Construction of Labourers Cottages. 503 



obtained of nearly every ironmonger, at a cost of from 6s. to 125. 

 Dr. Arnott, in a letter to ' The Times,' dated 22nd September, 

 1849, makes the following- remarks on them : — 



" For years past I have recommended the adoption of such ventilating 

 chimney openings as ahove described, and I have devised a balanced metallic 

 valve, to prevent, during the use of fires, the escape of smoke to the room. 

 The advantages of these openings and valves were soon so manifest, that the 

 referees appointed under the Building Act added a clause to their bill, allowing 

 the introduction of the valves, and directing how they were to be placed, and 

 they are now in very extensive use. 



" A good illustration of the subject was afforded in St. James's parish, where 

 some quarters are densely inhabited by families of Irish laboui-ers. 



" These localities formerly sent an enormous number of sick to the neigh- 

 bouring dispensary. Mr. Toynbee, the able medical chief of that dispensary, 

 came to consult me respecting the ventilation of such places, and, on my recom- 

 mendation, had openings made into the chimney-tlues of the rooms near the 

 ceilings, by removing a single brick and placing there a piece of wire-gauze, with 

 a light curtain-flap hanging against the inside, to prevent the issue of smoke 

 in windy or gusty weather. The decided effect produced at once on the 

 feelings of the inmates was so remarkable, that thei'e was an extensive demand 

 for the new appliance, and, as a consequence of its adoption, Mr. Toynbee 

 had soon to report, in evidence given before the Health of Towns Committee 

 and in other published documents, both an extraordinary reduction of the 

 number of sick ap[)lying for relief and of the severity of diseases occurring. 



" Wide experience elsewhere has since obtained similar results. Most of the 

 hospitals and poorhouscs in the kingdom now have these chimney-valves ; and 

 most of the medical men and others who have published of late on sanitary 

 matters have strongly commended them." 



It is important that one casement in every window should be 

 made to open, for although such an arrangement will not effectually 

 ventilate, yet it materially assists ventilation. 



It will be observed that the door between the living-room and 

 wash-house is made to open towards the fire. The reason of this 

 arrangonent is best explained by an extract from Tomlinson's 

 work on ventilation : — 



" Chimneys which otherwise draw well will often smoke from the improper 

 situation of a door. Thus when the door and the chimnej' are on the same side 

 of the room, and the door, being in the corner, is made to o|ieu against the wall, 

 as is usually done, to have it more out of the way, it follows that when the door 

 is partially opened a current of air rushes in and passes along the wall into and 

 across tlie oiicning of the fireplace, and whisks the smoke into the room. This 

 hapiTcns more frcciuently when tlie door is being shut, for then the force of the 

 current is increased, and jiersons sitting near the fire feel all the inconvenience 

 both of the draught and the smoke. A remedy may be found by an intervening 

 screen, projecting from the wall and passing round a great part of the fireplace, 

 or still better, hy shifting the hinges of the <l()or so as to tiirow the air along 

 the other wall." 



When the Ijcdrooms are formed cither partially or wholly in 

 the roof, tluiir cubical content is diminished, and the difTu ulties 

 of ventilation projiortionably increased. 



'i'lic act oinpanving plans are designed in accordance with this 

 principle, no portion of the bedrooms being constructed in the 



