Central Heating Boiler in London, 1862

Heating apparatus at the city prison, Holloway

boilers london old

Book illustration of the heating apparatus at the city prison, Holloway from page 449 of ‘The criminal prisons of London and scenes of prison life’ by Henry Mayhew and John Binny. The authors visit the Engineer’s department and observe the boilers that heat water which is piped around the prison. The Plumbing and Heating Engineer reports that: “We keep the fires burning night and day when the weather is cold, keeping the temperature up in the winter, which renders the cells very healthy, with a sufficient quantity of warm air passing into them continually from the flues, where the hot-water pipes are. Each of the cells has an extraction flue that conveys the impure air into a large flue on the roof of each wing, and these large flues are connected with, and discharge themselves into, the ventilating shaft.” The boilers also heated water “to supply the baths in the reception ward, and likewise for the baths given to the prisoners in the various corridors, in winter once a month, in summer once a fortnight.”

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