BATHS 297 



among tlio bathers. The price of admission was very small, amounting to no more 

 than a farthing. E. Lee, on Mineral Waters and Baths. 



Warm baths have come into very general use in England, and they are now consi- 

 dered as indispensably necessary in all modern houses of any magnitude, as also in 

 club-houses, hotels, and hospitals ; and the mode of constructing baths, and of ob- 

 ttiining the necessary supplies of hotand cold "water, has undergone much improvement 

 with the extension of their employment. 



The several points in regard to warm baths are, 



1. The materials of which they arc constructed. 



2. Their situation. 



3. The supply of cold water. 



4. The supply 'of hot water. 



5. Minor comfdrts and conveniences. 



1. As to the materials of which they are constructed. Of these the best are slabs 

 of polished marble, properly bedded with good water-tight cement, in a seasoned 

 wooden case, and neatly and carefully united at their respective edges. These, when 

 originally well constructed, form a durable, pleasant, and agreeable-looking bath, but 

 the erpense is often objectionable, and,' in upper chambers, tTie weight may prove in- 

 convenient. If of white or veined marble, they are also apt to get yellow or dis- 

 coloured by frequent use, and cannot easily be cleansed; so that large Dutch tiles, as 

 they are called, or square pieces of white earthenware, are sometimes substituted. 

 Welsh slate has now superseded marble to a great extent ; and very superior baths 

 are now manufactured of Stourbridge clay, at Stourbridge. Copper, tinned or galva- 

 nised iron, are also employed ; the first is most expensive in the oiitfit, but far more 

 durable than the latter. 



2. As to the situation of the bath, or the part of the house in which it is to bo 

 placed. In hotels and club-houses, this is a question easily determined ; several baths 

 are usually here required, and each should have annexed to it a properly warmed 

 dressing-room. Whether they are upstairs or downstairs is a question of convenience, 

 but the basement story, in which they are sometimes placed, should always be 

 avoided : there is a coldness and dampness belonging to it, in almost all weathers, 

 which is neither agreeable nor salubrious. 



In hospitals, there are usually several baths on each side of the house (the men's and 

 women's), and the supply of hot water is ready at a moment's notice. 



In private houses, the fittest places for warm baths are dressing-rooms annexed 

 to the principal bed-rooms ; or, where such convenience cannot be obtained, a sepa- 

 rate bath-room connected with the dressing-room, and always upon the bed-room 

 floor. 



3. The supply of water is a very important point, as connected with the present 

 subject. The water should be soft, clean, and pure ; and as free as possible from all 

 substances mechanically suspended in it. 



4 and 6. In public bathing establishments, where numerous and constant baths 

 are required, the most effective means of obtaining hot water for their supply are now 

 employed. It is drawn directly into the baths from a large boiler, placed somewhere 

 above their level. The hot water enters the bath by a pipe at least an inch and a 

 half in diameter, and the cold water by one of the same dimension. The relative pro- 

 portions of the hot and cold water, are of course to be adjusted by a thermometer ; and 

 every bath has a two-inch waste-pipe, opening about two inches from the top of the 

 bath, 'and suffering the excess of water freely to run off; so that when a person is 

 immersed in the bath, or when the supplies of water are accidentally left open, there 

 may be no danger of an overflow. 



A contrivance of some ingenuity consists in suffering the water for the supply of 

 the bath to flow from a cistern above it, through a leaden pipe of about one inch 

 diameter, which is conducted into the kitchen or other convenient place, where a largo 

 boiler for the supply of hot water is already fixed. The bath-pipe is immersed in this 

 boiler, in which it makes many convolutions, and again, emerging, ascends to the 

 bath. The operation is simply this : the cold water passing through the convolu- 

 tions of that part of the pipe which is immersed in the boiling water, receives there 

 sufficient heat for the purpose required, and ascending, in obedience to the law of fluid 

 pressure, it is delivered in that state by the ascending pipe into the bath, which is also 

 supplied with cold water and waste-pipes as usual. The pipe may bo of lead, as far 

 as the descending and ascending parts are concerned, but the portion forming the 

 worm or convolutions immersed in the boiler, should bo copper, in order that the 

 water within it may receive heat without impediment. 



The facilities which are now afforded for the construction of baths In private house*, 



