Original in GoOD HOUSEKEEPING.

STEAM AND HOT WATER HEATING.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS AND FIGURES.

N discussing the merits and economies of methods of heating, householders should bear in mind, as sometimes they do not, the differences in the amount of space warmed and the quantity and diffusion of heat required. For instance, a citizen related recently how his stove, which he had substituted for a small furnace, had saved him several tons of coal in a season. It appeared, however, on inquiry, that he had to shut up several rooms in cold weather which were formerly warmed by the furnace, so that with less coal he got less heat. It is cheaper, of course, to warm few rooms than many, small rooms than large ones, a little house than a big one; but in the case of steam and hot water heating, the proportionate expense of running the heat decreases as the amount of space to be heated increasesthat is it does not cost twice as much to warm a house of 16 rooms as to warm one of eight rooms.

It has been sufficiently well established by experience that the running cost of a steam or of a hot-water plant, where the heating is done by the direct plan (that is, with radiators inside the rooms to be warmed) is much cheaper than that of a furnace in the same house heating the same rooms. It may safely be put at 15 per cent. less, and in favorable conditions even a larger saving could be made. With indirect steam heating, where the steam is used to heat chambers of air in the cellar, supplied from the cold air outside and conducted, after warming, by flues and through registers, after the plan of the hot-air furnace, there is very little, if any, saving of expense. Some people prefer this method, because they dislike radiators; but it should always be remembered that the direct method is the cheaper. Steam heating by either method, has manifest advantages over furnace heating, especially in the entire absence of dust, the plague of a furnace-heated house, which the best made apparatus cannot keep from the rooms. A steam plant is more durable than a furnace and requires little care, the important points being to keep the grate clear and the boiler clean. Keeping the grate clear is important in all fires, as fuel is wasted where the under draft is choked. Steam heating apparatus is supplied with automatic dampers, which regulate the draft. The cost of a plant is not so great proportionately for a large house as for a small one. One adapted to heating 15,000 cubic feet, which is about the amount of space in an average-sized eight-room house, will cost, all complete, from $375 to $425.

A hot-water plant costs about 10 per cent. more than a steam plant for the same space to be warmed. The running cost the season through, is less than with steam, though during very severe weather the consumption of fuel will be somewhat greater. This is more than offset by the much less expense during the milder periods, when the fire in a hot-water boiler can be run very low. There is about the same difference between the cost of direct and indirect heating as with steam. In indirect heating, the hot air flows through the room and passes off, it being necessary to provide for its escape in order to keep up the flow of cold air into the heating chambers. But in direct heating, the air of the room is warmed over and over and a less degree of heat in the radiator is needed to keep up the temperature of the room. In steam heating, whatever the weather the fire in the boiler must always be kept up hot enough to make steam, otherwise there will be no heat. In a hot-water plant the circulation of

the water in the pipes can be maintained with a fire that would not make steam. This is the principal reason why hot water is cheaper than steam. Another advantage is that in starting a new fire in a hot-water plant, the water begins to circulate in the pipes the moment the fire begins to raise its temperature, and very soon gives off heat; whereas in a steam boiler no heat can be had till the fire has burned long enough to raise all the water in the boiler to the steam point. Again, in case of the fire going out, through neglect, if it is at once renewed the water in the pipes will not cool sufficiently to cool the rooms.

It is probable that 50 per cent. of the people who build new houses now-a-days put in steam or hot-water plants for heating, and their greater economy and vastly greater convenience and desirability over other methods are coming to be generally conceded and understood. There has been a very large decrease of cost in these kinds of heating apparatus within 18 or 20 years, as well as very important improvements in the efficiency and economy of the apparatus. Most patents have expired, so that there is very little monopoly in any part of their manufacture, and competition has reduced the cost to customers to about its lowest possible terms. As some people cherish a notion that there is danger in a hot water plant, it should be said here that it is absolutely the safest system of heating known; there is no possibility of an explosion, as the expansion of the water is provided for by an open vent, so that there is never any pressure on the pipes. We commend these systems as on all accounts the best and cheapest, and believe that every one who tries them will indorse that view. Chauncey R. Sias.

Original in GoOD HOUSEKEEPING.

THE ASH-LESS ISLE. O, the dusty cellar furnace!

