Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/426

 402 COTTAGE, FAUM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. iron plates, sixteen inches square, and three eighths of an inch or half an inch thick, pierced with holes an inch apart, half an inch in diameter on the under side, and con- tracted to the eighth of an inch on the upper side. Sometimes tiles pierced in the same manner are used instead of iron plates ; and a kiln tile, about a foot square, ought to contain 900 or 960 small holes. Whether tiles or plates are used, in either case they rest loose on wrought-iron rafters, with a narrow rib along the middle of the upper edge, which forms two rabbets for receiving the plates or tiles. Wirecloth, supported by iron rafters, is used occasionally, but it is found not to be sufficiently durable ; or perforated sheet iron may be employed. This last material was formerly almost exclusively used for dryinf pale malt, but it is now found that with cast-iron plates or tiles, like those above described, the malt may be made pale or brown at pleasure. The space between the floor tiles and the top of the furnace or flues is commonly between five and six feet : this space is called, in Norfolk, the dunge, and into it fall the chives or cooms which, in the process of turning and drying, are rubbed off the malt ; and these form an excellent manure, under the name of malt dust, as well as a good mash for sick cattle. The proportions of the openings on the top of the kiln, and for admitting air to be heated over the furnace, relatively to the area of the surface of the kiln, are points rather difficult to adjust. For a kiln twenty-seven feet square, a circular opening at top, of about five feet in diameter, will generally be found sufficient ; and the area of the openings on each side of the furnace and flues, for the admission of cold air to be heated, must, when united, equal that of the opening at top. These openings for the admission of the external air should have regulators of sheet iron balanced by weights, so as to adjust the draught according to the heat, and the state of the malt. A great improvement has been lately effected in some of the Norfolk malt-kilns, by the dismissal of that unsightly and expensive appendage, the cowl, before-mentioned, as being placed over the orifice at top. This cowl, until of late years, was deemed an indispensable part of every malt-kiln ; but to Mr. Salmon of Stoke- ferry is due the merit of the discovery that it may be wholly dispensed with. In lieu of them this gentleman substitutes a flat circular canopy of sheet iron, supported on iron rods. By this improvement, not only the exterior deformity is got rid of, but also two lar.cre interior beams ; the one forming a guide, and the other a base and pivot for the upright axle of the cowl. In a country like Britain, where malt is heavily taxed, there are necessarily a variety of observances having reference to the duties of the excise officers, which occasion some peculiarities in the details of construction ; such, for example, as the malt couch, dry cistern into which the malt is thrown from the steeping cistern, before it is spread on the floor, in order to be gauged ; but these we leave unnoticed at present, as unconnected with general principles. 799. Hop- Oasts, or Hop-Kilns, are constructed much in the same manner as the malt- kilns ; and the principal modern improvement which has been made in them, that of sub- stituting hot air cockles for open fiieplaces, is common to both. In the old plan of the hop-oast, the fire was made on a grating at the bottom of the kiln, with what is called a spark plate (a broad plate of cast iron, to reflect back the sparks, and prevent their reaching up to the hops) placed at the distance of a few feet over it. Instead of being laid on a perforated floor of iron or tiles, hops are almost always dried on haircloths. These are supported on a floor formed of wooden spars or laths, about two inches and a half square, and nailed, two inches apart, to wooden joists. The haircloth is laid upon this floor, and its edges round the sides of the kiln are hung up by loops, to prevent the hops from falling over into the fire-chamber below. The form and size of hop-kilns vary, but they are generally built square, as being most suitable for covering the drying-floor with a cloth ; and the ordinary size of a drying-floor for a hop groimd of two statute acres and a half, is eleven feet on the side. This size will dry three changes of hops in twenty- tour hours. The floor of the kiln ought to open into a loft on the same level, into which the hops are thrown to cool. In one part of this loft is a circular hole, about two feet in diameter, with an iron rim round it, on which is placed the hoop to which the mouth of the bag or pocket in which the hops are to be packed is sewed. This bag hangs down through the floor into the place below, which may be a cow-shed, or, as it is very fre- quently in Worcestershire, a cider-house ; and a man gets into it and treads down the hops as they are thrown in to him. The fuel which is used for drying hops, when the smoke is allowed to pass through them, is coke ; and that made from very sulphureous coal is preferred, as tending best to preserve the colour of the hops. In the management of hops in Britain, there are a variety of arrangements connected with the kiln and hop- loft, rendered necessary by the mode of collecting the excise duty ; but these we take no notice of here, as our object is merely to lay down the general principles of drying, from which every Architect can deduce the most advantageous forms. 800. A Drying-Kiln for General Purposes is a useful building for a corn fann in a wet climate, and it may be easily constructed, at very little expense, and scarcely any loss of room J since the drying-floor may be used as a granary or store-room, when not