Twentieth Century Inventions A Forecast by George Sutherland

Author:George Sutherland [Sutherland, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-02-10T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

CHAPTER IX.

DOMESTIC.

The enormous waste involved in the common methods of heating is one of the principal defects of household economy which will be corrected during the twentieth century. Different authorities have made varying estimates of the proportion between the heat which goes up the chimney of an ordinary grate, and that which actually passes out into the room fulfilling its purpose of maintaining an equable temperature; but it cannot be denied that, at the very least, something like three-fourths of the heat generated by the domestic fires of even the most advanced and civilised nations goes absolutely to waste—or rather to worse than waste—because the extra smoke produced in creating it only serves to pollute the atmosphere. In the cities some degree of progress has been made in the introduction of heating appliances which really give warmth to a room without losing at least seventy-five per cent. of their heat; but in the country districts, where open fireplaces are the rule, it is not unusual to find that more than ninety per cent. of the heat produced behind the domestic hearth goes up the chimney.

Sentiment has had a great deal to do with retarding progress in the direction of improved house-heating appliances. For countless ages "the hearth" has been, so to speak, the domestic altar, around which some of the most sacred associations of mankind have gathered, and popular sentiment has declared that it is not for the iconoclastic inventor or architect to improve it out of existence, or even to interfere seriously with either its shape or the position in the living room from which it sheds its genial warmth and cheerfulness around the family circle. A recognition of this ineradicable popular feeling was involved in the adoption of the grate, filled with glowing balls of asbestos composition, by the makers of gas-heating apparatus. The imitation of the coal-filled grate is in some cases almost perfect; and yet it is in this close approximation to the real article that some lovers of the domestic fuel-fire find their chief objection, just as the tricks of anthropoid animals—so strongly reminiscent of human beings and yet distinct—have the effect of repelling some people far more than the ways of creatures utterly unlike man in form and feature.

Taking count of the domestic attachment to a real fuel-filled fireplace or grate as one of the principal factors in the problem of domestic heating, it is plain that one way of obviating the waste of heat which is at present incurred, without doing violence to that sentiment, is by making better use of the chimney. The hot-air pipes and coils which are already so largely used for indoor heating offer in themselves a hint in this direction. Long pipes or coils inserted in the course taken by the heated air in ascending a chimney become warm, and it is possible, by taking such a pipe from one part of the room up the passage and back again, to cause, by means of a

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.