PHYSICAL LABORATORY AT TUB UNIVERSITY OP SYDNEY. 97 



expenditure on mere building. Tliis led to the rectangular shape 

 adopted ; and motives of time-saving above referred to suggested 

 the adoption of a wide corridor running down the whole length 

 of the building into which all the i^ooms should open. This 

 corridor in fact is the typical feature of the place. Its great 

 width allows of tables being set in wall recesses ; and its magni- 

 ficent ligliting from both sides at the top, aided by the reflection 

 from its white-painted ceiling will make it an excellent addition 

 to the general Laboratory. Ventilation is secured by an air 

 space left all round in the lantern, and by the doors at each end. 

 The tower also acts as a very tine ventilator. All the rooms 

 have large ventilation ports opening into the corridor ; and 

 capable of being closed by light-tight shutters. Entering at the 

 back of the building — i.e. at the eastern end — the one turned 

 towards the main block of the University buildings, the first 

 room on the right is the lecture room, seated for one hundred and 

 forty students. This room like all the others can be made abso- 

 lutely dark by black blinds of unbleached painted linen. These 

 blinds are cased at the sides in light woodwork. The overlap is 

 about three inches ; and the boxes are painted a dead black inside. 

 Behind these are red blinds of an ordinary pattern. The ceiling- 

 is of varnished wood and is not flat, but partly follows the lines 

 of the roof. One of the great beams was purposely placed 

 immediately over the centre of the lecture table above which it 

 runs the whole breadth of the room. This has already proved 

 itself to be most useful as a means of suspending wires, etc. To 

 avoid expense the seating is in straight lines instead of being in 

 the form adopted in theati'es — as it ought to be. The lecture 

 table is a very solid structure of brickwork with a slate top. I 

 considered the possibility of having a top of thick silvered glass 

 for the sake of shewing up the apparatus, but had to abandon it, 

 chiefly through wondering how it would look when scratched or 

 dirty; and how it would stand accidental contact with hot bodies. 

 The length of this table is about twenty -five feet ; it is three feet 

 six inches wide and two feet five inches high. The object of 

 having it low is to enable the seats to be lower and hence the 

 windows at the back larger. The advantage of having a direct 

 illumination on the black-boai'd placed behind the table is that 

 the glare of light reflected at a high angle directly into the eyes 

 of the audience is thereby avoided. In the centre towards the 

 audience a pillar is built out about two feet square of the same 

 height as the table, and continuous with it. This is designed as 

 a stand for a magic lantern. The screen for the lantern is of 

 drawing paper stretched on linen, and capable of being raised or 

 lowered with a roller at the bottom to keep it stretched. This 

 screen can be pulled up out of sight into a box at the top of the 

 black-board. This board covers almost the whole side of the room 

 behind the lecture table. On the south-west side beyond the door 



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