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Read Ebook: Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th Edition Hearing to Helmond Volume 13 Slice 2 by Various
Font size: Background color: Text color: Add to tbrJar First Page Next PageEbook has 398 lines and 156352 words, and 8 pagesdirect measurements of the quantity of heat disengaged by compressing air, and also of the heat absorbed when the air was allowed to expand against atmospheric pressure; as the result he deduced the value 798 foot-pounds for the mechanical equivalent of 1 B.Th.U. He also showed that there was no appreciable absorption of heat when air was allowed to expand in such a manner as not to develop mechanical power, and he pointed out that the mechanical equivalent of heat could not be satisfactorily deduced from the relations of the specific heats, because the knowledge of the specific heats of gases at that time was of so uncertain a character. He attributed most weight to his later determinations of the mechanical equivalent made by the direct method of friction of liquids. He showed that the results obtained with different liquids, water, mercury and sperm oil, were the same, namely, 782 foot-pounds; and finally repeating the method with water, using all the precautions and improvements which his experience had suggested, he obtained the value 772 foot-pounds, which was accepted universally for many years, and has only recently required alteration on account of the more exact definition of the heat unit, and the standard scale of temperature . The great value of Joule's work for the general establishment of the principle of the conservation of energy lay in the variety and completeness of the experimental evidence he adduced. It was not sufficient to find the relation between heat and mechanical work or other forms of energy in one particular case. It was necessary to show that the same relation held in all cases which could be examined experimentally, and that the ratio of equivalence of the different forms of energy, measured in different ways, was independent of the manner in which the conversion was effected and of the material or working substance employed. The number of units of mechanical work equivalent to one unit of heat is generally called the mechanical equivalent of heat, or Joule's equivalent, and is denoted by the letter J. Its numerical value depends on the units employed for heat and mechanical energy respectively. The values of the equivalent in terms of the units most commonly employed at the present time are as follows:-- The water for the heat units is supposed to be taken at 20? C. or 68? F., and the degree of temperature is supposed to be measured by the hydrogen thermometer. The acceleration of gravity in latitude 45? is taken as 980.7 C.G.S. For details of more recent and accurate methods of determination, the reader should refer to the article CALORIMETRY, where tables of the variation of the specific heat of water with temperature are also given. The second law of thermodynamics is a title often used to denote Carnot's principle or some equivalent mathematical expression. In some cases this title is not conferred on Carnot's principle itself, but on some axiom from which the principle may be indirectly deduced. These axioms, however, cannot as a rule be directly applied, so that it would appear preferable to take Carnot's principle itself as the second law. It may be observed that, as a matter of history, Carnot's principle was established and generally admitted before the principle of the conservation of energy as applied to heat, and that from this point of view the titles, first and second laws, are not particularly appropriate. That a quantity of heat equivalent to the work performed actually disappears when a gas does work in expansion, was first shown by Joule in the paper on condensation and rarefaction of air already referred to. At the conclusion of this paper he felt justified by direct experimental evidence in reasserting definitely the hypothesis of S?guin that "the steam while expanding in the cylinder loses heat in quantity exactly proportional to the mechanical force developed, and that on the condensation of the steam the heat thus converted into power is not given back." He did not see his way to reconcile this conclusion with Clapeyron's description of Carnot's cycle. At a later date, in a letter to Professor W. Thomson , he pointed out that, since, according to his own experiments, the work done in the expansion of a gas at constant temperature is equivalent to the heat absorbed, by equating Carnot's expressions for the work done and the heat absorbed, the value of Carnot's function F?t must be equal to J/T, in order to reconcile his principle with the mechanical theory. which, he observed, agrees in form with that found by Rankine. It is often urged that the gas-engine is relatively less efficient than the steam-engine, because, although it has a much higher absolute efficiency, it does not utilize so large a fraction of its temperature range, reckoning that of the steam-engine from the temperature of the boiler to that of the condenser, and that of the gas-engine from the maximum temperature of combustion to that of the air. This is not quite fair, and has given rise to the mistaken notion that "there is an immense margin for improvement in the gas-engine," which is not the case if the practical limitations of volume are rightly considered. If expansion could be carried out in accordance with Carnot's principle of maximum efficiency, down to the lower limit of temperature 0, with rejection of heat at 0 during compression to the original volume V0, it would no doubt be possible to obtain an ideal efficiency of nearly 80%. But this would