Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/20

 4 THE BUILDING NEWS. Jan. 5, 1872. eee 1400, the most important of which are en- grayed in d’Agincourt’s ‘ Histoire de P Art,” &e. 1. The house of Appolonio Lapi, near the Mercato Vecchio, Florence. 2. House and tower of Petraja di Castello, belonging to his family outside Florence, en- larged by Buontalesti. 3. A new suite of rooms in the Palazzo della Signoria for the officials ‘del Monte,” Florence. 4. A domed chapel for B. Barbadori, in the Church of Santa Felicita, Florence (dome now destroyed). 5. A similar one for S. Ridolfi, in San Jacopo Sopr-Arno, next to the high altar. 6. A model, for the Pazzi, of ‘‘ the Chapter- house of Santa Croce,” Florence. This is the Chapel of the Pazzi in the outer cloister, and is a very beautiful example of Brunelleschi’s style, more ornate than usual. Vasari justly called it ‘ta work of great and varied beauty.” 7. The Busini, now the Quaratesi Palace, Florence ; the windows especially fine. 8. House and loggia of the Innocenti, Florence, now the Spedale dei Innocenti Piazza S. Annunziata, designed by Brunel- leschi about the year 1421, but carried out by his pupil, Francesco della Luna, to whom alterations are attributed which Brunelleschi disapproved of. 9. Fortifications at Milan for the Duke Filippo Maria Visconti. 10. The Abbey of the Canons regular of Fiesole, for Casimo de Medici, now the Badia Fiesolana, a church designed in his beststyle, but stated to have been erected in 1462, several years after Brunelleschi’s death. We may here remark that in every instance Bru- nelleschi appears to have prepared a finished model of every work proposed to be erected by him, so that his designs may often haye been carried on by others after his death. 11. The fortress of Vicopisano. (Central Italy ?) 12. The old citadel of Pisa and the forti- fication of the Ponte & Mare, including, pro- bably, the tower now guarding its northern entrance, the Torre dei Sforzati, and which once formed part of the old arsenal. 13. Fortifications for the citadel and har- bour of Pesaro. 14. Various works for the Duke F. M. Visconti, at Milan; ‘‘ among others the plans for the masters who were constructing the cathedral of that city.” But in respect to this statement of Vasari, it is most probable that Brunelleschi was merely asked to give his opinion on works then in progress, as Bra- mante, Giulio Romano, and others did subse- quently, without in the least adding any of their own work to the original design of Hening of Gununden. 15. The Church of San Lorenzo, Florence, not completedat his death, and greatly altered in the transept and tribune from the original design by Manetti. 16. The Church of S. M. dei Angeli, for the Scolari family, Florence; never com- pleted. 17. A rich and magnificent palace for Luca Pitti, outside the Porta, San Niccolo, Florence, at a place called Ruciano ; of this we have no further knowledge. 18. The Pitti Palace, in Florence, up to (or above) the second range of windows (the pedimented windows of the ground floor ap- pear to be subsequent insertions). 19. The Giuntini Palace on the Piazza a’ Ognisanti Sopr-Arno, now incorporated with the Martellini Palace. 20. The Church of the Santo Spirito, Florence, left incomplete at his death. 21. The dome of the Cathedral at Florence, completed, with the exception of the lantern, before he died. Besides these purely architectural works, Branelleschi, who was a good engineer, mili- tary architect, and practical mechanician, de- s.gned the construction of dams on the river Po for Filippo Sforza, Duke of Mantua; one remarkable failure, the only one we read of in his many labours, was his attempt to turn the waters of the Serchio, so as to surround and inundate Lucea. with which city Florence was then at war, circa 1429, which caused more injury to the besiegers than to the be- sieged ; the scaffolding for the construction of the great dome, and other important works at Florence ; machinery for the festival of the Annunciation, of which Vasari gives a de- tailed and interesting account. He also exe- cuted several works in sculpture, amongst which his well-known crucifix, his model for the trial story of the bronze gates for the Bap- tistry, and the marble pulpitin S. M. Novella, Florence, are perhaps the most important. Besides these works of art, Brunelleschi evinced powers of oratory, in his various dis- putes with the Syndics, of no common order ; and from the researches of Mazzuchelli and Bandini, Valery states that he was the author, conjointly with Domenico da Prato, of the romantic poem of ‘Geta e Birria.” His Latin epitaph does no more than justice to his extraordinary genius, and properly con- cludes with these words, ‘‘ Philippo Brunel- lescho antique architectures instaur atori S. P. Q. F. civi qué benomerenti.” ——— SEWER VENTILATION. HE general feeling of late that the venti- lation of sewers and house drains has been neglected, has called forth expressions of opinion from some of those who understand the subject, and from others who evidently do not understand it. The recent letters to the Times, almost daily during the month of December last, show pretty nearly how the question stands at present, and we propose to trace these letters and give the gist of them, with such remarks as appear in our judgment to be called for on each. On the 4th of December, Mr. Rawlinson writes that sewers and drains are also flues, and if refuse liquids flow rapidly down, gases of decomposition flow rapidly up, and if the sewers are connected directly with the insides of houses, by means of drains, water-closet soil pipes, sinks, overflow pipes from cisterns, &e., the gases will flow up them, and that no form of trapping is, of itself, of any avail. “There is no form of trap in existence which, under the above arrangement, can prevent the entrance of foul gases unceasingly to the internal atmosphere. The only effect of traps is to concentrate, and so render more injurious, the sewer and cesspool