ART OF HEATING, VENTILATING, COOKING, REFRIGERATION AND LIGHTING.
That Prometheus stole fire from heaven to give it to man is perhaps as
authentic an account of the invention of fire as has been given. It is
also reported that he brought it to earth in a hollow tube. If a small
stick or twig had then been dipped into the divine fire the suggestion
of the modern match may be supposed to have been made.
But men went on to reproduce the fire in the old way by rubbing pieces
of wood together, or using the flint, the steel and the tinder until
1680, when Godfrey Hanckwitz of London, learning of the recent discovery
of phosphorus and its nature, and inspired by the Promethean idea,
wrapped the phosphorus in folds of brown paper, rubbed it until it took
fire, and then ignited thereat one end of a stick which he had dipped in
sulphur; and this is commonly known as the first invented match. There
followed the production of a somewhat different form of match, sticks
first dipped in sulphur, and then in a composition of chlorate potash,
sulphur, colophony, gum of sugar, and cinnabar for coloring. These were
arranged in boxes, and were accompanied by a vial containing sulphuric
acid, into which the match was dipped and thereby instantly ignited.
These were called chemical matches and were sold at first for the high
price of fifteen shillings a box.
They were too costly for common use, and so our fathers went on to the
nineteenth century using the flint, the steel and the tinder, and
depending on the coal kept alive upon their own or their neighbour’s
hearth.
Prometheus, however, did reappear about 1820-25, when a match bearing
the name “Promethean” was invented. It consisted of a roll of paper
treated with sugar and chlorate of potash and a small cell containing
sulphuric acid. This cell was broken by a pair of pliers and the acid
ignited the composition by contact therewith.
It was not until 1827-29 that John Walker, chemist, at
Stockton-upon-Tees, improved upon the idea of Prometheus and Hanckwitz
of giving fire to men in a hollow tube. He used folded sanded paper--it
may have been a tube--and through this he drew a stick coated with
chlorate of potash and phosphorus. This successful match was named
“Lucifer,” whose other name was Phosphor, the Morning Star, and the King
of the Western Land. Faraday, to whom also was given Promethean
inspiration, procured some of Walker’s matches and brought them to
public notice.
In many respects the mode of their manufacture has been improved, but in
principle of composition and ignition they remain the same as Walker’s
to-day. In 1845, Schrotter of Vienna discovered amorphous or allotropic
phosphorus, which rendered the manufacture of matches less dangerous to
health and property. Tons of chemicals and hundreds of pine trees are
used yearly in the making of matches, and many hundreds of millions of
them are daily consumed.
But this vast number of matches could not be supplied had it not been
for the invention of machines for making and packing them. Thus in 1842
Reuben Partridge of America patented a machine for making splints.
Others for making splints and the matches separately, quickly followed.
Together with these came match dipping and match box machines. The
splint machines were for slitting a block of wood of the proper height
downward nearly the whole way into match splints, leaving their butts in
the solid wood. These were square and known as block matches. Other
mechanisms cut and divided the block into strips, which were then dipped
at one end, dried and tied in bundles. By other means, a swing blade,
for instance, the matches were all severed from the block. Matches are
made round by one machine by pressing the block against a plate having
circular perforations, and the interspaces are beveled so as to form
cutting edges.
Poririer, a Frenchman, invented a machine for making match boxes of
pasteboard. Suitable sized rectangular pieces of pasteboard rounded at
the angles for making the body of the box are first cut, then these
pieces are introduced into the machine, where by the single blow of a
plunger they are forced into a matrix or die and pressed, and receive by
this single motion their complete and final shape. The lid is made in
the same way.
By one modern invention matches after they are cut are fed into a
machine at the rate of one hundred thousand an hour, on to a horizontal
table, each match separated from the other by a thin partition. They are
thus laid in rows, one row over another, and while being laid, the
matches are pushed out a little way beyond the edge of the table, a
distance far enough to expose their ends and to permit them to be
dipped. When a number of these rows are completed they are clamped
together in a bundle and then dipped--first, into a vessel of hot
sulphur, and then into one of phosphorus, or other equivalent
ingredients may be used or added. After the dipping they are subjected
to a drying process and then boxed. Processes differ, but all are
performed by machinery.