be quite impracticable, as it would require expansion to about 100 times v0, or 500 times the compression volume. Some advantage no doubt might be obtained by carrying the expansion beyond the original volume. This has been done, but is not found to be worth the extra complication. A more practical method, which has been applied by Diesel for liquid fuel, is to introduce the fuel at the end of compression, and adjust the supply in such a manner as to give combustion at nearly constant pressure. This makes it possible to employ higher compression, with a corresponding increase in the ratio of expansion and the theoretical efficiency. With a compression ratio of 14, an indicated efficiency of 40% has been obtained In this way, but owing to additional complications the brake efficiency was only 31%, which is hardly any improvement on the brake efficiency of 30% obtained with the ordinary type of gas-engine. Although Carnot's principle makes it possible to calculate in every case what the limiting possible efficiency would be for any kind of cycle if all heat losses were abolished, it is very necessary, in applying the principle to practical cases, to take account of the possibility of avoiding the heat losses which are supposed to be absent, and of other practical limitations in the working of the actual engine. An immense amount of time and ingenuity has been wasted in striving to realize impossible margins of ideal efficiency, which a close study of the practical conditions would have shown to be illusory. As Carnot remarks at the conclusion of his essay: "Economy of fuel is only one of the conditions a heat-engine must satisfy; in many cases it is only secondary, and must often give way to considerations of safety, strength and wearing qualities of the machine, of smallness of space occupied, or of expense in erecting. To know how to appreciate justly in each case the considerations of convenience and economy, to be able to distinguish the essential from the accessory, to balance all fairly, and finally to arrive at the best result by the simplest means, such must be the principal talent of the man called on to direct and co-ordinate the work of his fellows for the attainment of a useful object of any kind." TRANSFERENCE OF HEAT In the majority of cases of transference of heat all three modes of transference are simultaneously operative in a greater or less degree, and the combined effect is generally of great complexity. The different modes of transference are subject to widely different laws, and the difficulty of disentangling their effects and subjecting them to calculation is often one of the most serious obstacles in the experimental investigation of heat. In space void of matter, we should have pure radiation, but it is difficult to obtain so perfect a vacuum that the effects of the residual gas in transferring heat by conduction or convection are inappreciable. In the interior of an opaque solid we should have pure conduction, but if the solid is sensibly transparent in thin layers there must also be an internal radiation, while in a liquid or a gas it is very difficult to eliminate the effects of convection. These difficulties are well illustrated in the historical development of the subject by the experimental investigations which have been made to determine the laws of heat-transference, such as the laws of cooling, of radiation and of conduction. in which t is the temperature of the thermometer, and t0 that of the enclosure, a is a constant having the value 1.0075, and the coefficient A depends on the form of the bulb and the nature of its surface. For the ranges of temperature they employed, this formula gives much better results than Newton's, but it must be remembered that the temperatures were expressed on the arbitrary scale of the mercury thermometer, and were not corrected for the large and uncertain errors of stem-exposure . Moreover, although the effects of cooling by convection currents are practically eliminated by exhausting to 3 or 4 mm. , the rate of cooling by conduction is not materially diminished, since the conductivity, like the viscosity, is nearly independent of pressure. It has since been shown by Sir William Crookes that the rate of cooling of a mercury thermometer in a vacuum suffers a very great diminution when the pressure is reduced from 1 mm. to .001 mm., at which pressure the effect of conduction by the residual gas has practically disappeared. Dulong and Petit also observed the rate of cooling under the same conditions with the enclosure filled with various gases. They found that the cooling effect of the gas could be represented by adding to the term already given as representing radiation, an expression of the form They found that the cooling effect of convection, unlike that of radiation, was independent of the nature of the surface of the thermometer, whether silvered or blackened, that it varied as some power c of the pressure p, and that it was independent of the absolute temperature of the enclosure, but varied as the excess temperature raised to the power 1.233. This highly artificial result undoubtedly contains some elements of truth, but could only be applied to experiments similar to those from which it was derived. F. Herv? de la Provostaye and P. Q. Desains , in repeating these experiments under various conditions, found that the coefficients A and B were to some extent dependent on the temperature, and that the manner in which the cooling effect varied with the pressure depended on the form and size of the enclosure. It is evident that this should be the case, since the cooling effect of the gas depends partly on convective currents. which are necessarily greatly modified by the form of the enclosure in a manner