Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/854

834 take up his work, instead of tossing about for hours, or lying restless, and tortured with all the troubles which seemingly come in upon him ou such occasions.

The nurseries of a house should be cheerful, well lighted, and well ventilated, and made to open into each other, so that at night-time the door may be left open, and the air space made as large as possible. A small pantry or scullery should be fitted up on the same floor, with sink and ample closets or cupboards for crockery and toys, and, if possible, a water-closet and bath-room close adjoining.

The servants' rooms should be made as healthy and convenient as any other rooms in the house, well lighted, and, being in part in the roof, care should be taken in all new houses to protect them from undue heat and cold by means of boarding and slates, by overlaying the former with battens, on which the slates are hung, so that, as far as practicable, the rooms may not be rendered hot and close in summer, or icy cold in winter. All these precautions can easily be taken in the building of a new house without any great additional cost, and will amply repay the extra outlay by the increased comfort and healthiness of the house.

Somewhere on the top floor a lumber-room should be provided, lighted from the roof, and this should be boarded all round, so as to prevent the damage which is often caused in plastered rooms by the boxes being placed roughly against the walls. A cistern-room is also essential in every well-found house, boarded in to keep it clean and free from dust and filth, which would be sure to foul the water; to plighted, so as to enable the cisterns to be examined and frequently cleaned out, and from this room access might be had to the outside of the roof.

As far as practicable, all water-pipes, hot and cold, should be run up together, properly labeled and easy to be got at, in a chase or recess which should be cased over and closed with screws. The hotwater pipes, if properly felted in, would contain a sufficient amount of heat, long after the kitchen fire is out, to keep the space, even if next to an outside wall, well above freezing-point.

The bell-wires should all be laid in zinc tubing, the gas-pipes always iron, and not what is called composition, and in no case should any pipe of any kind be rendered inaccessible by being buried in some remote corner, or in the plaster-work of the rooms. The ordinary plumber and gas-fitter takes no heed of how his pipes go, and what happens to them after he has fixed them in their places; his anxiety seems to be to carry them by the shortest possible way to the points at which they are to be used, and, unless carefully looked after, you may be tolerably certain that they will be so hidden away that, in case of accident, you will have to pull up half the floors of your house, or knock about a good many of your walls, to discover any leakage, especially if it be in a gas-pipe.