all parts of the house, some type of heating plant is necessary both
for comfort and economy. It is true that our forefathers lived, many
of them to a ripe old age, with only fireplaces to heat their drafty
homes and with no heat at all in their public buildings. They did,
however, fortify themselves well with a daily draft of rum and they
wore a quantity of clothing that would be intolerable today. Further,
plenty of wood for fuel grew at their very door; it was part of the
normal farm work to cut it down and prepare it for the cavernous
fireplaces.
But then, as now, a fireplace could only heat a comparatively small
area. Further, under modern conditions, it is the most expensive heat
that can be generated. Even though your holding includes a good sized
wood-lot, the cost of labor for getting fuel cut, drawn, and piled in
your cellar may run to more than the same amount purchased from the
local coal yard.
If you have purchased an old house with no heating plant or are
building a new house, the type of heating used will largely depend on
what your architect considers practical and what you can pay for. The
chief systems, viewed in descending order of expense, are hot water,
steam, piped hot air, and the pipeless furnace. All of these can be
fitted to burn either coal or oil.
Provided one can meet the initial expense of purchase and
installation, the ideal system is probably the oil burning,
electrically run, hot water heating system. Barring the final
perfection of the robot, it is as near to a mechanical servant as one
is likely to get even in this age of invention. There is no shoveling
or sifting of ashes. There is no furnace shaking or stoking, no
puzzling over dampers. Periodically and for a price, a man comes and
fills the oil tank. A thermostat regulates the heat. You have only to
set it for the desired temperature and forget it.
There is just one flaw with this perfect system. It is dependent on
electricity. Let that fail and there is trouble. The fine copper
radiators, so efficient when all goes well, spring leaks if the water
in them freezes. A few years ago an unusually severe blizzard in the
North Atlantic states worked havoc with all of the modern devices.
Roads were blocked, telephone and electric service lines were down,
and even train service was impaired. One of our neighbors had built a
new house two or three years before and equipped it with practically
every appliance known to modern comfort, including an oil burner.
In a few short hours this blizzard had set him back more than a
century. Electricity, of course, failed and the heat in his fine
furnace dwindled and died. It grew colder and colder, ultimately
reaching twenty degrees below zero. Added to the discomfort of the
family was the disquieting knowledge that the freezing point would
mean cracked radiators. Luckily he had three fireplaces that really
worked. He had plenty of wood. So for three days and nights, he and
two other members of his family worked in relays to keep roaring fires
going in all three fireplaces. In this way they maintained a
temperature of at least 40 degrees and so saved pipes and radiators.
One may argue that, if water freezing in radiators and pipes is all,
why not drain them in such an emergency. This is a job for a plumber,
as it must be done with a thoroughness that leaves no moisture behind.
The average layman has neither the skill nor the tools for it.
Therefore, if there comes a winter when snow, ice, high winds, and low
temperatures cause you to wonder if living in the country the year
around is quite sound and you decide that a few weeks in a nice city
apartment would be a good idea, close your house, if it seems more
expedient than leaving a caretaker behind, but don't try to save the
plumber's fee. Remember pipes, radiators, and valves cannot be mended.
They have to be replaced and that is expensive.
However, blizzards that seriously interrupt electric service are so
rare that one need not forego the decided comfort that an oil burner
gives, just because some such chance may arise. Also, if the question
of expense must be considered, steam can be used instead of hot water
and will cost from one-quarter to one-third less.
The initial expenditure for both hot water and steam heating is
considerably less, too, if coal rather than oil is to be the fuel.
This calls for quite a little more supervision on the part of the
householder. He can cut down some of the drudgery of stoking by
installing a gravity feed type of boiler. This is equipped with a
hopper and needs filling only once a day. Or he can use the old
fashioned hand-fired type, with or without the services of a man of
all work. There will be dust and dirt as well as the morning and
evening rituals of stoking, adjusting dampers, shaking, and cleaning
out the ash pit. There will be the periodic chore of sifting ashes and
carrying them out for either carting away or for filling in hollow
places in the driveway. But his fire will burn, no matter what happens
to the current of the local light and power company.
