Is to keep his family warm
Is steam or hot water. II any reader
here protests that this is too much to
believe, we could refer him to two other
wise CO 1able citizens who ran small hot
water boilers on the assumption that
they were steam.
Both of these men had moved out of
apartments and evidently went on the
general theories outlined above. Neither
was willing to ask a neighbor anything
about the heating system.
Each was boiling all the water in his
system out over the roof each day, with
the result that the radiators on the
second floor were crammed with air and
there was no heat in them.
The Easements and first floors were
so hot that those parts Of the house
were iTlsufferable. In one case the
furnace was being run with the ther-
mometer on the boiler registering 400
degrees and higher in weather which
necessitated that the water at the boiler
should be no higher than ITO degrees
Even with this latter mark house was
too hot.
It can be realized that the unwist
furnace tenders were not only using two
or three times as much fuel as neces-
sary, but they were running some risk
of bursting their expansion tanks, ir
case of valve stoppage, while at the
same time being uncomfortable in one
end of the house on account of the
heat and at the other on account Of
cold radiators.
The neighbor who took 1t upon him.
self to correct this sad state of affairs
soon saw that neither gentleman hac
h. IL NJ hnV m Vtft1 q
common hot-water heating plant, and
what was more. neither would either
admit to the slightest ignorance or ask
question.
If he had said what he wanted tc
say, he would have assumed the teach
er's toga, lined his pupils up before
him and delivered himself Of the fol-
lowing lecture:
IS "You gentlemen had better realize
that an apparatus which keeps you
healthy and comfortable is not some
thing to be looked down upon.
1T is true that any old colored man
can run IL for you, after q fashion
but how? One Of you is so lazy that
he will not get up to open his draft
but gives an almost unknown man q
key to his house in order that he may
come In to tend the furnace, can
not imagine, sir, that you would hire
an equally unknown man and give him
q key to your ONCE. II you had a
machine in that office upon which the
health and happiness of the business
depended, I cannot believe that you
would attempt to run 1t without
thought, time or effort. Yet this is
what you try to do with the most i'm
portant apparatus in your home. One
OF you even imagines that all there is
to 1t is to shake the ashes down and
throw on coal. You do not even real
ize that after the fire has burned UP
some one, or something, has to shut
the draft, or the fire will keep on
burning, the water getting hotter and
hotter, until steam Is generated. Neither
Of you gentlemen would be guilty OF
similar attitude in regard to the
cheapest machine used in your work
but with the home heating plant you
seem to feel differently. I hope have
said enough to convince you that you
need to shake down your minds in re-
gard to this matter, and get a little
common sense. AS q matter of fact
like anything else in the world, If a
man win put bit Of himself into it the
work OF running furnace becomes a
pleasure, believe 1t or not. Once you
have studied and observed the reactions
of coal, drafts, and so on, you can make
a furnace do what you want it to do
with q minimum of time, expense and
effort: Use your head, gentlemen-use
your head"