O, the wide-mouthed hungry furnace !

Ever higher, higher, higher

Heaps on coal the busy shovel,
Ever deeper, deeper, deeper

Fall the noisy ashes under-
Fall the littering ashes, sifting
Through each crevice, round the cellar.
Hardly in her boxes, barrels,
Finds the house-wife room to hold it.
Vainly looks she for the ash-man;
Waits for him from morn till evening;
Waits until the pails and kettles
On the curb are all snowed under.
Oh, the Saints invoked by Bridget!
Oh, the protests of the mistress!
Oh, the bluster of the master!
Oh, the inconvenience of it!
Buried under dust and ashes!
Days go by-the ash-man comes not-
Comes not to a suffering people;
By this time the baby's cradle
Will not hold another atom,
By this time the frail band-boxes
Rudely burst and spill their contents.
But, some day, thus speaks the housewife :
"Hark!" she says, "I hear a creaking,
Hear a rumbling, crashing, slamming,
Hear a sound of boxes, barrels
Being dashed upon the side-walk."
Thus again the ash-man greets us-
Comes to lift a grievous burden-
Cheers us with his daily presence;
For this trouble with the ashes,
Wears the heart, and wastes the body;
Makes us long with bi er longing,
For a residence in some region
Where the "natural gas" flows freely-
For some Island of the Blessed,
Far removed from dust and ashes!

-Ella Lyle.

Original in GoOD HOUSEKEEPING.

TO BESSIE.-A VALENTINE.

Bonny, brown-eyed Bessie, when I send you from my hand,
These few words of loving greeting, over miles of sea and land,
Does the baby-mind half know me, whom the baby eyes ne'er saw?
Does the baby heart draw to me, following love's unerring law?
Oh, my Bessie loved so dearly-loved so dearly, all unseen;
In this strange old world about us many stranger things have been
Than for one by such sweet fancies willingly to be beguil'd;
One who loved the mother, ever thus to love her little child.

How I long, dear heart, to hold you in my arms all tenderly,
Telling you the nursery stories that were once so dear to me:
Poor Cock Robin's tragic ending, or the fate of Jack and Jill;
Humpty Dumpty's elevation, and the woman 'neath the hill.

Then, when sweet eyes grew heavy, I would hold you close and close,
Tell you other tales and fairer than are any, love, of those:
How the gracious guardian angels watch about our little one,
Or in Heaven's holy radiance far outshine the glorious sun.

Ah, 'tis fain our dreaming, Bessie, while I hold you in my heart,
We may be, on this earth, ever, as to-day, still far apart;
I may send my thoughts to yon-ward, as these fantasies of mine,
To my southern orange-blossom from her loving Valentine.

Original in Good Housekeeping.

STOVES AND FUEL.

-Ruth Hall.

HOW TO HANDLE THE ONE and Save the OTHER.

GOOD range or cooking stove lightens a woman's work so much, that every kitchen should contain one; though the parlor be unfurnished or the house unpainted, have a safe, reliable stove with which to do the family cooking. I doubt if there is a man living who would bother with an implement as trying as a burned-out, cracked, cooking stove that takes three times the fuel it should to heat the oven hot enough to bake. A cooking stove should be roomy; it is a mistake to buy a small stove. A range with six lids, large oven, elevated warming-oven, and other conveniences is the joy of a housewife's heart. A stove (No. 9) with four lids, revolving top, reservoir, will do. There are many good kinds made. Stoves and ranges should have large fireboxes. When wood is burned in winter, chunks and small logs can be burned therein at night; if the drafts are properly regulated, the fire will keep until morning.

The casting should be heavy. The drafts, flues, and chimney should be cleaned at least four times a year. Consult your insurance policy; read carefully and fulfill all the conditions. See if your chimney is up to the required standard, and that the stove is far enough from the wall. Know that no sparks can escape any place, especially where the pipe enters the chimney. It will pay. Have your fire safe! Insurance money is hard enough to get when all the conditions have been justly complied with. It is terrible to burn out! If your stove smokes, find out the reason and stop it. We get old and ugly soon enough,-don't allow yourself to be smoked.

