HEATHEN, a term originally applied to all persons or races who did not hold the Jewish or Christian belief, thus including Mahommedans. It is now more usually given to polytheistic races, thus excluding Mahommedans. The derivation of the word has been much debated. It is common to all Germanic languages; cf. German Heide, Dutch heiden. It is usually ascribed to a Gothic haiþi, heath. In Ulfilas’ Gothic version of the Bible, the earliest extant literary monument of the Germanic languages, the Syrophoenician woman (Mark vii. 26) is called haiþno, where the Vulgate has gentilis. “Heathen,” i.e. the people of the heath or open country, would thus be a translation of the Latin paganus, pagan, i.e. the people of the pagus or village, applied to the dwellers in the country where the worship of the old gods still lingered, when the people of the towns were Christians (but see [Pagan] for a more tenable explanation of that term). On the other hand it has been suggested (Prof. S. Bugge, Indo-German. Forschungen, v. 178, quoted in the New English Dictionary) that Ulfilas may have adopted the word from the Armenian hetanos, i.e. Greek ἔθνη, tribes, races, the word used for the “Gentiles” in the New Testament. Gentilis in Latin, properly meaning “tribesman,” came to be used of foreigners and non-Roman peoples, and was adopted in ecclesiastical usage for the non-Christian nations and in the Old Testament for non-Jewish races.
HEATHFIELD, GEORGE AUGUSTUS ELIOTT, Baron (1717-1790), British general, a younger son of Sir Gilbert Eliott, Bart., of Stobs, Roxburghshire, was born on the 25th of December 1717, and educated abroad for the military profession. As a volunteer he fought with the Prussian army in 1735 and 1736, and then entered the Grenadier Guards. He went through the war of the Austrian Succession, and was wounded at Dettingen, rising to be lieutenant-colonel in 1754. In 1759 he became colonel of a new regiment of light horse (afterwards the 15th Hussars) and became well known for the efficiency which it displayed in the subsequent campaigns. He became lieutenant-general in 1765. In 1775 he was selected to be governor of Gibraltar (q.v.), and it is in connexion with his magnificent defence in the great siege of 1779 that his name is famous. His portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds is in the National Gallery. In 1787 he was created Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar, but died on the 6th of July 1790. He had married in 1748 the heiress of the Drake family, to which Sir Francis Drake belonged. His son, the 2nd baron, died in 1813 and the peerage became extinct, but the estates went to the family of Eliott-Drake (baronetcy of 1821) through his sister.
HEATING. In temperate latitudes the climate is generally such as to necessitate in dwellings during a great portion of the year a temperature warmer than that out of doors. The object of the art of heating is to secure this required warmth with the greatest economy and efficiency. For reasons of health it may be assumed that no system of heating is advisable which does not provide for a constant renewal of the air in the locality warmed, and on this account there is a difficulty in treating as separate matters the subjects of heating and ventilation, which in practical schemes should be considered conjointly. (See [Ventilation]).
The object of all heating apparatus is the transference of heat from the fire to the various parts of the building it is intended to warm, and this transfer may be effected by radiation, by conduction or by convection. An open fire acts by radiation; it warms the air in a room by first warming the walls, floor, ceiling and articles in the room, and these in turn warm the air. Therefore in a room with an open fire the air is, as a rule, less heated than the walls. In many forms of fireplaces fresh air is brought in and passed around the back and sides of the stove before being admitted into the room. A closed stove acts mainly by convection; though when heated to a high temperature it gives out radiant heat. Windows have a chilling effect on a room, and in calculations extra allowance should be made for window areas.
There are a number of methods available for adoption in the heating of buildings, but it is a matter of considerable difficulty to suit the method of warming to the class of building to be warmed. Heating may be effected by one of the following systems, or installations may be so arranged as to combine the advantages of more than one method: open fires, closed stoves, hot-air apparatus, hot water circulating in pipes at low or at high pressure, or steam at high or low pressure.
The open grate still holds favour in England, though in America and on the continent of Europe it has been superseded by the closed stove. The old form of open fire is certainly wasteful of fuel, and the loss of heat up the Open fires. chimney and by conduction into the brickwork backing of the stove is considerable. Great improvements, however, have been effected in the design of open fireplaces, and many ingenious contrivances of this nature are now in the market which combine efficiency of heating with economy of fuel. Unless suitable fresh air inlets are provided, this form of stove will cause the room to be draughty, the strong current of warm air up the flue drawing cold air in through the crevices in the doors and windows. The best form of open fireplace is the ventilating stove, in which fresh air is passed around the back and sides of the stove before being admitted through convenient openings into the room. This has immense advantages over the ordinary type of fireplace. The illustrations show two forms of ventilating fireplace, one (fig. 1) similar in appearance to the ordinary domestic grate, the other (fig. 2) with descending smoke flue suitable for hospitals and public rooms, where it might be fixed in the middle of the apartment. The fixing of stoves of this kind entails the laying of pipes or ducts from the open to convey fresh air to the back of the stove.
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