In many factories where phosphorus is used without great care workmen
have been greatly affected thereby. The fumes of the phosphorus attack
the teeth, especially when decayed, and penetrate to the jaw, causing
its gradual destruction, but this has been avoided by proper
precautions.
The greatly-increased facility of kindling a fire by matches gave an
impetus to the invention of _cooking and heating stoves_. Of course
stoves, generically speaking, are not a production of the nineteenth
century. The Romans had their _laconicum_ or heating stove, which from
its name was an invention from Laconia. It probably was made in most
cases of brick or marble, but might have been of beaten iron, was
cylindrical in shape, with an open cupola at the top, and was heated by
the flames of the _hypocaust_ beneath. The _hypocaust_ was a hot-air
furnace built in the basement or cellar of the house and from which the
heat was conducted by flues to the bath rooms and other apartments. The
Chinese ages ago heated their hollow tiled floors by underground furnace
fires. We know of the _athanor_ of the alchemists of the middle ages.
Knight calls it the “original base-burning furnace.” A furnace of iron
or earthenware was provided on one side with an open stack or tower
which opened at the bottom into the furnace, and which stack was kept
filled with charcoal, or other fuel, which fed itself automatically into
the furnace as the fuel on the bed thereof burned away. Watt introduced
an arrangement on the same principle in his steam boiler furnace in
1767, and thousands of stoves are now constructed within England and the
United States also embodying the same principle.
The earthenware and soapstone stoves of continental Europe were used
long before the present century.
In Ben Franklin’s time in the American Colonies there was not much of a
demand for stoves outside of the largest cities, where wood was getting
a little scarce and high, but the philosopher not only deemed it proper
to invent an improvement in chimneys to prevent their smoking and to
better heat the room, but also devised an improved form of stove, and
both inventions have been in constant use unto this day. Franklin
invented and introduced his celebrated stove, which he called the
Pennsylvania Fire Place, in 1745, having all the advantages of a
cheerful open fireplace, and a heat producer; and which consisted of an
iron stove with an open front set well into the room, in which front
part the fire was kindled, and the products of combustion conducted up a
flue, and thence under a false back and up the chimney. Open heat spaces
were left between the two flues. Air inlets and dampers were provided.
In his description of this stove at that time Franklin also referred to
the iron box stoves used by the Dutch, the iron plates extending from
the hearths and sides, etc., chimneys making a double fireplace used by
the French, and the German stove of iron plates, and so made that the
fuel had to be put into it from another room or from the outside of the
house. He dwells upon the pleasure of an open fire, and the destruction
of this pleasure by the use of the closed stoves. He also describes the
discomforts of the fireplace in cold weather--of the “cold draught
nipping one’s back and heels”--“scorched before and frozen behind”--the
sharp draughts of cold from crevices from which many catch cold and from
“whence proceed coughs, catarrhs, toothaches, fevers, pleurisies and
many other diseases.” Added to the pleasure of seeing the crackling
flames, feeling the genial warmth, and the diffusion of a spirit of
sociability and hospitality, is the fact of increased purity of the air
by reason of the fireplace as a first-class ventilator. Hence it will
never be discarded by those who can afford its use; but it alone is
inadequate for heating and cooking purposes. It is modernly used as a
luxury by those who are able to combine with it other means for heating.
The great question for solution in this art at all times has been how to
produce through dwelling houses and larger buildings in cold and damp
weather a uniform distribution and circulation of pure heated air. The
solution of this question has of course been greatly helped in modern
times by a better knowledge of the nature of air and other gases, and
the laws which govern their motions and combinations at different
temperatures.
The most successful form of heating coal stove of the century has been
one that combined in itself the features of base-burning: that is, a
covered magazine at the centre or back of the stove open at or near the
top of the stove into which the coal is placed, and which then feeds to
the bottom of the fire pot as fast as the coal is consumed, a heavy open
fire pot placed as low as possible, an ash grate connected with the
bottom of the pot which can be shaken and dumped to an ash box beneath
without opening the stove, thus preventing the escape of the dust, an
illuminating chamber nearly or entirely surrounding the fire pot,
provided with mica windows, through which the fire is reflected and the
heat radiated, a chamber above the fire pot and surrounding the fuel
chamber and into which the heat and hot gases arise, producing
additional radiating surface and permitting the gases to escape through
a flue in the chimney, or, leading them first through another chamber to
the base of the stove and thence out, and dampers to control and
regulate the supply of air to the fuel, and to cut off the escape or
control the course of the products of combustion.