Whatever kind of fuel is used, insist upon it being good; if you burn wood, have at least half of it dry. Green wood can be burned sometimes, but never attempt to bake with it. Have a woodshed and see that it is filled. Peace is a long step in Godliness, and it should be maintained in the family, but disturb it temporarily, if need be, until enough wood is. provided to last at least six weeks. Some men say, “O! anything will get burned if we bring it in." Any man who amounts to anything knows that women's work is harass

ing enough without tormenting her with green, wet wood. Whenever I see a large woodpile, or, better still, a shed filled with finely split, dry wood I know that that man appreciates his wife and his position in his household. Nothing less than a saint can keep her temper and cook breakfast over a sulky, undecided fire, when the kitchen is blue with smoke and the wood sings psalms and sheds tears. When this is the case, my friend, just cook accordingly; if your other half likes pancakes white, dried, and sad, just give him plenty and do not re-inforce them with viande prepared the day before. You can eat a lunch after the fire concludes to burn while "he" is feeding the calf.

Soft coal makes a cheap and hot fire. It is dirty; a filter attached to the cistern is a necessity if soft coal is used. It is better than poor wood.

Hard coal is excellent to cook on in winter if the stove is made to burn it. Patience is an important requisite when learning to make, keep, and use a hard coal fire. It seems easy and is, when one learns how; one of the first things to learn is to leave it alone. "Never have the coal come above the stove-lining. The fire will not be so bright, fuel will waste, because the draught is not so good. When not using the fire, keep dampers closed, when needed, open the drafts. For cooking or baking, no matter how hot the fire desired, having the coal come nearly to the top of the lining, the fire ought to last four hours without new coal or poking. The top of the stove may be red-hot; the coal piled up to the lids and yet the oven will not bake. There is too much coal in and the draught is stopped by it."

Gasoline is the best fuel for summer. But one must be careful when using it. One with a double burner for wash boiler and oven, and two single burners costs about sixteen dollars. Two and one-half gallons of gasoline at a shilling per gallon, will do the cooking, washing and ironing one week for a family of four. Then think of the comfort.

A kerosene lamp-stove, with one burner is very handy. A quart of water can soon be boiled on one. -Rachel Schuyler.

Original in Good Housekeeping.

A BACHELOR'S OPINION.
Pooh, pooh! it's nonsense, boys, I say,
To think the birds should choose this day
For billing and for cooing,

It's only silly folk, like you,
Who have no better work to do
That waste their time, and money, too,
In such a senseless wooing.

You'd better save your precious dimes, Instead of sending silly rhymes,

Just like a pack of ninnies, But no! you needs must rack your brains And have your labor for your pains, Inditing sentimental strains

To Pollies, Kates, and Minnies.
And as for what they send to you,
Dear, dear, it's stuff and nonsense, too,
With more of rhyme than reason..
They'd better far be at their books,
Or learn to be good, useful cooks,
Than sending valentines, odzooks!
Both in and out of season.

What, what? a valentine for me?
Do hurry, boys, and let me see-
Who sent it now, I wonder?

It must have been the Widow Grey,
I've often seen her look this way,
Well, well, I'll let her name the day-
A comic one, by thunder!

-Helen Whitney Clark.

Original in GOOD HOUSEKEEPING.

HOUSE HEATING, HOME LIGHTING AND COOKING. ECONOMY, CLEANLINESS, DAILY CARE, ETC.

LIGHTING.

THE OIL WE BURN.

T was many years ago that the Seneca Indians, living on the government reservation in the lower tier of counties of New York, used to collect from the top of standing water of pools and ponds, an oily substance which they used for liniment for bruises and rheumatism. It was known in the market as "Seneca Oil," and a small bottle of the substance sold for a dollar. This substance then collected in such small quantities, and introduced so sparingly into the markets of commerce is now known to have been the petroleum, or kerosene, with which we all have become familiar. Colonel Drake, a man living near Titusville, Pa., came to the conclusion that the earth held a reservoir of oil, and that the greasy substance found in New York and on the waters of Oil Creek, a small stream in Pennsylvania, also found oozing out of the crevices of rocks in the same locality, came from this subterranean reservoir. So firm was he in his convictions, that he sank a well, which after four months drilling, rewarded him by spouting forth two thousand barrels of oil. The whole nation was aroused, and in an incredibly short time, a large district was tested by drilling other wells, and oil production became one of the great commercial interests of the country. It is thoroughly an American enterprise, and has assumed immense proportions.

