Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/488

 472 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

of the water, making a remarkably dainty bath. One may venture to say that the construction of these swimming tanks could not be improved.

A very important feature of the Brookline bath is the heating of the water and the floors, to which considerable thought and ingenuity has been applied. The disadvantages of other swim- ming baths inhere in the fact that the water is generally of varying temperature because of the natural tendency of warmer water to rise to the surface. Ordinary methods of steam injec- tion were out of the question because of the noise and the danger from the pipes. By the system devised, the water in the tanks, taken from the public water supply, is constantly changing ; yet the standard temperature, from 75 to 80° F., is easily main- tained. A four-inch supply pipe from the city main was brought in from the street and around the side of the tank to the farther end, where water is admitted at the bottom. Five Y-branches in the supply pipe (into each of which a steam condenser with a valve was screwed) regulate the temperature of the water flow- ing into the tank. Entering at slow velocity, the warm water is expected to spread and rise to the surface as it passes down to the opposite end. When the tank is full, water is drawn from the bath at the street end and at the bottom by a No. 5 pulso- meter, thus thoroughly mixing the stratum that would otherwise remain on the surface ; steam is then forced around the supply pipe, the street connection being closed, and the temperature of the tank is equably maintained. Impurities, if present, are con- stantly swept from the surface of the water by a superficial cur- rent from a large copper gargoyle (a dolphin carrying the infant Neptune) at one end of the tank. Steam-pipes passing under the main hall keep warm the stone floors of the dressing-rooms and corridors.

Two horizontal tubular boilers in the front basement furnish the steam to heat the entire building. The spectators' gallery (also used as a running track) is reached by a stairway from the entrance hall, which also conducts the visitor to the handsome club-rooms lately fitted up in the second story of the head- house.