which it would appear hopeless to attempt to represent by any general formula. The action of light rays on the retina is closely analogous to the action on a photographic plate. The retina, like the plate, is sensitive only to rays within certain restricted limits of frequency. The limits of sensitiveness of each colour sensation are not exactly defined, but vary slightly from one individual to another, especially in cases of partial colour-blindness, and are modified by conditions of fatigue. We are not here concerned with these important physiological and chemical effects of radiation, but rather with the question of the conversion of energy of radiation into heat, and with the laws of emission and absorption of radiation in relation to temperature. We may here also assume the identity of visible and invisible radiations from a heated body in all their physical properties. It has been abundantly proved that the invisible rays, like the visible, are propagated in straight lines in homogeneous media; are reflected and diffused from the surface of bodies according to the same law; travel with the same velocity in free space, but with slightly different velocities in denser media, being subject to the same law of refraction; exhibit all the phenomena of diffraction and interference which are characteristic of wave-motion in general; are capable of polarization and double refraction; exhibit similar effects of selective absorption. These properties are more easily demonstrated in the case of visible rays on account of the great sensitiveness of the eye. But with the aid of the thermopile or other sensitive radiometer, they may be shown to belong equally to all the radiations from a heated body, even such as are thirty to fifty times slower in frequency than the longest visible rays. The same physical properties have also been shown to belong to electromagnetic waves excited by an electric discharge, whatever the frequency, thus including all kinds of aetherial radiation in the same category as light. Assuming that the radiation from the source under investigation is qualitatively determinate, like that of a black body at a given temperature, the proportion transmitted by plates of various substances may easily be measured and tabulated for given plates and sources. But owing to the highly selective character of the radiation and absorption, it is impossible to give any general relation between the thickness of the absorbing plate or layer and the proportion of the total energy absorbed. For these reasons the relative diathermancies of different materials do not admit of any simple numerical statement as physical constants, though many of the qualitative results obtained are very striking. Among the most interesting experiments were those of Tyndall, on the absorptive powers of gases and vapours, which led to a good deal of controversy at the time, owing to the difficulty of the experiments, and the contradictory results obtained by other observers. The arrangement employed by Tyndall for these measurements is shown in Fig. 6. A brass tube AB, polished inside, and closed with plates of highly diathermanous rocksalt at either end, was fitted with stopcocks C and D for exhausting and admitting air or other gases or vapours. The source of heat S was usually a plate of copper heated by a Bunsen burner, or a Leslie cube containing boiling water as shown at E. To obtain greater sensitiveness for differential measurements, the radiation through the tube AB incident on one face of the pile P was balanced against the radiation from a Leslie cube on the other face of the pile by means of an adjustable screen H. The radiation on the two faces of the pile being thus balanced with the tube exhausted, Tyndall found that the admission of dry air into the tube produced practically no absorption of the radiation, whereas compound gases such as carbonic acid, ethylene or ammonia absorbed 20 to 90%, and a trace of aqueous vapour in the air increased its absorption 50 to 100 times. H. G. Magnus, on the other hand, employing a thermopile and a source of heat, both of which were enclosed in the same exhausted receiver, in order to avoid interposing any rocksalt or other plates between the source and the pile, found an absorption of 11% on admitting dry air, but could not detect any difference whether the air were dry or moist. Tyndall suggested that the apparent absorption observed by Magnus may have been due to the cooling of his radiating surface by convection, which is a very probable source of error in this method of experiment. Magnus considered that the remarkable effect of aqueous vapour observed by Tyndall might have been caused by condensation on the polished internal walls of his experimental tube, or on the rocksalt plates at either end. The question of the relative diathermancy of air and aqueous vapour for radiation from the sun to the earth and from the earth into space is one of great interest and importance in meteorology. Assuming with Magnus that at least 10% of the heat from a source at 100? C. is absorbed in passing through a single foot of air, a very moderate thickness of atmosphere should suffice to absorb practically all the heat radiated from the earth into space. This could not be reconciled with well-known facts in regard to terrestrial radiation, and it was generally recognized that the result found by Magnus must be erroneous. Tyndall's experiment on the great diathermancy of dry air agreed much better with meteorological phenomena, but he appears to have exaggerated the effect of aqueous vapour. He concluded from his experiments that the water vapour present in the air absorbs at least 10% of the heat radiated from the earth within 10 ft. of its surface, and that the