Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1051

 FITTINGS-UP OF VILLA DWELLING-ROOMS. 10^7 16:3-1 passes over and under the heated roUers, and is remo'ed at c, having been dried in its course ; c? is a roller pressed hard against the middle copper one, which is made strong for the purpose. By these means the linen is mangled in its course of drying, so that both operations are performed together. The linen web is contrived with endless tapes, as in the patent printing machinery of Robson ; so that the piece of linen to be mangled and dried may be carried over the rollers any number of times before it is re- moved, when it is once settled. The details are not complex ; the steam goes into each roller at the axis, which is a stuffing-box. There may be frames placed under the rollers, to produce a cuiTent of air, and assist in the desiccation of the linen. The mangling roller may be thrown out of gear at pleasure. The rollers at x merely sustain the linen web. Two men's power would be sufficient to turn the whole machine, and one machine would dry thirty or forty shirts, five or six pairs of sheets, or other matters equivalent to that bulk at one operation. A boiler is indispensable in every laundry ; and that, by having one of Perkins's linings, might be easily made to produce the steam both for drying the clothes, and for heating the water for washing them." In the laundry at Dunse Castle, near Dunse, Berwickshire, we saw in 1804, a mode of drj-ing the family linen, which was somewhat similar to this, and was found to succeed perfectly. " In great houses," a correspondent observes, " unoccupied bed-rooms are sometimes damp. Mr. W. Strutt had a compartment in the di-ying-eloset in his laundry, into which the whole bedding of one bed (included in an open-sparred wooden frame) could be put, like one of the clothes-horses. All the beds in his house were in turn aired in this way, one or two being done each day that the closet was heated for other purposes." SuBSECT. 2. Of the Fittings-up and Fixtures of the Dwelling- Rooms of Villus. 2054. The Fittings-up and Fixtures required for heating and lighting are those of most importance in villas, as in every other dwelling ; but we have not much to add to what will be found in the sections on these subjects in our preceding books. 2055. Lighting Rooms hy Gas has hitherto been chiefly employed in towns and suburban villas ; but we have no doubt that, with the progress of improvement, it will be found worth whUe to adopt it in all country -s-illas, except those of the smallest size : for example, in all those where more than thirty lights are required for the living-rooms and offices; and as it is by no means improbable that gas may be soon employed not only for lighting, but for cooking and heating, in that case it may become desirable for every villa to have a gasometer. The saving in labour would be great ; but, what to us is still more gratifying to con- template, it would render lighter and more agreeable the situations of cooks and house- maids. It appears that the progress made in lighting private houses by gas has been much greater in Edinburgh than in London ; though in the latter city there are some houses (for example, that of INIr. Hicks, 18, Wimpole Street,) most beautifully and perfectly lighted up with it. Our correspondent, Mr. Robison, speaking on this subject, observes, " I have long looked on lighting by gas as the most elegant and comfortable of all our domestic improvements. Every stationary light in my own house is of this sort, and I have never experienced any inconvenience from it, except sometimes the heat ; and that I have now done away with, by carrying away the hot air from the ceilings of the drawingrooms between the lathing and the wall, through openings made over the archi- traves of the windows, where they are concealed by the di-aperie-s. The walls and ceilings of my drawingrooms are enriched by gilding, and there are multitudes of gilt frames, and the draperies are of silk damask of a bright tint ; yet nothing has been injured by the gas, although some part of the family use the rooms all the year round. The dining-room is lighted by five argand burners, which have been in regular use since the year 1825, when the ceiling was painted in cream-tinted flat oil colour. v,hich is still as fresh in the middle of the room as in other parts of it. and this could hardly be the case if any smoke necessarily arose from the gas. I am aware that both the gas and the gas fittings are better made in Edinburgh than in London ; but I am confident that, even as you are, you might, by a little care, prevent almost all the inconveniences you complain of. Nine