Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/207

 a ES Marcn 8, 1872. THE BUILDING NEWS. 91 pe tion. We now give the whole two or three coats of the best pale polishing copal var- nish, and polish on this ; or, if the article is small, we may use white hard varnish to finish with. The varnish will give the white ground-work that slight tinge of cream peculiar to ivory. _ Our second method of imitating inlaid ivory is one that is not well suited for works of any great size, but is admirably suited for small cabinets, backs of chairs, work-boxes, &c., and may be executed by ladies, or any one having the necessary knowledge of drawing. We proceed as follows:—We will take a cabinet made of common deal. We now make a drawing on fine rice paper or on some of the finer kinds of Japanese paper. Whatever paper is used the conditions re- quired are a smooth, even surface, a pure white colour, and uniformity of texture. On this we draw our design, having regard, of course, to the size of the panel or part of our cabinet it has to occupy ; the outline and detail should be drawn in with a quill pen and the best Japan ink, and in a bold free style as recommended in the first process; the paper should now be cut to the exact size of the part it has to occupy, and be secured in its place by means of gum or paste, care being taken to lay it periectly level and without air bubbles (or the paper may be put into its place before the drawing is made, and the design then drawn). We now give the paper one or two coats of clear size made from isinglass, which should be dissolved in water to the consistency of a jelly, which may be used with a brush; in this state it is very much better for our pur- pose than if it were used hot. When the size is perfectly dry the paper should be coated over once with white hard varnish and picked in with the stopping varnish, and blacked as described in the first process. It is always best to try the size and varnish upon a waste strip of paper, in order to make sure that no mistake is made; because if the paper is not sufficiently covered with the size the varnish will sink into it and discolour it. Those parts of the cabinet which are not covered with the papermay be sized, varnished, and blacked, and finished with the varnish in the same manner as the other parts. As a matter of course, the suc- cess or failure of works of this kind will depend upon the skill and taste of the operator, the pro- cess, affording a wide range for the exhibition of good drawing and original design with eareful execution, resulting in works of an exceedingly beautiful and durable nature. (To be continued.) —__2_— PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES IN VENTILA- TION AND WARMING. PAPER on this subject was recently read by _ John W. Hayward, before the Liverpool Architectural Society. After some introductory remarks the lecturer said :—Perhaps you will allow me here to read a few observations in the Medical Times and Gazette of Noy. 12th, 1870 :-— “DR, HAYWARD'S MODEL HOUSE. “Tf any of our readers are proposing to themselves that most delightfully vexatious task, the building of a new house, we advise them first of all to take counsel with Dr. John W. Hayward, of Liverpool, and, if possible, to inspect the house which he has built in Grove-street, in that town. More especially it is in the wofully neglected department of ventila- tion that they will get a profitable wrinkle. There ought to be in every house a regular and recognised channel of air-supply, instead of allowing air, as at present, to sneak in through misfitting windows and doors, down chimneys, out of one room into another, beneath dirty old floors, and through sinks, sewers, and water-closets. Moreover, the air ought to be warmed; and there should be care taken tv provide a special outlet for that vitiated by breathing, lamps, &c., without allowing it to mix again with the air in the body of the house. Dr. Hayward’s plan embraces a ‘special lobby, which is to be cut off from the entrance-hall and stairs by doors, and which is to be the special receptacle of warmed air, and into which the doors of the apartments open, besides that numerous large apertures for the entry of warmed air exist in the partitions which separate the rooms from the central warm-air lobby. This is a degree of perfection not possible to be attained in houses already built, and difficult to procure where land is dear. Dr. Hayward gives as one reason for the expediency of the special lobby the impossibility otherwise of keeping out ‘ servant and other listeners.’ Now, this is a point not always thought of by persons who undertake to ventilate houses. A friend of ours, who set to work to ven- tilate a poor lodging house, made a fair sized opening into every room, close under the ceiling, from the common staircase. Certainly, the air supply was improved; but where air can pass sound can too, and the practical result being that every sound in any one room was audible on the stair- case, it was necessary to stop up the openings and do without air, in order to baulk the ‘listening Toms,’ who are fond of knowing other people’s affairs.” This lobby is lighted at night by Ricket’s globes. These globes do not foul the air, and I wish I had adopted them throughout the house—this would have prevented all blackening of the ceilings. By having the central reservoir also as lobbies to the different floors, the heated air is checked on each floor, and prevented from rising at once to the attics, as it does when this heating takes place in the stairs lobby. By having the entrance of the air into the rooms, independent of the door, it is continual, even when the door is shut; and by having it, by numerous openings along the longest side of the room, it is nicely distributed, and perceptible current is prevented. And I still prefer that it should be through the cornice. There are advantages in hay- ing the inlet through the skirting, and there are advantages in having it through the cornice; but I am sure through the cornice has a preponderance of advautages Though the skirting has the advantage of less easy travel of sound from the rooms, and when the air in the lobby is warmer than the air of the room, the ventilation is more perfect. But what does trayel of sound matter when it is into a private lobby ? so that. this is really no advantage after all. And when is the air of the lobby warmer than the air of therooms? Scarcely ever, indeed, only when the heating apparatus is fully on, and the rooms are without fires; so that neither is this any real advan- tage. Nearly all the year round the air is colder in the lobby than in the rooms, and that also after having been artificially warmed ; and there are about two autumn months and two spring months when, though it is scarcely necessary to have the heating apparatus at work, the air is too cold to be admitted directly into the rooms, or, at least, through the skirting directly to the feet of the occupants; but it is not then too cold to be admitted through the cornice, because by slowly falling through