Many of our readers remember well the famous story of Arthur Conan Doyle about one of the investigations of Sherlock Holmes. Even the screen version of this story with the performance of the best actors in the history of screen adaptations of stories about Sherlock Holmes was in the very first series. The plot was that the attacker was hiding a trained poisonous snake in a ventilation vent, and at his signal it crawled out through the ventilation grill and killed the victim. From the point of view of forensic science, this crime is a work of a high standard, but Sherlock Holmes coped with it once or twice. But is it that simple?
By the way, the film adaptation turned out to be interesting. According to the plot of the film, Holmes, seeing Watson for the first time, asked him how long ago he had arrived from Afghanistan. Since at that time (1979 - 80) this country could not be mentioned unnecessarily, everywhere in the text its name was replaced with the word "East". This was ideologically sustained, but it turned out a little clumsy, it is clear that the lips of the actors pronounce a different word. Such were the curiosities during the filming of the film, but this is not about that now.
Probably, some readers of this story or moviegoers were visited by at least two questions, namely:
- What dimensions did this ventilation outlet have, that an impressive snake could live in it, freely moving in it and not attracting the attention of the inhabitants of the house.
- If the ventilation outlet is a narrow passage in the wall, then the snake living in it will be straightened all its life, which is basically impossible for it (biologists, correct it, if not right).
Surely Arthur Conan Doyle did not invent the plot of this story, but copied it from real life, slightly embellishing it, as it should be for engineers of human souls. What, then, were the secrets of the ventilation vents? Well, judging by the fact that snakes could live in them, it was warm and moderately damp there. Well, somewhere there was a section in which the snake could curl up in a ball or ring. Why and where? Let's try to find a ventilation scheme in old books.
What kind of serpentine is at the bottom of the columns? It turns out that this is not the serpentine that we are used to imagining. In French, the word "serpentin" also means a coil, or a heating element of the corresponding shape. A good allegory was invented by a writer. It is noteworthy that the air for heating is taken from some underground mine A. Further, this air, passing through the heaters, enters the ventilation vents and further into the rooms. For the snake, we can say that the ideal living conditions have been created, except for the lack of food and a partner for mating. Let's see another diagram.
Air from the street through the basement enters a certain heater h, from where it enters the collection chamber e in a heated form, and then through the ventilation vents into the room according to the ventilation scheme. Then, in transit, the air is removed through another ventilation vent, and even into its two windows - the lower W and the upper S. As you can see, the plot of the story is ideal for life if the snake lived in chamber e and climbed upward according to a conditioned signal, for example, a whistle or knocking about the wall. For her, even the humidity was maintained thanks to the water tank r. As you probably already guessed, chamber e received, as they say now, for distribution ready-to-use clean air, having the required temperature and humidity. If the flow of this air had to be stopped, then this could be done with the m and u valves (the first is common for all ventilation vents at once).
Promotional video:
As you can see, technical solutions for heating and ventilation of the house were concentrated in one place - the basement. The air was heated centrally and distributed throughout the rooms thanks to ventilation vents built into the wall. Technically, this is very competent - it is not necessary to put heating devices in every room, and the systems that produce heat and mass transfer are essentially concentrated in one room in the basement. With a good power of the heating system, such a house can be operated in any climatic zone.
But immediately questions - what heats the air in the heater h if no chimneys are provided in the building structure? And what kind of heater was it? Oddly enough, there are many such strange heating and ventilation schemes.
As can be seen from the diagram, the air damper was controlled through a flexible cable R. When the damper was lifted, warm air began to flow into the duct. In the film adaptation of the story, it was most likely that this cable got into the frame (see the main photo), from which we can conclude that the film was shot not in the Lenfilm scenery, but in a real old castle house with the very same heating and ventilation system. The air in this house was heated by something similar to the above scheme, located in another room.
What was heating the air? An incomprehensible element L is drawn. What is it? If these are ordinary burners for lighting gas or oil products, then no one would send such air into the ventilation. Obviously, this is something else that we no longer know.
This is another type of heating-ventilation system, and we see a lot of radiators O. They heat the air that comes into the room from the underground gallery S. Again we see some kind of incomprehensible underground gallery. What is it for when air can be taken from ordinary basement windows? However, the version about two pipes is born again. All existing dungeons, most likely, were universal collectors that entangled buildings throughout the old part of all ancient cities. And these dungeons converged on the nearest temple, which was the main link in the life support of buildings. This version is still subject to verification, but all others look very unconvincing. To confirm or refute, you need an up-to-date dungeon map of any large ancient city. However, back to our heating and ventilation.
The miracle heaters indicated on the diagrams were used not only in small buildings, but also in buildings of a much larger scale.
