Winters are here! And so are the days, when we find it hard to rise up from our blankets and make our weekends productive. On other days, our offices are able to drag us out of our warm comfort zones but on weekends, only a good central heating system could make us feel fresh and warm enough to make our holidays more dynamic.
What started out as gathering around the fire, to carry fire inside the houses, reached the point where we have designer radiators like the Grey Horizontal Radiators and what not.
The Earliest Heating System
It all began with our ancestors who first learned to light fires. Although today you might feel like lighting a fire is easy, it is not. When you don’t have match sticks or gas lights, sparking a fire is really hard.
So, they would use the rocks and enable fire to survive the cold.
It is said that Ukraine might have been the place where the hearths came into being.
The Romans
The Romans when they conquered the UK, they brought with them a system they had not known before. This system was the hypocaust. The hypocaust was a hollow space in the ground, below the floor, into which hot air was directed. The system was used to keep public bath houses.
Their system was such that fuel had to be kept ready for keeping the buildings warmed up. However, the smoke and fires would blacken their rooms as the roman word for room is ‘atterimus’ derived from ‘ater’ meaning ‘black’.
The Chimneys and Water Heating Systems
Whilst the Normans introduced the chimneys for overcoming the flaws of the Roman heating system, the Russians, much later, found a way for heating homes through water-based heating systems.
The Stoves
Then came the stoves largely due to the contribution of Benjamin Franklin. The fire fumes would last longer to give more heat. This also gave a way for properly channelizing the smoke and avoiding blackness.
The Industrial Revolution
Now heating systems dealt more with stems. With the intention of steam engines, during the 18th century, some famous people had found out a way to power their houses with the steam based heating system.
The Radiators
Later Stephen Gold put the idea of steam and water together to bring his innovation to the party. His innovation was the mattress radiator. They had two sheets of iron riveted together.
These sheets were often designed and painted in the Victorian Era to make them look pretty and accentuate house interiors. The Victorian Era paced up the level of the radiators’ game and there was a huge advancement in heating systems.
The radiators were known as hot boxes or heat distributors. ‘The Bundy Loop’ was a widely known radiator made from cast iron and came in circular versions.
The Modern Day Radiators
Towards the end of the 19th century, the radiators had become not only sources of heating but used as decoration pieces as well. Traditional styling combined with application of heating the homes became a prime commodity in the 20th century.
Conclusion
Hence, this is how radiators evolved from being mere hotbox to designer radiators today keeping the floor heating system still a trendy way of keeping homes warm.