the warmer air of the room it becomes tempered before reaching the occupants; practically I have found this to be so. And, besides, there are now and then days, even in the winter, when it is not necessary to have the heating apparatus working; and, now, again, the advantage of the entrance through the cornice comes in. So, taking all points into con- sideration, the cornice is decidedly preferable to the skirting for the inlet. Having control over the exit flues with valves enables one to economise heat, and to direct the current of fresh air or of heated air through any particular room at pleasure; for instance, on a very cold winter night by closing the valves of the ground- floor and first-floor rooms, where the heated air is not wanted during the night, we have the full benefit of the whole of the heated air through the bedrooms. The question may be asked: Why have a foul- air chamber at all? Why not carry the outlets from the rooms directly into the upeast, and thus save both foul-air chambers and downcast ? Because, in that case. some of the flues would have suction and others none. Having a foul-air cham- ber secures the suction from all the rooms equally. The other plan has been adopted by Mr. King, in the new gas offices—all the offices having a flue into the shaft surrounding the furnace flue, which is of iron. I shall watch the working of this plan when in operation. The fresh air being drawn through dry cool cel- lars, it settles the dust and blacks, and in the sum- mer becomes cooled, and in dusty weather it can be passed through canvas screens. That the ventilat- ing lobby should be separate from the stairs lobby is absolutely necessary in every good house, for in no other way can steady equable warmth and ven- tilation, combined with privacy, be secured. And this, of course, necessitates that the front door, or entrance into the house, shall be at one end of the house, and not in the centre of the front elevation. I grieve whenever I see a good house built or being built with the entrance in the centre of the front, for I know that this is or will be necessarily a badly warmed and ventilated house. By admitting the air specially into the central lobby the quantity admitted can be regulated according to the number of persons in the house, and the way of the wind; conditions absolutely necessary to the complete com- fort of the house. There are a few other innovations I wish to notice; for instance, the windows do not open, they are fixed like church windows; four of the bedrooms have only two chimney flues amongst them; the breakfast- room chimney flue runs into the kitchen flue; the principal chimney breasts are in the outer wall of the front and back elevation, and the bells are electric. Most persons object to the idea of windows not opening ; my wife, in particular, protested that she should imagine herself in a prison and go mad. I have, however, to say of the practical experience that I am confirmed in my own opinion of the wisdom of this arrangement in the town, when the house is properly ventilated, and my wife is not only reconciled to the idea, but says she is delighted that they do not open. It is a wonderful protection from dust and blacks, and from the necessity of dusting. The cleaning is done as in most good houses—by men, and costs me from twenty to thirty shillings a year, This fixed condition of the windows is not at all essential to either the ventilation or warming —it is not at all involved in the principles, and it was adopted merely to assist to obviate the ordinary draughty nature of window places, and to keep out the dirt. I have been disappointed to find that it has, with some, been thought essentially involved in the principles followed out. An open window would, of course, increase the inlet, which might be an advantage on a very hot summer evening. It is generally thought that one flue will not answer for two fireplaces; practically, however, it does, and, indeed, these fires burn as well as any other when only one of them is lighted, and much better when both are burning; this, I thiak, results from the flues meeting at equal heights, and the common flue being equal to the two. The breakfast-room flue was, at first, a failure; as originally designed it had the entrance flush with the inside of the kitchen flue ; but it was found that when the com- mon flue was cccupied by the smoke from the kitchen fire the breakfast-room flue would not draw, so I got a shoulder put at the lower edge of the entrance into the kitchen flue. This remedied the difficulty at once, and now this is one of the best drawing flues in the house. This making one smoke flue serve two fireplaces is quite independent of the principles followed, and was adopted merely for economy’s sake. As to the chimneys in the outer walls, here is still a difficulty, and the only difficulty that now requires remedying. These chimneys are subject to gushing down draughts, when the wind blows in gusts against the walls in which the chimneys are; for instance, the west or front chim- neys smoke in puffs in strong west winds, and the back or east chimneys smoke in puffs in strong east winds. This is contrary, I believe, to the general opinion, as it is usually thought that the wind comes over the roof and curls down the chimney. I have tried several kinds of chimney tops, amongst them the swivel cowland Archimedean screw, a horseshoe bend towards the roof, and the introduction lower down in the warm part of the chimney of an open- ing slanting upwards into the smoke flue, but with- out success; I have now a straight long top, simply doubled at the termination ; this has not yet met with the adverse wind. Of course it is not an essential part of the principles of warming and ventilating that the chimney breasts shall be in the outer walls, and it was adopted merely to utilise the fire draught to assist the ventilation. The electric bells also are a mistake—I do not recommend them for private houses. They are about the same cost originally ; but they are a continual trouble and expense after- wards; mine have already cost me more in the abso- lute cost of sulphate of copper than the bells of my previous house cost me in repairs the six years I lived in the house, besides the annoyance of their not acting. Notwithstanding these imperfections, the working of the general arrangement answers the expectations originally formed—there are perfect ventilation and complete warmth throughout the house, so that persons may sit in any part of the room, and do not require to crouch over the fire ; the smell of dinner is gone directly, and so is that of smoking in any room; the bedrooms in the morn- ing do not smell like bedrooms; there is no offensive smell from the water-closets, and both the ventila- tion and warmth are easily regulatable, according to the requirements of the occupants, and the season of the year. Each room receives an ample supply of fresh air, so distributed that there is no perceptible current, and which in summer is cooled from 5 deg. to 10 deg., andin winter is warmed from 10 deg. to