How much should these heaters be if they ventilated and heated theaters and exhibition pavilions? Most likely, considerable. Those who visited ancient palaces, especially in northern Europe, probably noticed the absence of heating devices in the halls (except for fireplaces, but this is a local source of heat). Many independent researchers have put forward many versions on this matter. The main versions are that the palaces were originally built in a different climatic zone that did not require heating at that time, and that pneumatic heaters existed in the palaces - the so-called. Ammos ovens. None of the versions can now be convincingly refuted. As for the Ammosov furnaces, they were officially (apparently) put into operation in 1835 and only in Russia. Was there really no cold weather before this time? Besides,at mass events in the palace, with several hundred people in the hall for many hours, the issue of ventilation was quite relevant. There are interesting details in official sources about the existence of Ammosov furnaces in Russia:
What happened in St. Petersburg if this information is true? The entire civilized world until the 20th century did not know these Ammosov stoves at all, although the climate of northern Europe did not differ much from St. Petersburg. It is only in Russia that such know-how is suddenly invented and massively introduced, dismantling the same coils. And for some reason, there are absolutely no photos of St. Petersburg on the network with smoke from the chimneys of the Ammosov stoves, which were located at the main palaces of the capital at that time. How to understand all this? But here, most likely, the question is for historians. In this connection, it is difficult to determine what the coils, which had previously been coping with the entire existence of the palaces, suddenly began not to cope with their task. And most likely, the replacement of the coils here was not due to imperfection of their parameters, but because of politics. For reference, at the same time there was a church reform,which destroyed the technical properties of the temples, and most likely these were links in one chain of events. But back to France.
In front of you is the very same coil, which, according to the drawing, was installed in some easily erected building. As you can see, it consisted of the same bent heater through which hot air went up. But next to it there is an ordinary pipe, through which air also goes up. The structure does not have a cover, so we can conclude that this is not an oven. Apparently, the drawing was made by a person far from heat engineering. Judging by the fact that the pipe at the bottom right is sealed with boiler material, then air did not pass into it, and it was she who had nothing to do with air exchange. And what did she do? Well, of course, heating some object at the bottom of the coil. Probably like this or something like that.
This is a hospital in France during the First World War, when all the rooms suitable for this were adapted for the wards. As you can see, this coil has only one exit, the pipe that is on the left in the drawing is replaced with a cover in the coil, something like this:
Indeed, why remove useful heat outside? For ventilation, you can adapt the very pipe that goes out the window. Since the hospital was created on an emergency basis, it was not possible to lead the pipes somewhere in the connection of the dome. They were connected on a temporary basis. For those who doubt that these are ordinary wood-burning stoves, I attach a few more photos.
What always distinguishes wood-burning stoves from others is that in the photo their walls are always covered with soot above the furnace door, and on the floor near the firebox there is either garbage, or just a stain from the frequent standing of people in this place. When identifying, these signs always work, even if they did a general cleaning before the photo session. Do you still have doubts or do you think that you took pictures in the summer? You are welcome.
The holes on the boiler indicate that the smoke was not there for sure. Since there is no smoke without fire, then vice versa is also perfectly true. The cleanliness around the boilers is almost perfect, and the furnace door is rather symbolic. Well, and one more important detail - the pipe passes through the draped wall without any fire protection.
Where are the pneumatic or at least just wood stoves here? And they simply are not here. Apparently, France was not at all interested in Russian inventions. The palaces were still heated by coil pipes, which were in regular places, i.e. in the basements. And even for hospitals, coils were found in the right amount, and the most interesting thing, they were found where to include.
The farthest coil was not even brought out the window, but the columns of the building were brought out to the metal connections, apparently there was such an opportunity.
As you can see, the coils even had glass walls. Perhaps some items were placed there for drying or heating. And they did their job well enough, performing the functions of heating and ventilation at the same time. In the conditions of war, this was a very rational decision.
And this is the permanent Parisian hospital Laënnec, at the time when he was still there. The coil is just in the performance when it is under the column, as in one of the above drawings. Something similar has already been applied in hospitals in Australia, only there was a metal table, inseparably connected to the column. Most likely, it was the same technical solution, only with a small variation.
It is now impossible to accurately identify in which part of the building this chamber was. But at the same time, the number of pipes on the roof does not correspond to the number of coils in the room. Their connection with the building frame was apparently carried out in the attic floor.
But that was France. What about the rest of the world? Strange as it may seem, they were the same everywhere except Russia. Either someone hid all the historical photos of coils in Russia well, or there really were no coils there after the well-known reforms.
If the stove in the lower photo was fired with wood, then they would be put there, as in the well-known anecdote, across. But this is a simple American house of the early 20th century, no one there thought that such things were heated with wood. In many open sources, photos of such coils are widespread enough, no one pays special attention to them. Apparently, the new generation abroad no longer distinguishes between technical details.
And this heating and ventilation device should rightfully be called the Palace of the Colorful Ribbon. The snakes would be very comfortable in it. If the writers of that time knew that in a hundred years such products would pass into the category of science fiction, then Jules Verne would probably have written more works from nature than all the classics of Marxism-Leninism put together.
Author: tech_dancer