However, as already stated, electricity is a faithful servant most of
the time and there are devices that not only take away some of the
drudgery of furnace tending but, in the long run, actually save money
in coal bills. One of these is the mechanical stoker which is
electrically driven and burns the finest size of coal. Another way of
reducing the coal bill is to install an electric blower. This, as its
name implies, is a forced draft controlled by a thermostat, and with
it the cheaper grades of coal can be used. Incidentally, any
coal-burning furnace that gets to sulking can be made to respond by
placing an ordinary electric fan before the open ash pit. We have done
this with a pipeless furnace and have been able to burn the cheaper
buckwheat coal almost entirely as a result.
There appears to be no mechanical device for removing the ashes out of
the cellar. So, if the householder puts in a coal burning steam or hot
water plant as a matter of economy, and then in a few years covets an
oil burner, it is perfectly practical and possible to have one
installed in his furnace. Whatever the fuel, make sure enough
radiation is provided with steam or hot water plants to heat the house
evenly and adequately in the coldest weather according to your ideas
rather than the plumber's. He is usually a hardy individual who
considers 68 degrees warm enough for any one. Theoretically it may be.
Actually most people are more comfortable at a room temperature of
from two to four degrees higher.
Cheapest of all to install and operate is the pipeless furnace. This
is hardly more than a large stove set in the cellar. An ample register
in the floor directly above it is connected to a galvanized iron
casing that surrounds the fire pot. It is divided so that cool air
from the house itself is drawn downward, heated, and then forced
upward again. This system will not work well in a house equipped with
wings or additions so placed that the air from the central register
cannot penetrate. It is particularly effective in a house with a
central hall.
In the 18th century compact house with central chimney, the pipeless
furnace register can be set in the small front entrance and another
register cut in the ceiling directly above it. This carries part of
the heat to the second floor and so makes for better distribution of
the warm air. As already stated, such a furnace is quite inexpensive
and so easy to install that the average handy man will not find it too
complicated. We put one in our country home some eight years ago
merely as a means of keeping the house warm during the early spring
and late fall. We have since found that it can and does heat the
entire house even at sub-zero temperatures.
In all honesty, however, one must admit that it has certain
disadvantages. First, it is like the old-fashioned stove in that an
even heat is hard to maintain. Second, with coal or wood as the usual
fuel, there is a discouraging amount of dust generated. Third, the
doors to all rooms must be left open so that the currents of hot air
can circulate. One chooses between frosty seclusion and balmy
gregariousness. Yet, in spite of these very definite "outs," it is far
better than no furnace at all. It is, in fact, an excellent stop gap
for the country house owner who is not prepared to invest in the more
expensive heating plants at the moment. The more effete system can
always be added later and the faithful old pipeless junked, moved to
some other building, or left in place for an emergency, such as a
public-utility-crippling blizzard or flood.
THE QUESTION OF WATER SUPPLY
[Illustration]
_CHAPTER IX_
THE QUESTION OF WATER SUPPLY
Whether one lives in the country or the city, geology and geography
govern the source of the water that flows from the tap. Cities go
miles for an adequate, pure water supply and have been doing so since
the days of the Caesars. Such systems involve thousands of acres and
millions of dollars for water sheds, reservoirs, dams, pipe lines, and
purifying plants.
The country place is a miniature municipality with its own water
system. The latter need not be elaborate or expensive but it must be
adequate. Nothing disrupts a family so quickly and completely as water
shortage. Personally, we would far rather see our family hungry and in
rags than again curtail its baths and showers. "We can be careful and
only use what is necessary," sounds easy but before long everybody is
against father. He is mean and unreasonable. Save the water, indeed!
It is all his fault. He should have known the supply would fail when
he bought the place. A moron could see it was not large enough. A six
weeks' drought? Well, what of it!
Meanwhile water diviners, well diggers and drillers add gall and
wormwood to the situation. "Oh yes, that well always did go dry about
this time of year. Saving the water wouldn't make any difference.