absorptive power of the vapour is about 17,000 times that of air at the same pressure. If the absorption of aqueous vapour were really of this order of magnitude, it would exert a far greater effect in modifying climate than is actually observed to be the case. Radiation is observed to take place freely through the atmosphere at times when the proportion of aqueous vapour is such as would practically stop all radiation if Tyndall's results were correct. The very careful experiments of E. Lecher and J. Pernter confirmed Tyndall's observations on the absorptive powers of gases and vapours satisfactorily in nearly all cases with the single exception of aqueous vapour. They found that there was no appreciable absorption of heat from a source at 100? C. in passing through 1 ft. of air , but that CO and CO2 at atmospheric pressure absorbed about 8%, and ethylene about 50% in the same distance; the vapours of alcohol and ether showed absorptive powers of the same order as that of ethylene. They confirmed Tyndall's important result that the absorption does not diminish in proportion to the pressure, being much greater in proportion for smaller pressures in consequence of the selective character of the effect. They also supported his conclusion that absorptive power increases with the complexity of the molecule. But they could not detect any absorption by water vapour at a pressure of 7 mm., though alcohol at the same pressure absorbed 3% and acetic acid 10%. Later researches, especially those of S. P. Langley with the spectro-bolometer on the infra-red spectrum of sunlight, demonstrated the existence of marked absorption bands, some of which are due to water vapour. From the character of these bands and the manner in which they vary with the state of the air and the thickness traversed, it may be inferred that absorption by water vapour plays an important part in meteorology, but that it is too small to be readily detected by laboratory experiments in a 4 ft. tube, without the aid of spectrum analysis. where represents the rate of increase of pressure. This equation shows that the percentage rate of increase of pressure is four times the percentage rate of increase of temperature, or that if the temperature is increased by 1%, the pressure is increased by 4%. This is equivalent to the statement that the pressure varies as the fourth power of the temperature, a result which is mathematically deduced by integrating the equation. where F represents some function of the product of the wave-length and temperature, which remains constant for corresponding wave-lengths when is changed. If the curves were plotted on a frequency base, owing to the change of scale, the maximum ordinates would vary as the cube of the temperature instead of the fifth power, but the form of the function F would remain unaltered. Reasoning on the analogy of the distribution of velocities among the particles of a gas on the kinetic theory, which is a very similar problem, Wien was led to assume that the function F should be of the form e^, where e is the base of Napierian logarithms, and c is a constant having the value 14,600 if the wave-length is measured in microns . This expression was found by Paschen to give a very good approximation to the form of the curve obtained experimentally for those portions of the visible and infra-red spectrum where observations could be most accurately made. The formula was tested in two ways: by plotting the curves of distribution of energy in the spectrum for constant temperatures as illustrated in fig. 7; by plotting the energy corresponding to a given wave-length as a function of the temperature. Both methods gave very good agreement with Wien's formula for values of the product not much exceeding 3000. A method of isolating rays of great wave-length by successive reflection was devised by H. Rubens and E. F. Nichols . They found that quartz and fluorite possessed the property of selective reflection for rays of wave-length 8.8 and 24 to 32 respectively, so that after four to six reflections these rays could be isolated from a source at any temperature in a state of considerable purity. The residual impurity at any stage could be estimated by interposing a thin plate of quartz or fluorite which completely reflected or absorbed the residual rays, but allowed the impurity to pass. H. Beckmann, under the direction of Rubens, investigated the variation with temperature of the residual rays reflected from fluorite employing sources from -80? to 600? C., and found the results could not be represented by Wien's formula unless the constant c were taken as 26,000 in place of 14,600. In their first series of observations extending to 6 O. R. Lummer and E. Pringsheim found systematic deviations indicating an increase in the value of the constant c for long waves and high temperatures. In a theoretical discussion of the subject, Lord Rayleigh pointed out that Wien's law would lead to a limiting value C^, of the radiation corresponding to any particular wave-length when the temperature increased to infinity, whereas according to his view the radiation of great wave-length should ultimately increase in direct proportion to the temperature. Lummer and Pringsheim extended the range of their observations to 18 by employing a prism of sylvine in place of fluorite. They found deviations from Wien's formula increasing to nearly 50% at 18 , where, however, the observations were very difficult on account of the smallness of the energy to be measured. Rubens and F. Kurlbaum extended the residual reflection method to a temperature range from -190? to 1500? C., and employed the rays reflected from quartz 8.8 , and rocksalt 51 , in addition to those from fluorite. It appeared from these researches