Douglas Strutt Galton

“ I have already mentioned several points of detail where fuel could be saved in our kitchen-ranges, viz., by great attention to the close fitting of the ash-pit and fire-grate doors, the use of double covers to saucepans and boilers, the use of sand on the hot-plate to prevent the escape of so much heat from that part; and, beyond these, an important point in securing economy is the separation of those culinary processes which require different gradations of heat. The three main parts of the ordinary cooking apparatus are the oven for baking and roasting, and the boiler, and the hot-plate. ”

“ The inventors of apparatus for warming and cooking are so numerous, and the merits of a large number of inventions which have come into common use are of so negative a value, that it would not be fair to single out some individual instance for condemnation, and leave unnoticed other apparatus which possess equal defects and maybe in equally extensive use. ”

“ Economy has, as I before observed, latterly been sought in combined apparatus. Where large numbers of persons have to be cooked for, and where, consequently, a carefully-constructed apparatus is always worked to its full extent, the results which have been obtained show a very moderate consumption of fuel; but the same apparatus, when used for smaller numbers of persons, gives results not favorable to economy. ”

“ So long as coal was cheap, it may have been better worth the while of the individual consumer to employ coal wastefully rather than spend money upon the arrangements for economizing heat. On the other hand, when coal is dear, the daily expense from the waste of fuel will induce a capital outlay to secure economy of heat.—Journal of the Society of Arts. ”

“ But in deciding on the amount of heat in hot-water pipes which is most favorable to economy, the following considerations occur: At least twice the quantity of air which is strictly necessary by theory passes through the fire in the best-constructed furnaces. In an ordinary grate this consumption is enormously increased. Each part of oxygen supplied by the air and necessary for combustion is accompanied by four parts of nitrogen, which is of no value for combustion. ”

“ The principle of warming by means of an open fireplace, or by means of a German stove or a Gill stove, is applicable to single rooms, that is to say, each room must have its own appliance, and each room may be self-contained as far as regards its heating and ventilation.
The close stoves employed in Germany use less fuel in warming the room than any open fireplace, but they are economical because the heat generated is not removed by the frequent renewal of the air. This element of their efficiency in warming, however, makes them most unhealthy. ”

“ If the boiler is to be of the form most effectual in saving fuel, the flame and gases from the fire should play under and round every part of it; the water should be kept at something under 212°, so that the gases, after leaving the boiler, may not enter the flue much above that temperature, and, inasmuch as that is a higher temperature than is necessary for the purpose of producing a sufficient draught in an ordinary chimney, the heat in these gases should be still further utilized. ”

“ The total amount of water, at such a temperature, used daily, in an ordinary middle-class house, does not exceed thirty or forty gallons, and, therefore, if the boiler were made so as to absorb as much heat as possible, the hot water used in an ordinary middle-class house, with a family of ten or twelve persons, ought not, with thorough economy, to consume more than one-sixth of a ton of coals in the year. ”

“ No doubt, private houses containing sixteen persons might require more hot water or more cooking, but according to these facts, as to ascertained consumption of fuel, the expenditure of fuel in the kitchen for a family consisting of sixteen persons might easily be reduced to 11⁄2 or 2 tons per year, and in all these apparatus further elements of economy remain to be developed. ”

“ In modern houses it has long been shown that, without much increased expense, the use of walls built hollow will keep the rooms effectually warm and dry, and yet this mode of building is the exception rather than the rule, possibly because it gives the architect or the builder a little additional trouble. A slated roof, if ill-constructed, is a material agent in allowing of the escape of heat, because there is necessarily an inlet for air where the slates overlap. The old thatched roof, although most dangerous in cases of fire, was a great preserver of heat. ”

“ There is a further consideration in regard to economy with hot-water pipes, steam-heating, and all appliances for warming buildings from a central fire, viz., that if the heat has to be conveyed for long distances before its useful application comes into force, very much heat is lost, and consequently fuel is wasted. ”

“ All portions of houses exposed to the air should be formed of materials which are found to be the slowest conductors of heat. Whatever may have been the mistakes of the manufacturers of fire-grates or kitchen-ranges, the nation has latterly very much disregarded the means of retaining heat in the house. ”

“ On the other hand, against the saving which would result from a more immediate application of the heat to the place to be warmed, there is to be weighed the diminished expense of attendance consequent upon the use of one fire instead of several fires, each with its attendance and supply of fuel. There remains one source of economy to be applied to close grates used for heating water, which has not yet been adopted. I mean the application of some of the heat which is passing into the chimney to warm the air which feeds the fire. ”

“ The uniform model house of the speculating builder is constructed with thin walls, thin glass windows, ill-fitting casements, and a roof of slates, with nothing under them. The old half-timbered house was warm, because it had an air space between the inner and outer skin; the brick-built, stone-faced house is warm because it has, so to say, a double wall. ”

“ The plan of carrying the heat from the fire to the air to be warmed by means of hot-water pipes affords also a very economical method of warming air, because the best-constructed hot-water apparatus will enable the full heating value to be got out of the fuel. Fuel may be consumed to far greater advantage in a close furnace than in any open grate, because the admission of air for the combustion of the fuel can be regulated to any required extent. ”

“ The open fireplace in ordinary use warms only by means of the direct radiation of the flame into the air of the room. It is the most primitive mode of warming, derived from the days when our ancestors inhabited caves. But these ancestors, by placing the fire in the centre of the floor of the cave, derived from it a larger portion of heat than we generally do, who place it against the wall of the room, and carry off the greater part of the heat up a flue separated from the room. The earlier fireplaces consisted of a large square brick opening, with a chimney carried up for the escape of smoke. ”

