ENGLISH HOMES

Evening Star, Issue 22272, 25 February 1936, Page 2

ENGLISH HOMES

" OPEN FIRE A NATIONAL ASSET "

At tlie Welsh Schol of Architecture, Technical. College, Cardiff, a lecture was given by Mr Raymond Walker, architect to the Coal Utilisation Council Isays the ‘Colliery Guardian’). Mr W. S. Purehon, president of the South Wales Institute of Architects, and head of the school, presided. Mr Walker said that in England, where people had so little sunlight during the winter months, radiant heat was a vital factor in the health of the nation, and, therefore, the open fire was a national asset, if only' because the radiation therefrom was nearest to solar radiation. Mr Walker explained that in. spite of statements that the coal fire polluted the air, there was no doubt that it could not be dispensed ■with until some efficient substitute was found, or until the question of smoke emission had been dealt with. The coal utilisation Council had allocated between £4,000 and £SOO for research, with the aim of reducing the output of smoke from open fires, and at present Dr Sinnatt, of the Government Fuel Research Station, was tackling the subject from a scientific angle. He solicited the co-operation of architects in helping the coal trade to improve the design of coal burning apparatus. The outloqk for the coal industry, he concluded, was a happy one. Great difficulties were still to be surmounted, but if, with the assistance of the architect, the appliance manufacturers could go ahead on the right lines, by reason of its essential economy, apart from its other advantages, coal would come into its own again. BETTER USE OF COKE. Gas engineers have recently given a great deal of attention to the development of economical apparatus for burning coke, both for central heating and domestic uses, according to Mr F. W. J. Belton, engineer to the Christchurch Gas Company, who gave an address on ‘ Recent Developments in Gas ’ at the conference of the Gas Institute of New Zealand last week. The most outstanding development was the magazine coke, boiler for central heating, requiring attention only once a day. In these the coke was held in pockets or magazines,'forming the sides of the boiler, and fed out by gravity on to an inclined grate, at the rate at which it was being burned.