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Mechanics magazine
- Bandzählung
- N.S. 5=74.1861
- Erscheinungsdatum
- 1861
- Sprache
- Englisch
- Signatur
- A146
- Vorlage
- Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz
- Digitalisat
- Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz
- Digitalisat
- SLUB Dresden
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- Public Domain Mark 1.0
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- urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-db-id507363582-186100013
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- http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id507363582-18610001
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- oai:de:slub-dresden:db:id-507363582-18610001
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- Projekt: Bestände der Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz
- LDP: Bestände der Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz
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Zeitschrift
Mechanics magazine
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Band
Band N.S. 5=74.1861
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- Titelblatt Titelblatt -
- Register Index I
- Ausgabe January 4, 1861 1
- Ausgabe January 11, 1861 19
- Ausgabe January 18, 1861 33
- Ausgabe January 25, 1861 49
- Ausgabe February 1, 1861 69
- Ausgabe February 8, 1861 85
- Ausgabe [February 15, 1861] -
- Ausgabe February 22, 1861 121
- Ausgabe March 1, 1861 137
- Ausgabe March 8, 1861 153
- Ausgabe March 15, 1861 173
- Ausgabe March 22, 1861 189
- Ausgabe March 29, 1861 211
- Ausgabe April 5, 1861 227
- Ausgabe April 12, 1861 243
- Ausgabe April 19, 1861 259
- Ausgabe April 26, 1861 281
- Ausgabe May 3, 1861 297
- Ausgabe May 10, 1861 313
- Ausgabe May 17, 1861 329
- Ausgabe May 24, 1861 345
- Ausgabe May 31, 1861 361
- Ausgabe June 7, 1861 377
- Ausgabe June 14, 1861 393
- Ausgabe June 21, 1861 409
- Ausgabe June 28, 1861 425
- Ausgabe No. 106 I
- Ausgabe No. 107 I
- Ausgabe No. 108 I
- Ausgabe No. 109 I
- Ausgabe No. 110 I
- Ausgabe No. 111 I
- Ausgabe No. 112 I
- Ausgabe No. 113 I
- Ausgabe No. 114 I
- Ausgabe No. 115 I
- Ausgabe No. 116 I
- Ausgabe No. 117 I
- Ausgabe No. 118 I
- Ausgabe No. 119 I
- Ausgabe No. 120 I
- Ausgabe No. 121 I
- Ausgabe No. 122 I
- Ausgabe No. 123 I
- Ausgabe No. 124 I
- Ausgabe No. 125 I
- Ausgabe No. 126 I
- Ausgabe No. 127 I
- Ausgabe No. 128 I
- Ausgabe No. 129 I
- Ausgabe No. 130 I
- Ausgabe No. 131 I
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Band N.S. 5=74.1861
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Januaby 25,18G1.] 40 THE MECHANICS^MAGAZINE. LONDON, FRIDAY, JANUARY2a, 1861. FROST AND FIRES. Considering that King Frost has only held dominion over us a month, and heeding the misery which even in that time has followed in his train, it is fitting the occasion that we— professing to utilize the resources of science as we do—should calmly look around and see and determine whether, as reasoning and reasonable beings, the inhabitants of these isles have done all that in them lies to harmonize the climatic conditions without, and the func tions of life-endurance within. To speak in sober earnest—as the occasion demands —it is somewhat humiliating to reflect that a frost, sharp indeed, but only a month old, should have begun to disorganize the social relations of this great country. We say “social rela- “tions” with a definite meaning; noton im pulse, or for the form of the thing. When work stops ; when Saturday night brings no wages, and Sunday dawns breakfastless, din nerless, supperless, only to be followed by a six days’ vicissitude between starvation and magisterial or parochial relief—society may be pronounced disorganized without hyperbole ; and the imperfection of the system under which we live may be dogmatised upon without the imputation of untruth. That something is wrong in our central organizations is too plain for comment; and gladly do wo notice that the leading journal has taken this matter in hand to deal with it in its own efficient way. It seems to us that, considering our metier, we have a function of our own ; and that we can improve the occasion in a manner suitable to ourselves. When a winter almost Arctic comes upon us suddenly in its severity, the first im pulse—nay, we will say the first duty—of benevolence is to act promptly; recognising the occasion as an exceptional one, and lending immediate relief. We would be the last to carp and cavil at the expensiveness of that relief, satisfied that it was administered—and in due time administered. But it is an act of pure charity to show, if we can show, how relief can be made to go to the uttermost extent in these bitter seasons, and work its full measure of benefit. After all, the climatic conditions under which the poor have been suffering for a month are no other than those which Swedes, Norwegians, and Russians have to endure several months together, and endure without suffering. Money is not wanting here : England is richer than Sweden, Norway, or Russia. Philanthropy is not wanting, if philanthropy be in question. AVe think it is not in question, because the really destitute ought to be able to command relief on the higher grounds of rights. AVhat, then, is wanting here in rich England 1 what prevents the poor Briton making himself as comfortable under the infliction of cold as a poor Russ, or Norwegian, or Swede ? First and foremost (and going a long way towards the answer in its entirety), is the miserable igno rance of all Britons born concerning the economy of fuel. Now, we know very well that to speak one word against an open fire-grate, and to speak one word in favour of a close stove, may call down upon the Mechanics’ Magazine a torrent of invective. All the sins which cluster round unpatriotism may be laid to our charge, perhaps, when we say—and say advisedly— that though the Swede, and Norwegian, and German, however poor, rarely suffer from cold, the poor Englishman does suffer; and this is because the latter understands so little, and TITE MECHANICS’ MAGAZINE. practises so inefficiently, the most economical methods of generating heat. As for the open fire-place, we admit it to furnish the most agreeable quality of heat. Give coal enough, and let the fire-places be numerous enough, and let not the weather he over cold, then we concede—and concede to the farthest extreme a Briton would require—that there is nothing like an open fire-place. But stoves, though the heat of them be not so agreeable, are far more economical; and nobody can look at the ruddy cheeks of many an individual inhabiting a stove-using country without acquiring the con viction that there is nothing intrinsically un healthy in a stove. As to the relative