Oct. 14, 1875I 



NATURE 



525 



nisters to taste, that, in the houses of the wealthy, delightful 

 patterns of work of Pompeian elegance are soon introduced. 



As with the bricks, so with the mortar and the wood em- 

 ployed in building ; they are rendered, as far as possible, free 

 of moisture. Sea-sand containing salt, and wood that has been 

 saturated with sea-water, two common commodities in badly- 

 built houses, find no place in our modern city. 



The most radical changes in the houses of our city are in the 

 chimneys, the roofs, the kitchens, and their adjoining offices. 

 The chimneys, arranged after the manner prorosed by Mr. 

 Spencer \Yells, are all connected with central shafts, into which 

 the smoke is drawn, and, afler being passed through a gas 

 furnace to destroy the free carbon, is discharged colourless into 

 the open air. 1 he city, therefore, at the "expense of a small 

 smoke rate, is free of raised chimneys and of the intolerable 

 nuisance of smoke. The roofs of the houses are but slightly 

 arched, and are indeed all but flat. They are covered either with 

 asphalte, which experience, out of our supposed city, has proved 

 to last long and to be easily repaired, or with flat tile. The roofs, 

 barricaded round with iron palisade, tastefully painted, mrke 

 excellent outdoor grounds for every house. In some instances 

 flowers are cultivated on them. 



The housewife must not be shocked when she hears that the 

 kitchens of our model city, and all the kitchen offices, are imme- 

 diately beneath these garden roofs ; are, in fact, in the upper floor 

 of the house instead of the lower. In every point of view, sani- 

 tary and economical, this arrangement succeeds admirably. The 

 kitchen is lighted to perfection, so that all uncleanliness is at 

 once detected. The smell which arises from cooking is never 

 disseminated through the rooms of the house. In conveying the 

 cooked food from the kitchen, in houses where there is no lift, 

 the heavy- weighted dishes have to be conveyed down, the emptied 

 and lighter dishes upstairs. The hot water from the kitchen 

 boiler is distributed easily by conducting pipes into the lower 

 rooms, so that in every room and bedroom hot and cold water 

 can at all times be obtained for washing or cleaning purposes ; 

 and as on every floor there is a sink for receiving waste water, the 

 carrying of heavy pails from floor to floor is not required. The 

 scullery, which is by the side of the kitchen, is provided with a 

 copper and all the appliances for laundry work ; and when that is 

 done at home, the open places on the roof above make an 

 excellent drying ground. 



In the wall of the scullery is the upper opening to the shaft 

 of the dust-bin. This shaft, open to the air from the} roof, 

 extends to the bin under the basement of the house. A sliding 

 door in the wall opens into the shaft to receive the dust, and this 

 plan is carried out on every floor. The coal-bin is off the 

 scullery, and is ventilated into the air through a shaft, also 

 passing through the roof. 



On the landing in the second or middle stories of the three- 

 storied houses thtre is a bath-room, supplied with hot and cold 

 water from the kitchen above. The floor of the kitchen and of 

 all the upper stories is slightly raised in the centre, and is of 

 smooth grey tile ; the floor of the bath-room is the same. In 

 the living-rooms, where the floors are of wood, a true oak margin 

 of floor extends two feet around each room. Over this no carpet 

 is ever laid. It is kept bright and clean by the old-fashioned 

 bees' -wax and turpentine, and the air is made fresh and ozonic by 

 the process. 



Considering that a third part of the life of man is, or should 

 be, spent in sleep, great care is taken with the bedrooms, so 

 that they shall be thoroughly lighted, roomy, and ventilated. 

 Twelve hundred cubic feet of space is allowed for each sleeper, 

 and >from the sleeping apartments all unnecessary articles of 

 furniture and of dress are rigorously excluded. Old clothes, old 

 shoes, and other offensive articles of the same order are never 

 permitted to have residence there. In most instances the rooms 

 on the first floor are made the bedrooms, and the lower the 

 living-rooms. In the larger houses bedrooms are carried out in 

 the upper floor for the use of the domestics. 



