Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/119

1868.] bule, oval in form, with four niches, 10 × 16 feet; B, the centre hall, 15 × 18 feet: C, the stair-hall, 15 × 22 feet, which contains the main stairway; D, the sitting-room, 20 × 20 feet; E, reception-parlor, 20 × 22 feet; F, the drawing-room, 18 × 35 feet; G, the dining-room, 20 × 32 feet, with recess for sideboard, T; H, library, 16 × 20 feet; I, alcove in the same; J, study, 12 feet diameter; K, lavatory; L, private stairs; M, butler's pantry, 11 × 12 feet; N, water-closet; O, ladies' boudoir; P, front porch; Q, covered balcony, connected with the library and study; R, dumb-waiter, in the hall that contains the private stairs; S, closets.

The kitchen and the other servants' offices are placed in the basement; and their dimensions must of course be arranged according to those of the rooms above.

If the idea of such a basement be carried into execution, in the fitting up and furnishing of these domestic offices, a thorough system of ventilation should also be introduced, as nothing can be more annoying to persons of delicate olfactory organs than the various effluvia arising from the culinary department of the offices; and, indeed, the comfort of the entire household much depends upon the arrangements there adopted. Many persons imagine that the method of finishing these humbler rooms is of such slight importance, that, if a reduction is to be made in the estimated price of the building, the difficulty is almost always met by the selection of inferior materials and common workmanship for this department of the building. We are, however, of the opinion that, if any part of the house must be more carefully found and finished than another, it should be the kitchen and domestic offices.

Great care should be taken in the preparation of the subsoil, to insure perfect drainage, in order to prevent any tendency to dampness, which, of course, must always bean important matter for consideration and avoidance.

We hear frequent complaints of the heat felt in all chambers immediately beneath the roof, in their respective buildings, more especially where a transverse section shows flatness, or an obtuse angle at the ridge pole; and the prolonged temperature, inducing these complaints, rises as we approach the hither boundaries of the Southern States, being greatest wherever slate is used for the covering. This arises either from faulty or cheap construction; and the defect may readily be remedied in practice by forming double air-chambers, or ducts for the passage of a current or currents of air, one of these ducts, or conductors, to be fed from small openings beneath the cornice and through the upper edge of the bed- mouldings, and the other within panels in the frieze, between the modillions or brackets. When no brackets are used, which is sometimes the case, the openings to the inner duct can be arranged along the lower edge of the bed-mouldings. The air is thus conveyed to the loft, within the upper section; and thence escapes through regularly constructed ventilators. The annexed figure exhibits a section of the form applicable as well to any Mansard roof as to that of the messuage of this exposition.

A, the cornice; B, the inner air-chamber; C, the rafter, and outer air