Better not bother with it but dig or drill a new one." Expense? Why
quibble about that when the peace of one's family is at stake. There
is, of course, only one outcome. A broken and chastened man soon makes
the best terms he can with one of his tormentors. If he is wise it
will be with the advocate of the driven well. That solves for all time
any question of water supply.
Before deciding on a source, however, consider what the daily needs
will be. From long observation, it has been found that the average
country place requires fifty gallons of water a day for each member of
the family, servants included. Then allow for two extra people so that
the occasional guest, whose knowledge of water systems begins and ends
with the turning of a faucet, will not unduly deplete the supply. For
example, a family of seven should have a daily water supply of from
400 to 500 gallons depending on how much entertaining is done and how
extensive are the outdoor uses. This allowance will be ample for
toilets, baths, kitchen and laundry, as well as for moderate watering
of the garden and lawn. Of course, if cars are to be washed regularly,
fifty gallons should be added to the daily demand. If there is a
swimming pool, its capacity should be figured by cubical content
multiplied by seven and one-half (the number of gallons to the cubic
foot) and allowance made for from fifteen to twenty-five per cent
fresh water daily.
The daily production of a spring or drilled well can be easily gauged.
A flow of one gallon a minute produces 1,440 gallons in twenty-four
hours. In other words, a flow of ten gallons a minute means 14,400
gallons a day which, at fifteen gallons a bath or shower, is enough
water to wash a regiment from the colonel to the newest recruit.
Estimating the daily production of a shallow, dug well is more
difficult. The number of gallons standing in it can be obtained by
using the mathematical formula for the contents of a cylinder, but
only observation will tell how quickly the well replenishes itself
when pumped dry. By long experience, however, country plumbers have
found that if such a well contains five feet of water in extremely dry
weather, it can be relied upon for the needed fifty gallons a day each
for a family of seven with enough over for safety.
In fact, with all water sources except an artesian or driven well, the
question always is, will it last during an abnormally rainless season?
Never-failing springs and wells that never go dry are institutions in
any countryside. So consult some of the oldest inhabitants. They know
and if they give your well or spring a good character, the chances are
that even the most exacting of families will find such a water supply
adequate. Whether it is pure or not is another matter but one that can
easily be determined by sending a sample to your state health
department or a bacteriological laboratory. That this should be done
before such water is used for drinking purposes goes without saying.
The driven or artesian well has two points that makes it worth the
cost. There is no question of purity or of quantity. It taps
subterranean water which is unaffected by local causes of
contamination or by drought.
The kind of water system, like the supply, is governed by geography
and geology. If there happens to be a spring on a nearby hillside
somewhat higher than the house, nature has provided the cheapest and
simplest system. A pipe line and storage tank are all that are needed.
Gravity does the rest. On the other hand, if the spring is on the same
level or lower than the house, a pump must be added to the equipment
to force the water into the pressure tank and out of the faucets. If
the spring has a large flow and adequate drainage, a water ram is
advisable. With this hydraulic machine, three-quarters of the water
that flows into it is used to force the balance into the storage tank.
The expense of operation is nothing and as water rams and pumps cost
about the same, such an installation has much to recommend it.
When the search for water goes below ground, one must reckon with
geology. What lies below the turf is the deciding factor. If it is
sand and gravel with a high water table (the level of subterranean
water), an excellent well can be had cheaply. The practice is either
to bore through to the water table with a man-operated auger and then
insert the pipe, or to drive the latter down with a heavy sledge
hammer. In either case, water is but a few feet below ground and a
shallow-well pump, which can raise water twenty-two feet by suction,
will be adequate.
There are two types of well to be considered with less favorable
subsoil formations--the shallow and the artesian. With the former
(known to country people as a dug well) a shaft from six to ten feet
across is dug with pick and shovel until adequate water is reached.