that the rays of great wave-length from a source at a high temperature tended to vary in the limit directly as the absolute temperature of the source, as suggested by Lord Rayleigh, and could not be represented by Wien's formula with any value of the constant c. The simplest type of formula satisfying the required conditions is that proposed by Max Planck namely, FOOTNOTES: For instance a mass of compressed air, if allowed to expand in a cylinder at the ordinary temperature, will do work, and will at the same time absorb a quantity of heat which, as we now know, is the thermal equivalent of the work done. But this work cannot be said to have been produced solely from the heat absorbed in the process, because the air at the end of the process is in a changed condition, and could not be restored to its original state at the same temperature without having work done upon it precisely equal to that obtained by its expansion. The process could not be repeated indefinitely without a continual supply of compressed air. The source of the work in this case is work previously done in compressing the air, and no part of the work is really generated at the expense of heat alone, unless the compression is effected at a lower temperature than the expansion. Clausius and others have misinterpreted this assumption, and have taken it to mean that the quantity of heat required to produce any given change of state is independent of the manner in which the change is effected, which Carnot does not here assume. Carnot's description of his cycle and statement of his principle have been given as nearly as possible in his own words, because some injustice has been done him by erroneous descriptions and statements. It was for this reason that Professor W. Thomson stated that "Carnot's original demonstration utterly fails," and that he introduced the "corrections" attributed to James Thomson and Clerk Maxwell respectively. In reality Carnot's original demonstration requires no correction. In reference to this objection, Tyndall remarks ; "In the first place the plate of salt nearest the source of heat is never moistened, unless the experiments are of the roughest character. Its proximity to the source enables the heat to chase away every trace of humidity from its surface." He therefore took precautions to dry only the circumferential portions of the plate nearest the pile, assuming that the flux of heat through the central portions would suffice to keep them dry. This reasoning is not at all satisfactory, because rocksalt is very hygroscopic and becomes wet, even in unsaturated air, if the vapour pressure is greater than that of a saturated solution of salt at the temperature of the plate. Assuming that the vapour pressure of the saturated salt solution is only half that of pure water, it would require an elevation of temperature of 10? C. to dry the rocksalt plates in saturated air at 15? C. It is only fair to say that the laws of the vapour pressures of solutions were unknown in Tyndall's time, and that it was usual to assume that the plates would not become wetted until the dew-point was reached. The writer has repeated Tyndall's experiments with a facsimile of one of Tyndall's tubes in the possession of the Royal College of Science, fitted with plates of rocksalt cut from the same block as Tyndall's, and therefore of the same hygroscopic quality. Employing a reflecting galvanometer in conjunction with a differential bolometer, which is quicker in its action than Tyndall's pile, there appears to be hardly any difference between dry and moist air, provided that the latter is not more than half saturated. Using saturated air with a Leslie cube as source of heat, both rocksalt plates invariably become wet in a minute or two and the absorption rises to 10 or 20% according to the thickness of the film of deposited moisture. Employing the open tube method as described by Tyndall, without the rocksalt plates, the absorption is certainly less than 1% in 3 ft. of air saturated at 20? C., unless condensation is induced on the walls of the tube. It is possible that the walls of Tyndall's tube may have become covered with a very hygroscopic film from the powder of the calcium chloride which he was in the habit of introducing near one end. Such a film would be exceedingly difficult to remove, and would account for the excessive precautions which he found necessary in drying the air in order to obtain the same transmitting power as a vacuum. It is probable that Tyndall's experiments on aqueous vapour were effected by experimental errors of this character. A beautiful work on heaths is that by H. C. Andrews, containing coloured engravings of nearly 300 species and varieties, with descriptions in English and Latin . HEATHCOAT, JOHN , English inventor, was born at Duffield near Derby on the 7th of August 1783. During his apprenticeship to a framesmith near Loughborough, he made an improvement in the construction of the warp-loom, so as to produce mitts of a lace-like appearance by means of it. He began business on his own account at Nottingham, but finding himself subjected to the intrusion of competing inventors he removed to Hathern. There in 1808 he constructed a machine capable of producing an exact imitation of real pillow-lace. This was by far the most expensive and complex textile apparatus till then existing; and in describing the process of his invention Heathcoat said in 1836, "The single difficulty of getting the diagonal threads to twist in the allotted space was so great that, if now to be done, I should probably not attempt its accomplishment." Some time before perfecting his invention, which he patented in 1809, he removed to Loughborough, where he entered into partnership with Charles Lacy, a