Central Heating, B.C.

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 73, 15 November 1940, Page 5

Central Heating, B.C.

il HE Elizabethans could have learned a great deal from the stately Roman houses which graced England 1,500 years before. The cultured Romans devoted valuable space in their houses to such strange things as baths and sanitation. They had central heating systems, and understood ventilation. The Britons and Saxons who took over what the Romans left did not appreciate these refinements, or the houses either. They promptly used them as stone quarries for the walls of their one and two-roomed houses and for their fortifications. Their way of living was vastly different. The amenities of their civilization were few, but eminently satisfactory to them. In the Roman villas of England, 20 to 30 rooms were not unusual. They were almost always beautifully sited, with wide views to the south and east. Walls were of stone and roofs were covered with tiles or slates. A rough and obscure kind of glass was used in the windows, and the walls were of plaster on which brightly coloured patterns were painted. With the departure of the Romans from Britain the art of glass-making was lost and did not reappear till the Middle Ages, The method the Romans had of central heating is very interesting. The floors of rooms to be heated were of concrete, commonly used by them, and a

lost art for centuries to follow. Under the floors were stone flues, through which passed warmed air, heated by a furnace. Wood was the fuel, for though the Romans mined iron in a district that was full of coal, they never seem to have realised that this could be burned-(Eric Miller, "Fashions Ancient & Modern: Houses," 4YA October 29).