Then the shaft is lined with stone laid without cement or mortar up to
a few feet from the top. This allows water from the surrounding area
to seep into the well where it is retained until it is drawn upward by
the pump. It is obvious that a well of this type cannot be built
through ledge or solid rock. In fact, unusually large boulders
sometimes force diggers to abandon a shaft and start afresh. An old
house with two or three of these shallow wells on the premises serves
notice on the prospective buyer that repeated and probably
unsuccessful attempts have been made to find a well that does not go
dry.
Dug wells are seldom deeper than fifty feet; the majority are but
little beyond twenty-two feet, the suction limit for a shallow-well
pump. As is obvious from their construction, they depend on the water
in the upper layers of the subsoil and so are more readily affected
by dry weather. Although not drought-proof like the artesian, a dug
well, which costs much less, can be an excellent water source and
supply amazingly large quantities of water.
We have lived for ten years in a house served by a shallow well
credited with being never failing and it has faithfully lived up to
its reputation, even through the driest of seasons. Once, however, it
made real trouble. Over it stood a picturesque latticed well house. On
one of the beams a pair of robins nested annually. In the middle of
the third summer the water developed a queer flavor. It steadily grew
stronger until one night the steam arising from a hot bath caused the
pajama-clad head of the house to seize a flashlight and move hastily
to the well house. One beam of light disclosed the horrid truth.
Floating in the water far below were two very dead fledglings.
The next day a well cleaner collected twenty-five dollars for removing
the birds and pumping out the well. He also gave some excellent advice
which was followed promptly. The well house, picturesque though it
was, gave way to a substantial masonry curbing equipped with a stout
wire cover. The peace of mind so gained has more than offset the
trifling expense. No longer need one peer fearfully down a twenty-five
foot shaft when a pet cat fails to show up for a meal, or shoo away
from the spot the over-inquisitive offspring of visiting friends.
The drilled well, against which there is no possible argument save
that of cost, is made by boring a hole in the ground with a powerful
apparatus until sufficient subterranean water is reached. There are
two methods, the chop and the core drill. With the former, a cutting
tool exactly like the drill used to drive holes in rocks for blasting,
only larger, cuts a circular hole downward. The boom of the drilling
rig as it raises and drops the drill provides the necessary impact.
With the core method, as its name implies, a hollow boring drill cuts
its way aided by steel shot and a flow of water forced through the
pipe that rotates the cutting tool.
With either method the results are the same. Sooner or later the drill
will reach an underground water course of sufficient size to give an
ample flow. As such drilling is done on a charge of three to five
dollars a foot, the owner, of course, hopes for sooner. Except where
there is an underlying stratum of sand or gravel beneath hard pan, the
drill has to go through rock. How far depends on the kind. Sandstone
is the best water producer; limestone yields very hard water. Again,
drilling through till (a heterogeneous mixture of clay, gravel, and
boulders) may or may not locate water readily depending on how densely
it is packed. The rocks known as gneiss and schist are readily bored
and are considered fair water bearers.
Granite is bad news. It means slow work and a deep and expensive well.
It is one of the hardest rocks with little water content. The only
hope is that the drill will strike a vein flowing through a fissure.
Whether it will be at fifty or 500 feet is a pure matter of luck. A
dry well at 100 feet may become a gusher at 105 delivering twenty
gallons to the minute, or it may stay dry for another two to five
hundred feet.
Tales of well drilling are many and varied. Good pure water has been
found at fifteen feet. In New Hampshire there is a well 900 feet deep
that gushes so powerfully that it is capped and still flows at forty
pounds pressure. It supplies an elaborate country place and a large
stock farm. It is performances like these that indicate the water is
there if one will just keep on drilling and paying until it is
reached.
Where to locate a well is very much a matter of guess. Even in the
Sahara Desert there is water. How far down is the question. For
generations much faith was placed in diviners. They were supposedly
endowed with some occult talent that enabled them to pick a sure spot
for water. They were known for miles around and were summoned when a
new homestead was under consideration. With a forked hazel wand held
in both hands, such an one would pace solemnly around until the stick
gave a convulsive twist downward. This indicated that water was
directly beneath. The spot would be reverently marked; the diviner
would depart and the well diggers who had followed his performance
with proper awe would begin work. As the ceremony failed to stipulate
just how far down the precious liquid was, a successful well was
presumably the result. The prowess of the well diviner is acclaimed
even today by some people, although scientific investigation has
proved that his services are worth just about as much as those of a
witch doctor.
