PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 599 



The teacher should form the right angle of the triangle of which 

 the front row of the seats is the hypotenuse. 



The room is narrower, and the light has not so far to travel 

 across, and there is a better reflection from the opposite walls to 

 light up the spaces between the windows. 



In the Square Room. 



The teacher's space is cramped. 



The teacher will have to face a very large frontage, and will 

 have to constantly turn his head to supervise, or place himself at 

 the left side of the class, with his back to the window, in order to 

 obtain a better view. This will cause the children to turn to the 

 left and face the light. 



The light has to travel further, and there is much less reflec- 

 tion from the opposite wall. I have often noticed as great a 

 difference as over two candle-power in the light on the desks on 

 the two sides. 



The room must not be too long for ordinary vision or for 

 normal hearing. 



From experiments that I made, I believe the sides of the room 

 should be in the proportion of about 5 to 4. 



An ideal class-room for 48 children should be 30 feet in length, 

 24 feet in breadth, and have an elevation of 13^ feet. This would 

 allow every child to have about, but not quite, 200 cubic feet of 

 air space. 



Illumination should be from the left and right. We are right- 

 handed, and therefore the greater amount of light should be from 

 the left. This will not cast unnecessary shadows during writing, 

 drawing, and reading. In reading, the book should be held in 

 such a way that the left page is illuminated by the reflected light 

 from the right page, whilst the latter is directly illuminated by 

 the windows on the left. 



In most text-books it is stated that the illuminating space 

 should be equal to one-fifth of the floor space; this is not suffi- 

 cient according to experiments I made with Dr. Bishop-Harman's 

 photometer. 



The least amount of light is on the desks on the left between 

 the windows. This can be obviated by not having the left column 

 of desks too close to the window wall, and by having the walls 

 painted a light colour. 



The usual dark dado, which does not show up dirty finger 

 marks, allows very little reflection of light. 



