For large public buildings, factories, &c., heating by steam is generally adopted on account of the rapidity with which heat is available, and the great distance from the boiler at which warming is effected.
There are several different systems of heating by steam - low pressure, high pressure and minus pressure.
The steam is employed for warming apartments by means of pipe radiators, for heating water by steam injections, and for all cooking purposes.
Electric power generated by steam is now commonly used in Buenos Aires and other large cities for driving light machinery.
In 1839 Seguin endeavoured to determine the mechanical equivalent of heat from the loss of heat suffered by steam in expanding, assuming that the whole of the heat so lost was consumed in doing external work against the pressure to which the steam was exposed.