Nottingham manufacturer; but in 1816 their factory was attacked by the Luddites and their 55 lace frames destroyed. The damages were assessed in the King's Bench at ?10,000; but as Heathcoat declined to expend the money in the county of Leicester he never received any part of it. Undaunted by his loss, he began at once to construct new and greatly improved machines in an unoccupied factory at Tiverton, Devon, propelling them by water-power and afterwards by steam. His claim to the invention of the twisting and traversing lace machine was disputed, and a patent was taken out by a clever workman for a similar machine, which was decided at a trial in 1816 to be an infringement of Heathcoat's patent. He followed his great invention by others of much ability, as, for instance, contrivances for ornamenting net while in course of manufacture and for making ribbons and platted and twisted net upon his machines, improved yarn spinning-frames, and methods for winding raw silk from cocoons. He also patented an improved process for extracting and purifying salt. An offer of ?10,000 was made to him in 1833 for the use of his processes in dressing and finishing silk nets, but he allowed the highly profitable secret to remain undivulged. In 1832 he patented a steam plough. Heathcoat was elected member of parliament for Tiverton in 1832. Though he seldom spoke in the House he was constantly engaged on committees, where his thorough knowledge of business and sound judgment were highly valued. He retained his seat until 1859, and after two years of declining health he died on the 18th of January 1861 at Bolham House, near Tiverton. HEATHCOTE, SIR GILBERT , lord mayor of London, belonged to an old Derbyshire family and was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, afterwards becoming a merchant in London. His trading ventures were very successful; he was one of the promoters of the new East India company and he emerged victorious from a contest between himself and the old East India company in 1693; he was also one of the founders and first directors of the bank of England. In 1702 he became an alderman of the city of London and was knighted; he served as lord mayor in 1711, being the last lord mayor to ride on horseback in his procession. In 1700 Heathcote was sent to parliament as member for the city of London, but he was soon expelled for his share in the circulation of some exchequer bills; however, he was again elected for the city later in the same year, and he retained his seat until 1710. In 1714 he was member for Helston, in 1722 for New Lymington, and in 1727 for St Germans. He was a consistent Whig, and was made a baronet eight days before his death. Although extremely rich, Heathcote's meanness is referred to by Pope; and it was this trait that accounts largely for his unpopularity with the lower classes. He died in London on the 25th of January 1733 and was buried at Normanton, Rutland, a residence which he had purchased from the Mackworths. A descendant, Sir Gilbert John Heathcote, Bart. , was created Baron Aveland in 1856; and his son Gilbert Henry, who in 1888 inherited from his mother the barony of Willoughby de Eresby, became 1st earl of Ancaster in 1892. HEATHFIELD, GEORGE AUGUSTUS ELIOTT, BARON , British general, a younger son of Sir Gilbert Eliott, Bart., of Stobs, Roxburghshire, was born on the 25th of December 1717, and educated abroad for the military profession. As a volunteer he fought with the Prussian army in 1735 and 1736, and then entered the Grenadier Guards. He went through the war of the Austrian Succession, and was wounded at Dettingen, rising to be lieutenant-colonel in 1754. In 1759 he became colonel of a new regiment of light horse and became well known for the efficiency which it displayed in the subsequent campaigns. He became lieutenant-general in 1765. In 1775 he was selected to be governor of Gibraltar , and it is in connexion with his magnificent defence in the great siege of 1779 that his name is famous. His portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds is in the National Gallery. In 1787 he was created Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar, but died on the 6th of July 1790. He had married in 1748 the heiress of the Drake family, to which Sir Francis Drake belonged. His son, the 2nd baron, died in 1813 and the peerage became extinct, but the estates went to the family of Eliott-Drake through his sister. HEATING. In temperate latitudes the climate is generally such as to necessitate in dwellings during a great portion of the year a temperature warmer than that out of doors. The object of the art of heating is to secure this required warmth with the greatest economy and efficiency. For reasons of health it may be assumed that no system of heating is advisable which does not provide for a constant renewal of the air in the locality warmed, and on this account there is a difficulty in treating as separate matters the subjects of heating and ventilation, which in practical schemes should be considered conjointly. . The object of all heating apparatus is the transference of heat from the fire to the various parts of the building it is intended to warm, and this transfer may be effected by radiation, by conduction or by convection. An open fire acts by radiation; it warms the air in a room by first warming the walls, floor, ceiling and articles in the room, and these in turn warm the air. Therefore in a room with an open fire the air is, as a rule, less heated than the walls. In many forms of fireplaces fresh air is brought in and passed around the back and sides of the stove before being admitted into the room. A closed stove acts mainly by convection; though when heated to a high temperature it gives out radiant