The cheerful stove fireplace and stove of Franklin and the French were
revived, combined and improved some years ago by Capt. Douglas Galton of
the English army for use in barracks, but this stove is also admirably
adapted for houses. It consists of an open stove or grate set in or at
the front of the fireplace with an air inlet from without, the throat of
the fireplace closed and a pipe extending through it from the stove into
the chimney. Although a steady flow of heat, desirable regulation of
temperature and great economy in the consumption of fuel, by reason of
the utilisation of so much of the heat produced, were obtained by the
modern stove, yet the necessity of having a stove in nearly every room,
the ill-ventilation due to the non-supply of pure outer air to the room,
the occasional diffusion of ash dust and noxious gases from the stove,
and inability to heat the air along the floor, gave rise to a revival of
the hot-air furnace, placed under the floor in the basement or cellar,
and many modern and radical improvements therein.
The heat obtained from stoves is effected by radiation--the throwing
outward of the waves of heat from its source, while the heat obtained
from a hot-air furnace is effected by convection--the moving of a body
of air to be heated to the source of heat, and then when heated bodily
conveyed to the room to be warmed. Hence in stoves and fireplaces only
such obstruction is placed between the fire and the room as will serve
to convey away the obnoxious smoke and gases, and the greatest facility
is offered for radiation, while in hot-air furnaces, although provision
is also made to carry away the smoke and impure gases, yet the radiation
is confined as closely as possible to chambers around the fire space,
which chambers are protected by impervious linings from the outer air,
and into which fresh outdoor air is introduced, then heated and conveyed
to different apartments by suitable pipes or flues, and admitted or
excluded, as desired, by registers operated by hand levers.
There are stationary furnaces and portable furnaces; the former class
enclose the heating apparatus in walls of brick or other masonry, while
in the latter the outer casing and the inner parts are metal structures,
separable and removable. In both classes an outer current of pure air is
made to course around the fire chamber and around among other flues and
chambers through which the products of combustion are carried, so that
all heat possible is utilised. Vessels of water are supplied at the most
convenient place in one of the hot-air chambers to moisten and temper
the air, and dampers are placed in the pipes to regulate and guide the
supply of heat to the rooms above.
After Watt had invented his improvements on the steam engine the idea
occurred to him of using steam for heating purposes. Accordingly, in
1784, he made a hollow sheet-iron box of plates, and supplied it with
steam from the boiler of the establishment. It had an air-escape cock,
and condensed-water-escape pipe; and in 1799 Boulton and Watt
constructed a heating apparatus in Lee’s factory, Manchester, in which
the steam was conducted through cast-iron pipes, which also served as
supports to the floor. Patents were also taken out by others in England
for steam-heating apparatuses during the latter part of the 18th
century.
Heating by the circulation of hot water through pipes was also
originated or revived during the 18th century, and a short time before
Watt’s circulation of steam. It is said that Bonnemain of England, in
1777, desiring to improve the ancient methods of hatching poultry by
artificial heat--practised by both ancient and modern Egyptians ages
before it became a latter day wonder, and taught the Egyptians by the
ostriches--conceived the idea of constructing quite a large incubator
building with shelves for the eggs, coops for holding the chickens, and
a tube for circulating hot water leading from a boiler below and above
each shelf, and through the coops, and back to the boiler. This
incubator contains the germs of modern water heaters. In both the steam
and water heating systems the band or collection of pipes in each room
may be covered with ornamental radiating plates, or otherwise treated or
arranged to render them sightly and effective. In one form of the
hot-water system, however, the collection of a mass of pipes in the
rooms is dispensed with, and the pipes are massed in an air chamber over
or adjacent to the furnace, where they are employed to heat a current of
air introduced from the outside, and which heated pure air is conveyed
through the house by flues and registers as in the hot-air furnace
system.