gases. Let it be clearly understood that traps on drains from unyentilated sewers, cesspools, and house drains are a delusion and a snare. A mechanical trap (flap) cannot be tight at all times, and a water trap absorbs gas on the underside to evaporate or pass it out on the other side ; and many syphon traps are, by the action of the stack pipes, drains, and sewers, sucked dry, and so remain dry for the time. ‘l'rap the closets, and sinks, and drains, but provide abundantly to ventilate at the same points, so as unceasingly to pass any gases of decomposition into the external air.” Mr. Rawlinson finds the ventilation of sewers and house drains objected to by members of Town Councils, by Local Boards of Health, and by individuals, and generally neglected by others. On the same day Mr. Baldwin Latham says the following experiment will show how little dependence can be placed upon traps :— “Take an ordinary Florence flask, and insert in the cork a tube of glass bent into the shape of asyphon tap, 2in. deep, fill the trap with water and then place the hands upon the flask, and in the course of a few seconds the air within the flask will become so dilated by the heat of the hand, as to force everp drop of water out of the trap.” House drains at times are placed under the same conditions, the effect of throwing down into them a pailful of hot water, will be to cause such dilation of the sewer air as will force any ordinary trap, and if ventilation is not provided, as every drop of water passed into the sewer displaces an equal yolume of sewer gas, the gas, ifa safe exit for it is not pro- vided, will escape at points out of control, and where least expected. On the 5th, the Medical Officer of Health for Salford says :— “Ever so slight a taint of sewer gas in living rooms is incompatible with the health of the inmates, and a little investigation enables us definitely to trace to or connect with sewer exhalations much of our zymotic disease. The bath pipe, the lavatory pipes, the water-closet, and the cellar drains, are all connected with the sewers, and through them the gas rushes into the rarefied airofourrooms. These inlets are often trapped, but the trapping in nine cases out of ten is a delusion. Added to this the defective construction of most of the drains them- selves converts them into merely extenuated cess- pools, or, in other words, constant fever-gas gene- rators, for which our houses act as gasometers. The remedy for this sad state of things is a very simple one, and has been most lucidly pointed out by Drs. Parkes and Sanderson in their report on the health of Liverpool. Let all the inlets to the drains be outside the houses; let them be efficiently trapped, and, further, let the drains and sewers themselves be properly ventilated. I know the number of houses in which the inmates are constantly exposed to the miasmatic influence of sewer gas is countless, and the consequent disease is immeasurable. No traps are strong enough to resist the pressure which they have at times to bear.” On the 8th, Dr. John Stenhouse says :— “That the strong suspicion that the cause of the fever from which the Prince of Wales was suffering was due to the escape of putrid air from the drains, is rendered more probable by the fact that it is not unusual for the constructors of drains to trust to water-traps alone to confine the products of putre- faction, forgetting that if noxious vapours are formed they will necessarily force their way into the house, if no suitable means of exit be provided for them. And even where such place of exit does exist, it is itself very likely to be a cause of annoyance, and perhaps of danger. There is, however, an economical, simple, and effective remedy for this evil. In 1854 I was fortunate enough to discoyer that if putrid air were slowly passed through charcoal, the poisonous and offensive gases would be absorbed and com- pletely decomposed by the oxygen contained in the pores of the charcoal. In this way the gases are as entirely destroyed as if they passed through a fire. This discovery led to the construction of the now well-known charcoal air filter.” We intend, on a future occasion, to state fully the practice of ventilation through char- coal, and therefore we do not stop here to make further remarks upon this letter. On the 9th, ‘Smellfungus” asks, if typhoid feyer be caused by the inhalation of sewer gas, how does it happen that the men employed in sewers escape that disease? We shall see further on. On the same day Mr. W. A. Gibbs, of Gillwell Park, Essex, proposes to withdraw the air from the sewers (sewers must be understood to be the sewers in streets or other public places, and drains those channels which convey the sewage from the houses to the sewers) by the action of fans, after the manner of mine ventilation : “ Pour of these fans can be worked by a 10-horse- power engine (which could be hired for the trial), and would draw away between 60,000 and 70,000 cubic feet of air per minute. The principle has been tested and approved for ventilating mines, wherein a draught can be created sufficient to ex- tingvish a candle at amile off the suction fan ; hence it is merely a question of the requisite volume of air to be drawn away from a given area in order to produce a downward, instead of an upward, current from the sewer, and such a question would be at once answered by the means which I propose.” On the 11th “ R. H.” answers the question of ‘‘ Smellfungus ” by giving the very words of one of the men to whom he refers. ‘ It don’t smell so bad down below in the sewer as it does up above at the traps.” In other words, says ‘‘R. H.,” ‘‘the poisonous gas ascends, and is replaced by a lower stratum of atmospheric air, which is relatively whole- some.” Now this notion that the workmen regu- larly employed in the sewers are not parti- cularly subject to illness isa very old one. It was one of the arguments set up in defence of the old-fashioned large sewers, which the late General Board of Health set themselves