Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1045

 FITTINGS-UP OF VILLA OFFICES 1021 be flagged with Yorkshire or Scotch flagstone, rubbed smooth, and given one coat of oil, to prevent grease from marking it. The store-room, larder, pantry, and apparatus-room should be boarded. The kitchen court should be flagged ; and it should have a good fall from the kitchen to a drain with an air-trap. The kitchen itself should be lighted by skylights, as this mode throws the light best mto open vessels. The roof may be constructed as shown in the vertical profile, fig. 1821, and in the elevation, fig. 1822. The top, a, is ^ I !! !i I 1
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1 1 1 ]^ 1^-21 .< - r 1 t — ^ ! ii 1 Ll. ii ll ! 1 1 1822 a copper flat platform, surrounded by a continuous skylight of rolled sash-bar, like the roof of a hot-house, with principals strong enough to support the weight of the platform. There should be large opening ventilators below the cornice of the building, as shown at b ; there should also be a large gas burner in the centre of the kitchen, with several over the hot hearths, &c., and in each other apartment one, except the scullery, which should have four at least. In building the kitchen, as many flues should be provided as possible, which maj' either join into one stack, or be carried up separately according to convenience ; but none should be less than forty feet high, and they should not terminate imder any large or very close building. In the scullery, both plate-drainers should be enclosed in front and at top with wooden casing, one end being placed against the outer w<ill, through which there should be a large aperture opening into the case, and covered with fly canvass; and the other end, that is, that opposite, shotdd be likewise only covered with canvass. Tlie casing should have doors in front, to take plates and dishes in and out : by these means, a ciu-rent of fresh air will always be rushing in through the plate- drainers, which will, in a very short time, dry the plates perfectly. The chief ventilation to the scullen,- and kitchen should be tlirough these plate-drainers. A large heavy block of wood should stand in the scullery, like an anvil block, for pestles and mortars to be used on ; and, besides this, a heavy chopping-block, with a cover to keep the dust from it, for meat. Above each of the main cooking apparatus should be placed some small racks and shelves, in order that the cooks may have always at hand such utensils, as forks, ladles, spoons, plates, &c., as are necessary for immediately removing matters cooked. 20S8. The Walls of the Kitchen, for seven feet high from the ground, should not be jilastered, but built of rubbed sandstone, and left bare ; because plastering is continually broken in such situations, looks ill when greased, and, if whitewashed frequently, is con- tinually scaling off in small flakes, which fall into the cooking vessels, &c. 2039. A large Table shoidd be appropriated solely to the purposes of dishing dinners on ; and I would propose to make its surface of a sufficient number of two-feet wide flat wrought-iron tubes, heated by means of hot water circulating in them, from the waste heat of any of the neighbouring fires : an underground air tunnel should be pro- vided, opening from the external air under this hot-water table, to be opened after the dinner is taken to the dining-room, in order that this great heated surface may not render the kitchen too hot. 2040. To prevent the Smell of the Kitchen from reaching the Dining-room various plans have been proposed ; but the only effectual mode is, either wholly or in part, to ven- tilate the kitchen by a current of air, from the direction of the dining-room passage, and towards the kitchen ; and thus drive back the smell. 2041. A covered Shed, Veranda, or Passage, should be formed round the whole of the kitchen buildings, on three sides, to keep off the sim in summer, and to serve as a place for airing vessels, and for performing some of the coarser operations connected with the kitchen. 2042. Among the Utensils of large Kitchens, a potato-washer by rotation may occa- sionally be admitted ; and a sieve hung from a flexible pole in a leirge tub, with a constant supply of water, for washing the softer vegetables, such as celery, &c., as in fig. 1823. This is, in fact, a ready mode of sousing them, and is the only way to get the aphides, <ic., out of them; unless, indeed, salt and water or lime water should be used, as recommended in the first volume of the Gardener's Magazine. 2043. Evaporatory Befrigerating Apparatus, G. ilost fluids of culinary use may be rapidly cooled by means of certain little vessels, sold by ironmongers, on the principle of