The hanging of the crane, the turning of the spit, the roasting in ashes
and on hot stones, the heating of and the baking in the big “Dutch”
ovens, and some other forms of cooking by our forefathers had their
pleasures and advantages, and still are appreciated under certain
circumstances, and for certain purposes, but are chiefly honoured in
memory alone and reverenced by disuse; while the modern cooking stove
with its roasting and hot water chambers, its numerous seats over the
fire for pots, pans, and kettles, its easy means of controlling and
directing the heat, its rotating grate, and, when desired, its rotating
fire chamber, for turning the hot fire on top to the bottom, and the
cold choked fire to the top, its cleanliness and thorough heat, its
economy in the use of fuel, is adopted everywhere, and all the glowing
names with which its makers and users christen it fail to exaggerate its
qualities when rightly made and used.
It would appear that the field of labour and the number of labourers,
chiefly those who toiled with brick and mortar, were greatly reduced
when those huge fireplaces were so widely discarded. This must have
seemed so especially in those regions where the houses were built up to
meet the yearning wants of an outside chimney, but armies of men are
engaged in civilised countries in making stoves and furnaces, where
three-quarters of a century ago very few were so employed. As in every
industrial art old things pass away, but the new things come in greater
numbers, demand a greater number of workers, develop new wants, new
fields of labour, and the new and increasing supply of consumers refuse
to be satisfied with old contrivances.
In the United States alone there are between four and five hundred stove
and furnace foundries, in which about ten thousand people are employed,
and more than three million stoves and furnaces produced annually, which
require nearly a million tons of iron to make, and the value of which is
estimated as at least $100,000,000.
The matter of _ventilation_ is such a material part of heating that it
cannot escape attention. There can be no successful heating without a
circulation of air currents, and fortunately for man in his house no
good fire can be had without an outflow of heat and an inflow of cooler
air. The more this circulation is prevented the worse the fire and the
ventilation.
It seems to many such a simple thing, this change of air--only to keep
open the window a little--to have a fireplace, and convenient door. And
yet some of the brightest intellects of the century have been engaged in
devising means to accomplish the result, and all are not yet agreed as
to which is the best way.
How to remove the heated, vitiated air and to supply fresh air while
maintaining the same uniform temperature is a problem of long standing.
The history of the attempts to heat and ventilate the Houses of
Parliament since Wren undertook it in 1660 has justly been said to be
history of the Art of Ventilation since that time, as the most eminent
scientific authorities in the world have been engaged or consulted in
it, and the most exhaustive reports on the subject have been rendered by
such men as Gay-Lussac, Sir Humphry Davy, Faraday and Dr. Arnott of
England and Gen. Morin of France. The same may be said in regard to the
Houses of Congress in the United States Capitol for the past thirty-five
years. Prof. Henry, Dr. Billings, the architect, Clark, of that country,
and many other bright inventors and men of ability have given the
subject devoted attention. Among the means for creating ventilation are
underground tunnels leading to the outer air, with fans in them to force
the fresh air in or draw the poor air out, holes in the ceiling, fire
places, openings over the doors, openings under the eaves, openings in
the window frames, shafts from the floor or basement with fires or gas
jets to create an upward draught, floors with screened openings to the
outer air, steam engines to work a suction pipe in one place and a blow
pipe in another, air boxes communicating with the outer air, screens,
hoods, and deflectors at these various openings,--all these, separately
or in combination, have been used for the purpose of drawing the
vitiated air out and letting the pure air in without creating draughts
to chill the sensitive, or overheating to excite the nervous.
There seems to have been as many devices invented to keep a house or
building closed up tight while highly heating it, as to ventilate the
same and preserve an even, moderate temperature.
The most approved system of ventilation recognises the fact that air is
of the same weight and is possessed of the same constituents in one part
of a room as at another, and to create a perfect ventilation a complete
change and circulation must take place. It therefore creates a draught,
arising from the production of a vacuum by a current of heat or by
mechanical means, or by some other way, which draws out of a room the
used up, vitiated air through outlets at different places, while pure
outer air is admitted naturally, or forced in if need be, through
numerous small inlets, such outlets and inlets so located and
distributed and protected as not to give rise to sensible draughts on
the occupants.
The best system also recognises the fact that all parts of a house, its
cellars and attic, its parlours and kitchens, its closets, bathrooms and
chambers, should be alike clean and well ventilated, and that if one
room is infected all are infected.
The laurels bestowed on inventors are no more worthily bestowed than on
those who have invented devices which give to our homes, offices,
churches and places of amusement a pure and comfortable atmosphere.