Manufactories were already in existence for the distilling of coal oil out of coal, and at first the resemblance was so great, that petroleum was thought to be the same substance, distilled by nature in her underground workshop; but the idea was not correct, though coal and petroleum are both the product of plant-life of the past, changed by the process of nature into these two substances.

Science tells us that "the great coal beds are formed by great swamp forests which, under fresh water, and by great heat and pressure, were turned into coal." Oil, it is now thought is formed by the softer plants, sea-weed and water plants, which have been under salt water, and at lesser heat, distilled beneath the surface. It is always found in connection with salt water, and forming on top, has soaked into porous sand-stone, sometimes running into holes and crevices of rocks; with the oil and salt water in the underground veins, there is found a quantity of gas, and it is this heavy pressure of gas that makes a spouting well when oil is first struck; when the power of the expanding gas is gone, the well has to be pumped by engines, fed by gas, or the oil of the well that is pumped. Manufactories that used to distil oil from coal are now used for refining the crude petroleum.

Oil production is each year decreasing in the old original territory, and small wells that were once thought to be of very little value, are again an object of interest, and a man is fortunate who owns a number of small producing wells, the cost of pumping being comparatively small and the profits large. Abandoned wells are also being again worked and the territory of weak production is once more being tested, with moderate success, the lesser production, resulting in higher prices for the commodity. The average cost in former

years for drilling a well was three thousand dollars, but at present the average cost has been reduced to about two thousand. It costs no more to sink a well from the top of the highest hills than in the valley, though the same strata of sandstone must be reached. In drilling through the hill, a few feet below the surface, rock is struck, which forms such a firm casing for the well that cheap tubing may be used, but in drilling in the valley, the softer soil requires very expensive tubing, which is not infrequently lost, involving much expense and trouble.

Oil from the wells is pumped into large tanks, through pipes lying on the surface of the ground. These tanks are located at convenient points all over the oil district. They are circular in shape, with a low, dome shaped roof, and built of boiler iron painted a dull, dark red, and hold from twentyfive to thirty thousand barrels of oil. At Olean, N. Y., there are about five hundred of these storage tanks, forming quite a city of tanks; they are arranged something like city blocks and squares with streets between them, and present a singular appearance.

From these and other storage tanks a double line of sixinch pipes conducts the oil east, west, north and south, hundreds of miles to the great cities, great pumping stations being stationed about sixty miles apart along the way.

Our lamp oil, as we buy it, bears little resemblance to the green, black or dark brown petroleum, before it is refined. When petroleum is distilled by being subject to heat, the lighter oils are given off first, and pass under the names of benzine, gasoline and naphtha. After the kerosene has come off there remains a dark residue from which is obtained machine oil, and various preparations known as vasoline, cosmoline, and paraffine, and some sorts of chewing gum and candy are made from this substance.

The oil regions of Pennsylvania and New York are the principal sources of the oil supply for illuminating purposes, used throughout the entire world. These regions cover a stretch of land about two hundred miles in length and under twenty miles in width, while only about one-tenth of this is oil producing. This is divided into about eighty-five oil producing districts, clearly defined from the non-producing, by the derricks from the wells scattered over the ground. Only two counties in New York, Cattaraugus, and Alleghany, have been found to be productive, the rest of the famous district lies almost entirely in Pennsylvania, reaching a short distance into Ohio and West Virginia.

Natural gas is used entirely for fuel in and near the oil regions. A large gas well, if near a large town, is more valuable than oil. Gas wells of various capacities are found in all oil regions, and Western Pennsylvania is heated and lighted almost entirely by this gas. Around Pittsburgh there are gas wells of great extent and it has quite supplanted coal for all manufacturing purposes, and it can no longer be considered a dirty city from smoke. McKean county, Penn., sends out its pipe lines for gas in every direction, extending them as far as Buffalo, N. Y., without losing much pressure. No additional power is necessary, so great is the force where it issues from the well to force the gas along its entire system of pipes, and it burns with a roaring sound in the stoves or furnaces where it is used.

Many of these wells in about a year's time become exhausted, and new ones are being constantly drilled. The old wells are used during the summer months, when less pressure is needed, and are then capped or closed, and the pipes attached to new ones at the beginning of the colder season.