heat. Windows have a chilling effect on a room, and in calculations extra allowance should be made for window areas. There are a number of methods available for adoption in the heating of buildings, but it is a matter of considerable difficulty to suit the method of warming to the class of building to be warmed. Heating may be effected by one of the following systems, or installations may be so arranged as to combine the advantages of more than one method: open fires, closed stoves, hot-air apparatus, hot water circulating in pipes at low or at high pressure, or steam at high or low pressure. Open fires. Closed stoves. With closed stoves much less heat is wasted, and consequently less fuel is burned, than with open grates, but they often cause an unpleasant sensation of dryness in the air, and the products of combustion also escape to some extent, rendering this method of heating not only unpleasant but sometimes even dangerous. The method in Great Britain is almost entirely confined to places of public assembly, but in America and on the continent of Europe it is much used for domestic heating. If the flue pipe be carried up a considerable distance inside the apartment to be warmed before being turned into the external air, practically the whole of the heat generated will be utilized. Charcoal, coke or anthracite coal are the fuels generally used in slow combustion heating stoves. Gas fires. Gas fires, as a substitute for the open coal fire, have many points in their favour, for they are conducive to cleanliness, they need but little attention, and the heat is easily controlled. On the other hand, they may give off unhealthy fumes and produce unpleasant odours. They usually take the form of cast iron open stoves fitted with a number of Bunsen burners which heat perforated lumps of asbestos. The best form of stove is that with which perfect combustion is most nearly attained, and to which a pan of water is affixed to supply a desirable humidity to the air, the gas having the effect of drying the atmosphere. With another form of gas stove coke is used in place of the perforated asbestos; the fire is started with the gas, which, when the coke is well alight, may be dispensed with, and the fire kept up with coke in the usual way. Electrical heating. Electrical heating appliances have only recently passed the experimental stage; there is, however, undoubtedly a great future for electric heating, and the perfecting of the stove, together with the cheapening of the electric current, may be expected to result in many of the other stoves and convectors being superseded. Hitherto the large bill for electric energy has debarred the general use of electrical heating, in spite of its numerous advantages. Oil stoves. Oils are powerful fuels, but the high price of refined petroleum, the oil generally preferred, precludes its widespread use for many purposes for which it is suitable. In small stoves for warming and for cooking, petroleum presents some advantages over other fuels, in that there is no chimney to sweep, and if well managed no unpleasant fumes, and the stoves are easily portable. On the other hand, these stoves need a considerable amount of attention in filling, trimming and cleaning, and there is some risk of explosion and damage by accidental leaking and smoking. Crude or unrefined petroleum needs a special air-spray pressure burner for its use, and this suffers from the disadvantage of being noisy. Gas and oil radiators would be more properly termed "convectors," since they warm mainly by converted currents. They are similar in appearance to a hot-water or steam radiator, and, indeed, some are designed to be filled with water and used as such. They should always be fitted with a pan of water to supply the necessary humidity to the warmed air, and a flue to carry off any disagreeable fumes. Warm air. Heating by warmed air, one of the oldest methods in use, has been much improved by attention to the construction of the apparatus, and if properly installed will give as good effects as it is possible to obtain. The system is especially suitable for churches, assembly halls and large rooms. A stove of special design is placed in a chamber in the basement or cellar, and cold fresh air is passed through it, and led by means of flues to the various apartments for distribution by means of easily regulated inlet valves. To prevent the atmosphere from becoming unduly dry a pan of water is fitted to the stove; this serves to moisten the air before it passes into the distributing flues. If each distributing flue is connected by means of a mixing valve with a cold-air flue, the warmth of the incoming air can be regulated to a nicety . Low pressure hot water. There are many different systems of heating by hot water circulating in pipes. The oldest and best known is the "two pipe" system, others being the "one pipe" or "simple circuit," and the "drop" or "overhead." The high pressure system is of later invention, having been first put to practical use by A. M. Perkins in 1845. All these methods warm chiefly by means of convected heat, the amount of true radiation from the pipes being small. The manner in which the circulation of hot water takes place in the tubes is as follows. Fire heats the water in a boiler from the top of which a "flow" pipe communicates with the rooms to be warmed . As the water is heated it becomes lighter, rises to the top of the boiler, and passes along the flow pipe. It is followed by more and more hot water, and so travels along the flow pipe, which is rising all the time, to the farthest point of the circuit, by which time it has in all probability cooled considerably. From this point the "return" pipe drops, usually at the same rate as the flow pipe rises; and