To facilitate communication between the kitchen and the 

 entrance-hall, so that articles of food, fuel, and the like may be 

 carried up, a shaft runs in the partition between two houses, and 

 carries a basket lift in all houses that are above two stories high. 

 Every heavy thing to and from the kitchen is thus carried up and 

 down from floor to floor and from the top to the basement, and 

 much unnecssary labour is thereby saved. In the two-storied 

 houses the lift is unnecessary. A flight of outer steps leads to 

 the upper or kitchen floor. 



{,To be conHnutd.\ 



NOTES 



The reorganisation 'of the German Seewarle at Hamburg 

 makes very satisfactory progress. To the Third Section is 

 assigned the duty of issuing slorm-warnings for the German 

 coasts, and the investigation of the meteorological conditions on 

 which the warnings depend. Hitherto meteorology has been 

 prosecuted in Germany exclusively in its climatic aspects. It is 

 now intended, whilst keeping in view what is required for 

 climatic researches, to give more special attention to the investi- 

 gation of weather-condition?, simultaneously observed over a 

 wide area, and to the movements and changes taking place in 

 the great currents of the atmosphere. In carrying out these 

 objects, stations of the first order are established at Hamburg, 

 Memel, Neufahrwasscr, near Danzig, Swinemiinde, Warce- 

 miinde, Keitum in Sylt, Borkum, Wilhelmshafen, and Kiel, at 

 which, in addition to the ordinary instruments of observation, 

 self- registering barometers and anemometers are erected. At 

 these places observations are made at 8 a.m., noon, and 4 and 

 8 P.M., of which the observations at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. are sent 

 by telegraph to Hamburg. To these nine stations and some 

 others on the German coasts at which wind and weather only are 

 noted, the Seewaite intends to add sixteen others, situated 

 inland in diflerent parts of Germany, in selecting which particular 

 attention is to be given to the position of the station and the 

 instruments, so that really good observatio;)s of wind and tem- 

 perature will in each case be furnished. The action taken by 

 the German Seewaite to secure that the observations of tempera- 

 ture and wind will be of such a quality that they can be used in 

 scientific^investigations of weather changes, is deserving of all 

 p raise, the more so since these observations as at present made 

 are often of very doubtful quality and in many cases worse than 

 useless, considered as data for weather-inquiries. 



On the occasion of the centenary of the Genevan Society of 

 Arts, founded in 1776, that body proposes to offer a number of 

 prizes in its various departments. A most important service 

 which the Academy will render to horology will be the 

 International Competition in the Regulation of Pocket Chrono- 

 meters. The trials of these chronometers will take place at the 

 Geneva Observatory, under the superintendence of M. Planta- 

 mour, the director. All chronometers intended for the com- 

 petition must be forwarded to him before mid-day of 

 February 14, 1876. All competitors not resident in Geneva 

 »hould correspond with the Observatory through a resident 

 agent, who will manage all the details. M. J, B. Grandjean, 

 president ©f the Section of Horology of the class, offers his [ser- 

 vices gratuitously to makers who have no agent in Geneva. 

 Each chronometer should be accompanied by a paper containing 

 data to identify the chronometer, details of its construction, &c. 

 The trial will last fifty-two days from February 15, 1876, divided 

 into nine periods. In a hot chamber and in an ice-house {^/aal're) 

 the chronometers will be tested by being placed in all possible 

 positions. All chronometers not complying with the following 

 conditions will be excluded from competition :— i. The mean 

 variation from day to day ought not to exceed six-tenths of a 

 second so long as the chronometer preserves the same position in 

 the Hall of the Observatory. 2. The values which express the 

 mean rates during each of the periods except that of the hot 

 chamber and the ice-house, ought to agree with their mean in the 

 limits of two seconds more or less. 3. The error of compen. 

 sation determined by the comparison of the rates in the hot 

 chamber and in the ice-house ought not to exceed two-tenths of a 

 second of degree centigrade. 4. The difference of rates between 

 periods six and nine (both in the Observatory Hall, horizontal 

 position, dial above), />. before and after the proofs relative to 

 temperature, ought not to be above one second in twenty-four 

 hours. The value of the results obtained in the trials which con- 



