Inventors at Work, with Chapters on DiscoveryIles, George
History
Inventors at Work, with Chapters on Discovery
Iles, George
Inventions -- History; Inventors
From light we pass to its twin phase of energy, heat, for a glance at
the forms of devices which enable us to use heat with economy. When we
wish a furnace, crucible, or cooking vessel to maintain the highest
possible temperature, we give it as little surface as possible. On the
contrary when a warming apparatus is devised, its surface is freely
extended. The traditional fireplace, for all its cheerfulness, yields
but little heat. Benjamin Franklin copied its form in the stove which
bears his name; as it stands out from a wall it warms the air all around
itself, instead of on one side only. This model is familiar in gas
stoves, whose heat thoroughly radiated and convected far exceeds that
derived from fireplaces. In Canada forty years ago it was usual,
especially in the country, to set up gallows-pipes and dumb-stoves, or
drums, bulky, hollow structures of sheet iron, which obliged the heated
products of combustion to take a roundabout course as they passed to the
chimney. To be sure as thus cooled the gases were less effective as
draft makers, but we must remember that one of the most wasteful uses of
fire is in warming air or other gases for the sake of putting them in
motion. In modern factories, central lighting stations, and the like
huge installations, mechanical draft sends a quick current through a
short chimney, saving much fuel. Excellent in design are the tile stoves
of Germany and Holland. Their gentle heat does not parch the air; in
moderately cold weather they render it unnecessary to light furnaces
which develop, at such times, unduly high temperatures.
[Illustration: Canadian box stove with gallows-pipe.]
In factories the heating coils filled with steam or hot water were at
first fastened to the floor. Then came attaching them to the ceiling
whence their heat is gently radiated; on the floor the coils may gather
dust and dirt with risk of fire; with the other plan there is a saving
of floor space, and accidental leaks are at once in evidence.
[Illustration: Canadian dumb-stove.]
Tubes for warming are specially effective when dented or buckled in
directions at right angles to each other and to the axis of the tube.
This form gives the heating water or steam a swirling motion which
causes it to part more rapidly with its heat than does a cylindrical
tube of the same surface. Gold’s electric heater for street-cars,
bath-rooms, and the like, is a spiral of resistant alloy, hung in a
light metallic frame, the whole presenting a large surface to the air.
Automobiles driven by heat engines require coils of the utmost possible
surface whereat cooling can take place; in many cases this cooling is
furthered by the action of a quick fan. In like manner the condensers of
steam-engines, especially aboard ship, are made up of slender tubes
presenting to the steam a chilling area of vast extent.
[Illustration: Tubing for radiator.
Dalham Works, Manchester, England.]
[Illustration: Gold’s electric heater.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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