in due course the water reaches its starting point, the boiler, and is again heated and again circulated through the system. The connexion of the return pipe is made with the lower part of the boiler. Branches may be made from the main pipes by means of smaller pipes arranged in the same manner as the mains, the branch flow pipe being connected with the main flow pipe and returning into the main return. To obtain a larger heating surface than a pipe affords, radiators are connected with the pipes where desired, and the water passing through them warms the surrounding air. The "one pipe" system acts on precisely the same principle, but in place of two pipes being placed in adjacent positions one large main makes a complete circuit of the area to be warmed, starting from and returning to the boiler, and from this main flow and return branches are taken and connected with radiators and other heating appliances. In the "drop" or "overhead" system a rising main is taken directly from the boiler to the topmost floor of the building, and from this branches are dropped to the lower floors, and connected by means of smaller branches to radiators or coils. The vertical branches descend to the basement and generally merge in a single return pipe which is connected to the lower part of the boiler. The rate of circulation in the ordinary low pressure hot-water system may be considerably accelerated by means of steam injections. The water after being heated passes into a circulating tank into which steam is introduced; this, mixing with the hot water, gives it additional motive power, resulting in a faster circulation. This steam condensing adds to the water in the pipe and naturally causes an overflow, which is led back to the boiler and re-used. In districts where the water is hard, this arrangement considerably lengthens the life of the boiler, as the same water is used over and over again, and no fresh deposit of fur occurs. Owing to the very rapid movement and the consequent increased rate of transmission of heat, the pipes and radiators may be reduced in size, in many circumstances a very desirable thing to achieve. With this system the temperature can be quickly raised and easily controlled. If the weather is mild, a moderate heat may be obtained by using the apparatus as an ordinary hot water system, and shutting off the steam injectors. The cold-water supply and expansion tank are often combined in one tank placed at a point above the level of circulation. The tank should be of a size to hold not less than a twentieth part of the total amount of water held in the system. The automatic inlet of cold water to the hot water system from the main house tank or other source is controlled by a ball valve, which is so fixed as to allow the water to rise no more than an inch above the bottom of the tank, thus leaving the remainder of the space clear for expansion. An overflow is provided, discharging into the open air to allow the water to escape should the ball valve become defective. High pressure hot water. The "Perkins" or "small bore high pressure" system has many advantages, for it is safe, the boiler is small and is easily managed, the temperature is well under control and may be regulated to suit the changing weather, and the small pipes present a neat appearance in a room. The whole system is constructed of wrought iron pipe of small diameter, strong enough to resist a testing pressure of 2000 to 2500 lb. per sq. in. The boiler consists of similar pipe coiled up to form a fire-box, inside which the furnace is lighted. The coil is encased with firebricks and brickwork, and the smoke from the fire is carried off by a flue in the ordinary way. The flow pipe of similar section continues from the top of the coil, and after travelling round the various apartments returns to, and is connected with, the lowest part of the boiler coil. The joints take a special form to enable them to withstand the great strain to which they are subjected . One end of a pipe is finished flat, the end of the other pipe being brought to a conical edge. On one end also a right-handed, and on the other a left-handed, screw-thread is turned. A coupling collar, tapped in the same manner, is screwed on, and causes the conical edge to impress itself tightly on the flat end, giving a sound and lasting joint. The system is hermetically sealed after being pumped full of water, an expansion chamber in the shape of a pipe of larger dimensions being provided at the top of the system above the highest point of circulation. Upon the application of heat to the fire-box coil the water naturally expands and forces its way up into the expansion chamber; but there it encounters the pressure of the confined air, and ebullition is consequently prevented. Thus at no time can steam form in the system. This system is trustworthy and safe in working. The smallness of the pipes renders it liable to damage by frost, but this accident may be prevented by always keeping in frosty weather a small fire in the furnace. If this course is inconvenient, some liquid of low freezing-point, such as glycerine, may be mixed with the water. Steam heating. For large public buildings, factories, &c., heating by steam is generally adopted on account of the rapidity with which heat is available, and the great distance from the boiler at which warming is effected. In the case of factories the exhaust steam from the engines used for driving the working machinery is made use of and forms the most economical method of heating possible. There are several different systems of heating by steam--low pressure, high pressure and minus pressure. Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page |
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