American the United States, steam heat ing has been extensively used in connection with the heating- appliances of hotels, factories, and various other buildings in or near which steam engines are located. One of the general effects of the numerous applica tions of this description has been the discovery of the causes and remedies of various defects or deficiencies and the invention of numerous desirable adjuncts. There is a wide diversity of views regarding the relative merits of hot-water and steam-beating systems, which latter are being extensively introduced in various cities—especially in New York and Boston—where a large number of dwellings and shops or working--rooms are supplied with steam from one or more common centres.
protracted and successful efforts made to extend these steam-heating systems over miles of streets have disclosed the nature of the practical difficulties to be encountered and led to the adoption of devices for surmounting them. The results reached and the advantages claimed, as described by the engineer of the New York Steam Company, Mr. Charles E. Emery, are as follows: " It will be understood that steam-engines of all kinds and sizes in any location from cellar to gar ret can be operated to drive shops, furnish electric light, pump water, and the like, and that heating, either by live or exhaust steam, can be done on any scale; but it is also true that nearly all the cooking of a family can be done by steam. Nothing is lacking, in fact, but sufficient temperature to brown bread and put the finishing-touch, as it may be called, on broiled meats With steam stoves fitted with various devices and having in connection therewith small gas stoves for finishing the broiling of meat, and perhaps gas attachments to the ovens to brown the bread and cake, housekeepers will be provided with a g-reat boon. With the exceptions named, which do not form a large portion of the work, every operalion can be performed by simply regulating a steam valve. By these means the objectionable features of handling coal and ashes will be entirely removed, and provision for doing most of the cooking, as well as complete facilities for heating water, and in winter for war:ming the building, be provided on tap,' so to speak, the same as gas and water." Gas Heating differs essentially from all the methods previously treated, for, althoug-h the heat is conducted through pipes, the generation of the heat—that is, the combustion of carburetted hydrogen, or burning-gas— is effected in stoves standing in the rooms to be heated. No chimney is used with this apparatus, and the air becomes unfit for respiration unless some means of free access to a chimney is devised. Figure 22 (pi. 10) is one of Elsner and Stumpf's gas stoves as constructed bv them in Berlin.
It is open in front, and has twenty-four burners, each burner beino- one foot long. The heat from the burning- gas is communicated to the air of the room in part directly, and also indirectly through the walls of the stove, as well as by the diagonal plate on the inside. In the houses and cities located in the natural-gas regions of the. United States, this fuel is uni versally employed for domestic as well as industrial uses, and with most satisfactory results.
In conclusion, it may be said that several of these systems of heating may be combined: The entire apparatus may be constructed as for hot air, while the air snpplied may be heated by passing over steam or hot-water pipes in the heating chamber instead of in the heater, or by the method of steam heating, with the difference that the steam does not give up its heat directly to the air of the room through the walls of the pipes, but in the first place to water inside of a water stove.
larafus for the of Food, either by roasting, by stewing, or by boiling, vary greatly in size and special fittings, and also in the method by which the heat is generated. The size depends mainly upon the number of articles to be prepared, and the special fittings depend upon the customs of the country and the habits and relations of the family. The heating may be produced by common fuel—such as wood and coal—bv steam, or by gas. Figures 23 and 24 give examples of apparatus of the first kind upon a small scale, for domestic use; Figure 25 shows the same arrangement of larger size, for the purposes of a public institution; Figure 26 exhibits a large steam-cooking apparatus, also for a public in stitution; and Figure 27 shows a small portable gas apparatus intended for family use.
ana' arrangement shown in Figure 23 is constructed of iron, and consists of a small fire-box or range, with a cooking- or roasting stove, two ovens, and a water-back. The single fire is on one of the shorter sides of the range; so that the burning gases pass under neath the top of the range to the cooking stove proper, where they come in contact with the walls of the ovens on all sides and with the water-back on one side, proceeding thence to the chimney. The top is provided with rings and openings by means of which iron cooking vessels arc brought in direct contact with the fire, as is shown in Figure 24 in vertical section. But the cooking vessels are often set upon the top with no opening. The range is 9Y, inches high, about IT inches wide, and 13 inches long, and the stove containing the ovens 4 feet high, inches deep, and 13:-,41 inches long. Similar apparatus are built of masonry, with or without tile facing.