Anglo-American communications studies

[Harmon Seaver]

Craig McKie wrote:
> 
> Americans do not have electric kettles within the intended British
> meaning. They tend not to know what you are talking about. The product
> is absent from the shelves at Target and Walmart.
> 

      Really? I bought my electric kettle at Target, although I bought
my son's at a fancy cookware shop called Wire Wisk at the mall. I use
mine for tea, he uses his to boil water for both coffee and tea. 



> Most Canadian households would have electric kettles where gas cooking
> is not involved. Something about tea-making perhaps?
> 
> O>>I think "furnace" is "boiler" in English.

       No, furnace is furnace, boiler is boiler.

> > Bear wrote:

> >Hm.  Not all furnaces are boilers.  Basically we use the word
> >"furnace" here to mean the heating unit for a house.  One kind
> >of furnace is a boiler, which heats liquid that then gets
> >circulated through radiators.
> >

      No, that's a mis-use of the word furnace. Furnaces produce hot
forced air heat. Boilers are boilers, either steam or hot water. 


> >Other types of furnaces are electrical, or fired by gas, coal,
> >oil, or wood.  Sometimes they heat a gigantic rock that then
> >radiates heat for days (this arrangement is popular in arid
> >northern and northwestern states).  More often they heat air,
> >channeled through a heat-exchanger by a fan and then circulated
> >directly through the rest of the house via ductwork.
> >
> >Actual boiler-type furnaces are quite rare in the US, and
> >I haven't seen a coal-fired furnace since I was a child.
> >They're still out there, though; although they are now illegal
> >for pollution reasons here in CA, there are places in the
> >midwest where once in a while you still find them in use.
> >
> >
     Good grief -- "boiler-type furnaces are quite rare in the US", eh?
You ought to come up north sometimes. Hot water or steam boilers are
extremely common in homes. I wouldn't have anything else -- in fact, a
house with forced air heat wouldn't even be looked at by my wife or I
for potential purchase, they give really lousy,drafty performace which
dries out your skin and shrivels house plants and generally makes you
miserable all Winter. Hydronic heating is the only way to go. 
     Not only is it better heat, but it also lends itself more readily
to heat storage if you have a combo wood and gas/oil boiler, where you
use a large insulated tank to even out the heat from the higher temp
wood fires. With a wood furnace, the wood burns up, the house gets
overly hot, then the fire goes out and you're cold. 

     Amazing what passes for cryptic comments these days.



-- 
Harmon Seaver, MLIS	Systems Librarian
Arrowhead Library System	Virginia, MN
(218) 741-3840	hseaver at arrowhead.lib.mn.us 
http://harmon.arrowhead.lib.mn.us