_Car Heaters._--The passing away of the good old portable foot stove for
warming the feet, especially when away from home, and while travelling,
is not to be regretted, although in some instances it was not at first
succeeded by superior devices. For a long time after the introduction of
steam, railroad cars and carriages, in which any heat at all was used,
were heated by a stove in each car--generally kept full of red hot coal
or wood--an exceedingly dangerous companion in case of accident. Since
1871 systems have been invented and introduced, the most successful of
which consists of utilising the heat of the steam from the locomotive
for producing a hot-water circulation through pipes along the floor of
each car, and in providing an emergency heater in each car for heating
the water when steam from the locomotive is not available.
_Grass-burning Stoves._--There are many places in this world where
neither wood nor coal abound, or where the same are very scarce, but
where waste grass and weeds, waste hay and straw, and similar
combustible refuse are found in great abundance. Stoves have been
invented especially designed for the economical consumption of such
fuel. One requisite is that such light material should be held in a
compressed state while in the stove to prevent a too rapid combustion.
Means for so holding the material under compression appear to have been
first invented and patented by Hamilton of America in 1874.
Some means besides the sickle and scythe, hoe and plough, were wanted to
destroy obnoxious standing grass and weeds. A weed like the Russian
thistle, for instance, will defy all usual means for its extermination.
A fire chamber has been invented which when drawn over the ground will
burn a swath as it advances, and it is provided with means, such as a
wide flange on the end of the chamber, which extinguishes the fire and
prevents its spreading beyond the path. A similar stove with jets of
flame from vapour burners has been used to soften hard asphalt pavement
when it is desired to take it up.
The art of heating and cooking by oil, vapour and gas stoves is one that
has arisen during the latter half of this century, and has become the
subject of a vast number of inventions and extensive industries. Stoves
of this character are as efficient and economical as coal stoves, and
are in great demand, especially where coal and wood are scarce and
high-priced.
_Oil stoves_ as first invented consisted of almost the ordinary lamp,
without the glass shade set in the stove and were similar to gas stoves.
But these were objectionable on account of the fumes emitted. By later
inventions the lamp has been greatly improved. The wick is arranged
within tubular sliding cylinders so as to be separated from the other
parts of the stove when it is not lit, and better regulating devices
adopted, whereby the oil is prevented from spreading from the wick on to
the other parts of the stove, which give rise to obnoxious fumes by
evaporation and heating. Some recent inventors have dispensed with the
wick altogether and the oil is burned practically like vapour.
_Gasoline_, and other heavy oily vapours are in many stoves first
vapourised by a preliminary heating in a chamber before the gas is
ignited for use. These vapours are then conducted by separate jets to
different points in the stove where the heat is to be applied. The
danger and unpleasant flame and smoke arising from this vapourising in
the stove have been obviated by inventions which vapourise the fuel by
other means, as by carbonating, or loading the air with the vapour in an
elevated chamber and conducting the saturated air to the burners; or by
agitation, by means of a quick-acting, small, but powerful fan.
_Sterilising._--The recent scientific discoveries and investigations of
injurious bacteria rendered it desirable to purify water by other means
than filtering, especially for the treatment of disease-infected
localities; and this gave rise to the invention of a system of heat
sterilising and filtering the water, in one process, and out of contact
with the germ-laden air, thus destroying the bacteria and delivering the
water in as pure and wholesome condition as possible. West in 1892
patented such a system.
_Electric Heating and Cooking._--Reference has already been made in the
Chapter on Electricity to the use of that agent in heating and cooking.
The use of the electric current for these purposes has been found to be
perfectly practical, and for heating cars especially, where electricity
is the motive power, a portion of the current is economically employed.
The art of heating and cooking naturally suggests the other end of the
line of temperature--_Refrigeration_.
A refrigeration by which ordinary ice is artificially produced,
perishable food of all kinds preserved for long times, and transported
for great distances, which has proved an immense advantage to mankind
everywhere and is still daily practised to the gratification and comfort
of millions of men, must receive at least a passing notice. The Messrs.
E. and F. Carré of France invented successful machines about 1870 for
making ice by the rapid absorption and evaporation of heat by the
ammonia process. The discoveries and inventions of others in the
artificial production of cold by means of volatile liquids, whether for
the making of ice or other purposes, constituted a great step in the art
of refrigeration.