“ By economy it is meant that, while all necessary operations of warming and cooking continue to be performed, the fuel employed should be utilized to the utmost. In the kitchen, the daily consumption of fuel, in small establishments, should not exceed half a pound of coal for each person cooked for, and in large establishments the proportion should be smaller. ”

“ When the oven is not wanted, it is affording a means for the heat to escape rapidly, especially if ventilated as a roasting-oven. The boiler is supplied with heat beyond its requirements, and generally abstracts a large quantity of spare heat, which passes off in the shape of steam. I assume that the cook closes the dampers in order, as far as possible, to limit the action of the fire when cooking is not going on, but in practice this is difficult to insure. ”

“ Where gas is available, the hot-plate can be dispensed with without extra trouble to the cook. The gas-burners should be properly protected in sunken holes, with side of fire-clay, and the saucepans should be dropped into the holes, so that the full effect of the heat shall be concentrated on them and round their sides, and the gas should be only kept lighted so long as the operation to be performed is going on. It may be assumed that one pound of coal is equivalent to from 28 to 30 cubic feet of gas; hence, as permanent fuel, gas would not be economical ”

“ One pound of coal is capable, if all the heat of combustion is utilized, of raising the temperature of a room, twenty feet square and twelve feet high, to ten degrees above the temperature of the outer air. If the room were not ventilated at all, and the walls were composed of non-conducting materials, the consumption of fuel to maintain this temperature would be very small, but, in proportion as the air of the room was renewed, so would the consumption of fuel necessary to maintain that temperature increase. ”

“ Now, when the fire is in an efficient condition to perform one of these functions, it is also in an efficient condition to perform the others, and, although, by means of dampers, it may be somewhat checked in the performance of its full functions in certain directions, there is no doubt that an enormous amount of heat is wasted through the agency of those parts which are not wanted to be in operation. ”

“ The atmosphere of the room is thus being cooled down rapidly by the continued influx of cold air to supply the place of the warmer air drawn up the chimney. The very means adopted to heat the room produces draughts, because the stronger the direct radiation, or rather the brighter the flame in open fireplaces, the stronger must be the draught of the fire and the abstraction of heat. The only way to prevent draughts is to adopt means for providing fresh warmed air to supply the place of that removed. ”

“ Hot air warmed by a cockle, or by hot-water pipes.
The class of apparatus to be adopted in any country will vary with the climate. In England the climate is of so very changeable a nature, that the amount of heat required for comfort in a house varies from day to day. There are many days in the middle of winter when it is quite possible to sit in an unwarmed room; or, sometimes a warm morning is followed by a cold afternoon, when the sudden application of heat is desirable. ”

“ Edwards's very interesting and instructive treatise on domestic fireplaces clearly shows with what persistent perverseness the inventions which possess real merit have been almost invariably passed by. This result, I fear, is due mainly to the fact that architects and builders have not been penetrated with sound principles on the warming of our dwellings, and have encouraged the adoption of showy grates, based on false principles, instead of taking the trouble to make new designs of pretty grates based on sound principles of warming. ”

“ Theoretically, however, it can be shown that if we. are prepared to give up open fireplaces, and arrange our houses on the plan of having flues which would draw off the air from near the floors of our rooms, and which would also warm fresh air, heated from a central fire, to be constantly admitted near the ceilings, and if the climate were such as to make us desire to have the system in continuous operation, such a system would probably be by far more economical of fuel than open fireplaces, because the fuel used could then be made to do its full duty. ”

“ As regards the windows, glass ranks high as a non-conductor of heat, and the effect of using thick glass, instead of the very thin glass so often seen, is very largely to economize the heat. Evidence of the cooling effect on the air of a room of a window of thin glass is afforded by the cold draught which any one perceives when sitting on a cold day near a closed window of thin glass. ”

“ Proposals have been often made to glaze a window with double panes, and no doubt such a plan is a good means of retaining heat in the room, but the inside of the glass between the panes will in time become dirty, and then it can only be cleansed by removing one of the panes. A more convenient, but more expensive, plan is to adopt the system, which prevails universally in the northern parts of Europe, of a double casement. ”

“ Consequently, if twice as much oxygen passes through the fire as is strictly necessary, we have one part which combines with carbon and produces combustion, and nine parts which, being inert, must act, in the first place, to lower the temperature of the fire, and, secondly, to carry a larger amount of unutilized heat up the chimney. ”

“ I do not suppose that we should ever attain to this minimum of consumption, but it is well to consider what the standard is, so that we may not rest satisfied till it has been much more nearly approached than hitherto. ”

“ This fireplace will keep a room at a given temperature with one-third of the quantity of fuel usually required in most ordinary fireplaces, and with less than one-half the quantity required in the very best-constructed radiating fireplaces.
The open ventilating fireplace, if properly constructed, is the simplest and most effectual means of warming and ventilating a single room, because it absorbs all spare heat from the chimney beyond what is necessary to create a draught ”

“ They are certainly cleaner and more convenient for cooking, and, if great care is exercised in the use of the dampers, they will be found more economical than open fires. But, as a rule, they are based on the principle of making one fire perform a variety of operations. Independently of the question of a combined fire, as compared with the separate fires advocated by Count Rumford, a consideration of the form of modern kitchen-ranges will show that most of the principles laid down by him have been entirely neglected. The doors of the fireplace and ash-pit seldom fit close ”

“ There is an old saying in South Staffordshire, that "he who lives longest must carry coal farthest," and, acting on this, we have, year after year, simply wasted millions of tons of coal in our domestic fireplaces, because the coal was provided at a small cost, and we have had no thought for posterity. ”