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Who knew?
Excerpt: “A
pit was dug about two-and-a-half feet deep outside the door
of the hospital tent; from this a trench passed
longitudinally through the tent, terminating outside its
farther or closed extremity. At this point a chimney was
formed by barrels placed one upon the other, or by some
other simple plan. The joints and crevices of this chimney
were cemented with clay. The trench in the interior of the
tent was roofed over with plates of sheet-iron issued for
that purpose by the Quartermasters Department. A fire was
built in the pit, and the resulting heat, radiating from the
sheet-iron plates, kept the interior of the tent warm and
comfortable even in the coldest weather.”
Source:
The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion,
U.S. Army Surgeon
General's Office, Part III,
Volume II. (3rd Surgical volume), 1883
See also:
Aleutian Islands,
Alaska: Radiant floor
heating keeps ancient inhabitants warm
Civil War Crimean Ovens: Origins, Models, and Modifications |
Civil War Hospital: Radiant floor
heating keeps hospital tents warm
Copyright (c), 2012
Robert Bean and content providers
Background: The two documents featured
below about the
War of Rebellion served as the motivator to start the
research work that led to our 2010 ASHRAE Journal paper
on the
History of Radiant Heating and Cooling and
ultimately our receiving the
ASHRAE Lou Flagg Award in 2011 at the Montreal
Conference. Some of the more significant points from our
research showed radiant was not invented or developed by
the Romans as is often believed but started in Asia with
some very close time lines showing systems evolving in
the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. The Journal editors did
a fabulous job with the article; what was not published
is sufficient enough for a book. If you are an aspiring
history writer and wish to collaborate on this project
please let me
know.
You can
access the entire six volumes of the Surgical
History through McGill
Universities, Maude Abbott Medical Museum links page. |
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The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion,
U.S. Army Surgeon
General's Office, Part III, Volume
II. (3rd Surgical volume), 1883 |
Orr, D.G., Reeves, M.B., Geier,
C.R.,
Huts and History: The Historical Archaeology
of Military Encampment During the American Civil War, June 30, 2006 |
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Special Feature!
In corresponding with Virginia's Office of Historic
Alexandria/Alexandria Archaeology we discovered a research
piece about Civil War tent heating system as described in the
Surgeons Report above; and similar to the Korean "Ondol" and
those discovered in Alaska by Richard A. Knecht from the
University of Alaska Fairbanks / Museum of the Aleutians and
his colleague Rick Davis, an archaeologist at Bryn Mawr college.
This overview
provides greater detail than what we originally found for our
ASHRAE Journal paper. The best
part was the research was done by a 15-year-old tenth grader who
as an assignment from Ruth Reeder, Education Coordinator for the
Museum, had to answer questions relating to the Civil War period
Crimean Ovens discovered in 2003-2004 in Alexandria.
The young researcher has granted us permission to
share his work and we now include it in our archives. I hope you
enjoy it as much as we did.
Policastro, A.,
Civil War Crimean Ovens: Origins, Models, and Modifications,
Virginia's Office of Historic Alexandria/Alexandria Archaeology,
March 2012.
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