Vaporisation, absorption, compression or reduction of atmospheric
pressure are the principal methods of producing cold. By vaporisation,
water, ether, sulphuric acid, ammonia, etc., in assuming the vaporous
form change sensible heat to latent heat and produce a degree of cold
which freezes an adjacent body of water. The principle of making ice by
evaporation and absorption may be illustrated by two examples of the
Carré methods:--It is well known what a great attraction sulphuric acid
has for water. Water to be frozen is placed in a vessel connected by a
pipe to a reservoir containing sulphuric acid. A vacuum is produced in
this reservoir by the use of an air pump, while the acid is being
constantly stirred. Lessening of the atmospheric pressure upon water
causes its evaporation, and as the vapour is quietly absorbed by the
sulphuric acid the water is quickly congealed. It is known that ammonia
can be condensed into liquid form by pressure or cold, and is absorbed
by and soluble in water to an extraordinary degree. A generator
containing a strong solution of ammonia is connected by a pipe to an
empty receiver immersed in cold water. The ammonia generator is then
heated, its vapour driven off and conducted to a jacket around the
centre of the receiver and is there condensed by pressure of an air
pump. The central cylindrical space in the receiver is now filled with
water, and the operation is reversed. The generator is immersed in cold
water and pressure on the liquid ammonia removed. The liquid ammonia now
passes into the gaseous state, and is conducted to and reabsorbed by the
water in the generator. But in this evaporation great cold is produced
and the water in the receiver is soon frozen.
Twining’s inventions in the United States in 1853 and 1862 of the
compression machine, followed by Pictet of France, and a number of
improvements elsewhere have bid fair to displace the absorption method.
In dispensing with absorption these machines proceed on the now
well-established theory that air and many other gases become heated when
compressed; that this heat can then be drawn away, and that when the gas
is allowed to re-expand it will absorb a large amount of heat from any
solid or fluid with which it is brought in contact, and so freeze it.
Accordingly such machines are so constructed that by the operation of a
piston, or pistons, in a cylinder, and actuated by steam or other motive
power, the air or gas is compressed to the desired temperature, the heat
led off and the cold vapour conducted through pipes and around chambers
where water is placed and where it is frozen. By the best machines from
five hundred to one thousand pounds of ice an hour are produced.
The art of refrigeration and of modern transportation have brought the
fruits of the tropics in great abundance to the doors of the dwellers of
the north, and from the shores of the Pacific to the Atlantic and across
the Atlantic to Europe. A train of refrigerator cars in California laden
with delicious assorted fruits, and provided with fan blowers driven by
the car axles to force the air through ice chambers, from whence it is
distributed by perforated pipes through the fruit chambers, and wherein
the temperature is maintained at about 40° Fah., can be landed in New
York four days after starting on its journey of 3,000 miles, with the
fruits in perfect condition.
But the public is still excited and wondering over the new king of
refrigeration--_liquid air_.
As has been stated, the compression of air to produce cold is a modern
discovery applied to practical uses, and prominent among the inventors
and discoverers in this line have been Prof. Dewar and Charles E.
Tripler.
Air may be compressed and heat generated in the process withdrawn until
the temperature of the air is reduced to 312° below zero, at which point
the air is visible and to a certain extent assumes a peculiar material
form, in which form it can be confined in suitable vessels and used as a
refrigerant and as a motor of great power when permitted to re-expand.
It is said that it was not so long ago when Prof. Dewar produced the
first ounce of liquid air at a cost of $3,000, but that now Mr. Tripler
claims that he can produce it by his apparatus for five cents a gallon.
Refrigeration is at present its most natural and obvious use, and it is
claimed that eleven gallons of the material when gradually expanded has
the refrigerating power of one ton of ice. Its use of course for all
purposes for which cold can be used is thus assured. It is also to be
used as a motor in the running of various kinds of engines. It is to be
used as a great alleviator of human suffering in lowering and regulating
the temperature of hospitals in hot weather, and in surgical operations
as a substitute for anæsthetics and cauterising agents.
It was one of the marvellous attractions at the great Paris Exposition
of 1900.
Lighting is closely allied to the various subjects herein considered,
but consideration of the various modes and kinds of lamps for lighting
will be reserved for the Chapter on Furniture for Houses, etc.