After the country home owner has attended to the little matter of a
well, be it old or new, dug or drilled, the next step is installing a
pump. If the water level is less than twenty feet below ground, a
shallow-well pump will be perfectly adequate and as it is much less
expensive than the more elaborate deep-well pump, we recommend its use
if possible. Most plumbers invariably advise the deep-well pump,
especially for driven wells. They do this in all honesty and with no
ulterior motive. There is always a bare chance that the water level
may drop below the suction limit of the shallow pump under abnormal
pressure. If it does, an irate customer can descend on the luckless
installer of the less expensive pump and cause general unpleasantness
if not loss of custom.
The difference between these two kinds of pump, aside from price, is
that with a shallow-well one, suction is produced in the cylinder of
the pump itself, while the deep-well pump has its plunger and cylinder
at the bottom of the well. Water is forced up the pipe by the up and
down movement of the plunger within the cylinder. This plunger is
connected to a geared wheel by the well-rod that extends downward from
well-head to cylinder in the center of the same pipe through which the
water is forced upward. Because of its design, a deep-well pump must
always be located directly above the well itself. With a suction pump,
on the other hand, the pipe from well to pump may bend and turn to
suit conditions. These should be as few as possible since each
right-angle bend of the pipe reduces the pump's suction power one
foot.
[Illustration: A PLACE FOR SUMMER AND WEEK-ENDS
_Robertson Ward, architect_. _Photo by La Roche_]
As for motive power, electricity has distinct advantages over all
other means. The switch operated by pressure starts the pump when the
supply of water in the storage tank drops below a certain level, and
also stops it when the proper volume has been reached. (Ten pounds to
start the pump and forty or fifty to stop it are the usual
adjustments.) A nice little refinement here is the installation of a
third faucet at either kitchen or pantry sink, piped direct to the
pump. Turn this and fresh water flows from the well itself, thus
consoling any sentimentalist with visions of a dripping moss-covered
bucket. Also water so drawn seldom needs to be iced. In summer if
there are signs of a thunder storm it is wise to open this same
faucet. It starts the pump and that automatically continues until the
storage tank is full. Then, if electric service is cut off by the
storm, the household will have ample water until the damage has been
repaired.
If the country home owner happens to live beyond reach of an electric
light system, he can put in his own plant, use a gasoline engine for
motive power or even a hand pump. A gasoline engine should, of course,
be located in an outbuilding and the exhaust pipe must extend into
open air because of the deadly fumes of carbon monoxide gas. The hand
pump is, of course, the simplest and there are several excellent ones
to be had. They are not as practical as they sound, however.
When we first bought our own country place we installed a very good
one as there was then no electricity in the locality. It worked
excellently--when any one could be found to man it. Handy men hired
for odd jobs around the grounds took it on for a set sum per time. The
labor turnover was unprecedented. One by one they either resigned
within a week or somehow managed to "forget all about that pumping
job." Members of the family pressed into service straightway became
ardent water savers, and guests who volunteered gallantly somehow
never, never came again. Yet it was not an exhausting or complicated
task. It was simply so monotonous that it wore down the most
phlegmatic nature. So the rural householder will do well to remember
that, after all, this is a machine age and govern himself accordingly.
As for the storage tank, the modern practice is to place it under
ground or in the cellar. The old custom of putting it in the attic had
distinct disadvantages when an overflow or a leak occurred and either
stained the ceilings or sent them crashing down on furniture and
possibly occupants of the rooms below.
The best water system, however, cannot cope with faucets thoughtlessly
left running. Even the largest tank will eventually become empty and
then there will be water for no one until the pump has replenished the
supply. "Waste not, want not" is an excellent motto for dwellers in
the country, especially where water is concerned.
SEWAGE SAFETY