The Argory
Northern Ireland
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The McGeough
Bond family commissioned Arthur and John Williamson
the Dublin Architects to design their new property to be built
in
County Armargh Northern Ireland.
The property was built during the 1820's as a Greek revival
villa.
The Argory property is notable for its engineering
technological history, depicted
by the number of items relating to the built environment to be
seen in every room.
HEATING
SYSTEMS
Three types of heating
equipment have been installed at differing time periods in the
building to heat the premises.
The first method of heating would have been the
ornamental tiled fireplaces which can be seen in the majority
of rooms.
All these fireplaces most likely date from the time when the
property was being constructed.
The second method of
heating would have been the installation of the two cast iron
warm air stoves
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This cast iron ornamental solid
fuel fired warm air stove is sited at the bottom of
the main staircase in the lobby area. Of particular
interest about this stove is that its flue pipe is
routed under the floor of the Lobby and then rises
vertically inside the adjacent wall. As this
underfloor flue pipe would have produced negative
draught the problem has been overcome by the fitting
of a removable brass plate in the floor above the
flue. This allowed an auxialliary fire to be lit at
the base of the vertical section to draw the flue
gases into the vertical chimney.
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At the rear of the ornamental stove is fitted a
Musgrave cast iron tiled solid fuel stove.
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This drawing illustrates how the
flue pipe called a decending stove, was incorporated
into the building structure and with a smaller fresh
air pipe improving the combustion of the fire
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The third method of heating the rooms was the
installation of a Perkins HPHW
two-circuit wet heating system serving pipework on the first
floor.
The wet heating system although no longer in use
is still complete with its original
pipework and cast iron furnace that was manufactured by
Musgrave's of Belfast.
This would date the installation at the end of the 19th
century.
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View
inside furnace showing coils of pipework
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View
showing the two flow and return pipe circuits
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Inscription reads VULCAN BOILER MUSGRAVE'S LTD BELFAST
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This type of a metal cased fire brick lined
Perkins furnace is a rarity of historic
interest and important heritage value.
It is the Vulcan Boiler as manufactured
by Musgraves of Belfast.
Musgraves of Belfast ceased trading
in the 1960's so any of their equipment
now discovered has become irreplacable.
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GAS
LIGHTING
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These various
gas light fittings are
attractive due to their variety of
design shapes and styles
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ACETYLENE GAS
PLANT
Located
in an out building is a size A1 Acetylene Gas generating
plant. It was constructed in situ in 1906
by the Acetylene Corp, Great Britain of Westminster London.
The plant was abandoned many years ago.
A comprehensive list of operating & maintenance
instruction were provided for whoever was going
to be responsiblefor the day-to-day operation and safety of
the gas plant,
The
companies CATALALOGUE OF GENERATING PLANT front page is
shown below.
The plant produced acetylene gas from Calcium
Carbide that was piped to
supply the light fittings in rooms throughout the property.
AUGUST 2015 / updated 2020