amount of heat evolved, as between an open fire-place and a stove, the difference is enormous. At the present time, the poor who are buying their coal in single hundredweights pay about two shillings per cwt., whereas a ton ofsmall coal (the best for stoves) only costs 12 shillings. But the best fuel for stoves is not small coal. It is a mixture of the latter with wet earth or clay, so that the stove fuel may be considered to stand at six shillings per ton. AVe are quite sure that at the very lowest figure, stove heat properly applied would accomplish work a hundred times greater than open-fire heat at the same cost—a matter of some importance to the benevolent people who dispense coal to the poor. It may be said, by way of rejoinder, “ All “ this is very well ; but the poor have not “ stoves, and the frost may be gone before “ stoves can be made.” Perhaps, confessedly ; we do not speak in behalf of the present so much as in behalf of the future. If sad occa sions can be constituted the monitors of oppor tunities lost and the signposts of comfort to be achieved in times to come, they will not have vainly happened. AVe want to improve the occasion by impressing on the minds of all those who are now moving in the good cause of improving labourers’ dwellings to see narrowly to the economy of heat. More hangs on it than we can now find space to expatiate upon, though we hope before long to do so. The whole economy of cookery hangs upon it, and is in alliance with the economy of heat. Poor Soyer seized the source of the thing when he said that English national cookery was nothing except it could have prime cuts to operate upon. In point of fact, an open fire-place is next to useless as a means of cooking inferior cuts and elaborating good dishes out of them. AVe mean to state emphatically, that if the British poor could only be induced to economise heat as northern Europeans do, and as engi neers every year do, much, very much of the misery of cold seasons would be obviated. These facts the poor will not see ; but the ini tiative cannot be taken by the poor. Those who build labourers’ cottages will initiate the new regime of heat economy whenever it is initiated. HOUSE WATER-PIPES. It is a singular fact that in this country we lose an enormous amount of comfort by our inattention to well-known scientific principles, and by our neglect of mechanical appliances, the nature of which is well enough understood. No better example of this could be found pro bably than that which the experience of the last few weeks has furnished in the matter of house water-pipes, the bursting of which has been so general and so annoying. Nor has their bursting been by any means the only source of the annoyance which they have occa sioned, for in thousands of houses the supply of water through the ordinary house service has been utterly cut off for weeks together in the frost, and the want thus occasioned lus had to be met by most expensive and discomforting processes.. Now we undertake to say that, as a general rule, the discomfort and expense occasioned by the failures of house water-pipes during the late, or any other, frost have been occasioned by sheer indifference to well-known and ex ceedingly simple facts and principles. There are but three sets of circumstances in which service water-pipes can be placed. They must be either in the ground, within the house, or be tween the ground and the house. In the ground, if they are placed at a depth of a few feet they will never freeze in this country ; or —lest this should be doubted by some—we may at least say that nothing could be easier than to surround them with a substance which shall conduct heat from them so slowly that no English frost would freeze the water within them. But this part of the question need not be dwelt upon, because it is a well-known fact that the underground pipes have not frozen during the late severe frosts, but, on the con trary, have yielded due supplies at the “ plugs” up to the present moment. Within the house it happens that, fire being as essential to our physical well-being as water, we are perforce furnished with.the very agent which, if rightly used, would render the freezing of a house pipe perfectly impossible. In every house in the kingdom, at least one copious current of hot air and gases is continually ascending from basement to roof top through most of the twenty-four hours, and in extreme seasons might, with little additional expense and no additional danger, be kept ascending without any cessation whatever. AVere our houses wisely planned, therefore—our cisterns and taps being placed near our chimneys, and our main pipes in the chimney wall—the freezing of the pipes in the house would never be heard of. As to those leading from the ground to the house, they can be effectually protected from frost by being coated with any cheap material that conducts heat badly—such as sawdust in an outer pipe, as has been this week publicly suggested. It may seem to some frivolous in us to insist strongly upon such simple remedies as these ; but the mischief against which they are directed is really very great, and is an evil to which the inhabitants of English cities have no right to be exposed. It amounts to little less than a fraud on the part of water companies, or of builders, or of landlords, or of all of them together, to so construct dwelling-houses and their appurtenances that tenants have their water supply cut off as soon as a frost sets in. “ There is no mystery about the matter,” as a “ Civil Engineer,” writing ably to the Times of AVednesday last, says ; “ any architect with “ ordinary common sense ought to be able to “ foresee in what position the pipes will freeze, “ and take steps to prevent it.” The foiloffing remarks, derived from the same source, may tend usefully to strengthen the opinions which we have expressed :— “ If freezing of pipes, with the accompanying horrors of spoilt ceilings and furniture, were a rare occurrence, and only happened during an unprece dented frost, there might be some excuse; but it occurs more or less annually, and with the majority of the house.3 in London, and I may say England, that arc supplied Avith water from water-works. Now I maintain that this English evil of broken water- pipes can be avoided, and easily avoided, and it is a disgrace to the architects and builders in this prac tical country that they do not take the proper steps to avoid it. I happen to be an engineer, and have had some experience in constructing water-works in several towns in northern Europe, having a much colder climate than England where a three months’ continued frost, with an average of 15 degrees under freezing point, is a knoAvn annual occurrence; but,
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