The consumer pays by the month, the price being determined by the number of stoves or grates used; after that is settled upon, he may burn his gas night and day, or he may shut it off, there is no difference in his price, consequently

the people never study any economy of fuel. This is also the same in regard to its use for illuminating purposes, and some homes though thoroughly uncomfortable from the heat, allow the gas jets overhead to remain lighted all day, for no other apparent reason than to save the labor of lighting them at night. To burn this gas in a stove it is not necessary to have a pipe attached, though many have them for appearance sake, but if consumers chance to fall short a length or so, they remain unconcerned about it, provided it reaches the garret; the small matter of not reaching the chimney does not disturb them. There is no odor when burning, and not much discoloration.

The oil and gas are considered by resident physicians, great disinfectants, else we are assured that the people at Bradford, Pa., would have died off years ago with some plague, so imperfect has been the sewerage, and so careless have been the transient population in the location and building of their homes. Sewerage is receiving more careful attention there at the present time. I was also told by the medical authority that while most terrible accidents resulted from the following

ready at all times to pull up stakes and migrate to the latest new development.

There are a few great oil centers like Bradford and Oil City, Penn., that have attracted to them other business enterprises sufficient, coupled with the great refining oil interests and marts of exchange, to secure to them a permanent existence, and some attention is here given to the refinements of their surroundings; but society and organizations are badly affected by the changing population. Derricks, the visible token of a well, loom up seventy feet high on the hillsides, and in the valleys around them, like chessmen on a great chess-board, and on the top of the highest hills they stand out against the sky like great skeletons of monuments, and one is lost in wonder at the immensity of the undertaking that can haul up those long steep hillsides the heavy timbers and engines necessary for the drilling of a well. The streets are not exempt from these unsightly objects, the cities having grown around the wells that were drilled in their infancy. They have philosophically accepted the situation, made no effort to remove the obstructions, but have let the public

of the oil business, yet a laborer about a well, though handling and using sharp, rough and heavy tools, never was afflicted with sore hands, any abraisure of the skin or bruise, always healing rapidly. This would rather prove that there was virtue in the Indians' "Seneca Oil" of the olden time.

The oil found in the Ohio oil field is entirely distinct from that of the eastern, being used more for fuel than for illuminating purposes. Its value in the market is also far below and it can hardly be said to come in competition with, or to affect the market for the Pennsylvania oil. It is found in a limestone rock, and is strongly impregnated with sulphurous compounds. The Pennsylvania oil is found in the pores of a heavy sandstone, and in depth below the surface from five hundred to twenty-seven hundred feet, and is considered the finest illuminating oil in the world. Pennsylvania oil averages in price from $1.00 to $1.03 a barrel, while Ohio oil averages from fifteen cents to twenty cents a barrel.

A visitor to the land of the oil well is at once struck by its dissimilarity to any other region except, perhaps, a mining district. Speculation and the uncertainty of permanent location, drives from the mind of the would-be resident, all thought about beauty of construction, or choice of location, for his dwelling. Many of them are of a roving disposition at the best, choosing their home roof only for the time being,

adjust itself to the abiding necessity, so if one runs against an oil well in driving about, it is only necessary to proceed around the obstruction and find the street again on the other side.

In Bradford, directly in front of the Episcopal church, almost interfering with an approach by carriage to the front entrance, stands one of these black, greasy-looking derricks, pumping its occasional barrels of oil, making it too valuable to remove; dooryards are ornamented with them, the derricks projecting high above the house like a tower, the platforms around them are black and slimy with the drip from the flow, the grass for some distance around killed, and the earth looks greasy and black, with an occasional yellow scum in some depression, but so used are the residents to these sights that it proves no detriment to the sale of or value of the property for a residence except with the very wealthy.

Another curious feature of an oil town is the network of iron pipes that lie above the ground, covered in places, but more often exposed, running along the sides of the streets, crossing them at intervals, which with the poorly graded condition, does not make driving a much to be desired pleasure.

Here and there a pipe is standing upright a few feet above ground, and from many of them, night and day, flows a broad blaze of ignited gas, giving a bright light by night, and adding to the intensity of the heat of a summer's day. Some of