Construction of Warm-BaiJis, 69 



which, however, is very unlikely to occur; but the concussions 

 thus produced injure the pipes, and may render them leaky; 

 so that in regard to these, and all other baths, &c. we may 

 remark, that the pipes should pass up and down in such parts 

 of the house as will not be injured if some leaking takes place ; 

 and under the bath itself should be a sufficiently large leaden tray 

 with a waste-pipe, to receive and carry off any accidental drip- 

 pings, which might injure the ceilings of the rooms below. In 

 all newly-built houses, two or three flues should be left in proper 

 places for the passage of ascending and descending water-pipes ; 

 and these flues should, in some way, receive at their lower part a 

 little warm air in winter, to prevent the pipes freezing ; the same 

 attention should also be paid to the situation of the cisterns of 

 water in houses, which should be kept within the house, and 

 always supplied with a very ample waste-pipe, to prevent the 

 danger of overflow. Cisterns thus properly placed, and care- 

 fully constructed, should be supplied from the water-mains by 

 pipes kept underground till they enter the house, and not car- 

 ried across the area, or immediately under the pavement, where 

 they are liable to freeze. 



3. Baths are sometimes heated by steam, which has several 

 advantages : it may either be condensed directly into the water 

 of the bath ; or, if the bath be of copper or tinned iron, it may 

 be conducted into a casing upon its outside, usually called a 

 jacket ; in the latter case there must be a proper vent for the 

 condensed water, and for the escape of air and waste steam. 

 Steam is also sometimes passed through a serpentine pipe, 

 placed at the bottom of the bath ; but none of these methods 

 are to be recommended for adoption in private houses, and are 

 only advisable in hospitals, or establishments where steam- 

 boilers are worked for other purposes than the mere heating of 

 baths. A description of the different modes of employing steam 

 as a means of heating masses of water for baths and other uses, 

 would lead me into too wide a field of discussion for the present 

 paper, which, therefore, I shall here conclude. 



C. 



