Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/57

Rh both glass ceilings it becomes sufficiently diffused to give equal satisfaction in all parts of the room.

CEILINGS AND SKYLIGHTS The great difficulty in museum rooms is to get the height necessary for proportion and good light without making the walls look too high and too dark at the top. After much experimentation, it has been discovered that a ceiling with a cove is best adapted for museum purposes. The cove makes a reflecting surface which sends the light directly onto the walls and diminishes the useless space above the hanging line. In the case of top-light, the cove ceiling is particularly important, for the dark pocket between the skylight and the walls is ugly and wasteful of light. In a side-lighted room, the cove may be much smaller than in a top-lighted room. It used to be thought necessary to make the ceiling glass the full width of the room, but now it has been found that the light is better and the whole effect more pleasing if the glass stops two to five feet from the side walls, according to the size and proportion of the gallery, and this space is filled by a cove. The ribs between the glass of the skylights should be as small as possible as each one casts a disagreeable shadow on walls and floor. By placing the glass at the bottom of these ribs rather than at the top