October 7, 1897] 



NA TURE 



553 



canicula may just as likely be Procyon, and the redness may 

 have been due to its low altitude at the time of its first appear- 

 ance in the sky after sunset. Hyginus and Germanicus Cresar 

 use the word candidits, that is, bright or shining white, in 

 referring to the colour of the star. It is at least strange that 

 Mars should have been so constantly, and Sirius so sparingly, 

 referred to as red, and that not Sirius, but Alpha Scorpii should 

 have been referred to as Anti-Mars (Antares). On the whole, 

 Dr. Samter thinks the evidence is in favour of a very nearly 

 white colour, as at present. The real explanation of the 

 matter probably lies in the fact, pointed out some time ago in 

 these columns, that the ancients observed Sirius at the heliacal 

 rising, when it necessarily appeared red. 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT LABORATORIES. 



'"PHE new Government Laboratory is built on a rectangular 

 ■*■ plot of land, 120 feet long by 65 feet wide, in Clement's 

 Inn Passage, adjacent to King's College Hospiial. 



The exterior of the building is faced with red bricks with 

 bands, corners and windows of Portland stone, and consists of 

 four floors surrounded by an area whose retaining wall is faced 

 with white glazed bricks. Central corridors run from end to end 

 of the building on the basement and ground floors ; a staircase 

 at each end and a hydraulic lift give access to the various floors. 

 The main entrance faces the gateway leading into Clement's 

 Inn, and at the opposite end are two entrances for service 

 purposes. 



The architectural treatment of the first and second floors 

 diflfers wholly from that of the ground- floor and base- 

 ment : the entire central portion of the building forms one 

 large room, 49 feet long by 43 feet wide, lighted by eight 

 lofty mullioned windows and a flat-roofed dormer lantern, 

 the open roof being carried on light iron principals. The floor 

 of this room is about five feet above the ceiling level of the 

 ground-floor rooms, and the space thus gained is utilised 

 in raising the height of the principal rooms on the ground- 

 floor, and as a duct, seven feet wide, below the floor of 

 the central room, for holding the heating appliances, and water, 

 gas and drainage pipes. The remainder of the building is 

 divided into two sections by this room : each section consists of 

 two floors with flat asphalted roofs, one roof carrying the water 

 cisterns, and the other affording space for operations which it is 

 desirable should be performed in the open air, a spiral iron 

 staircase affording the necessary access. 



The ground-floor corridor has a mosaic pavement, and with 

 the exception of a few rooms in the basement, which, as well as 

 the other corridors, are " granolithic." all the rooms have pitch- 

 pine parqueterie flooring. The interior walls of all the labora- 

 tories, store rooms, and corridors, are faced with white glazed 

 brick relieved by an ornamental dado of coloured glazed bricks ; 

 the only rooms with plastered walls being those intended for 

 office purposes. 



The basement floor contains a boiler house, engineer's work- 

 shop, store rooms, a mechanical laboratory, and laboratories 

 for iMicteriological work; water analysis, standardising scientific 

 instruments, and verifying the hydrometers and saccharometers 

 used in the Revenue Service. The mains for gas, water, 

 and steam are carried along the corridor immediately 

 below the ceiling, and are supported on light iron girders, 

 every pipe being in view throi^hout its entire length. 

 Underneath the corridor floor is the main ventilation shaft, 

 a long chamber seven feet square, with which the several 

 ventilating shafts and fume flues are connected. A powerful 

 fan, worked by a silent one-horse engine, keeps up the air 

 circulation and discharges the foul air into an upcast shaft 

 surrounding the boiler furnace flue. A " return clean water 

 main " also runs under this corridor floor, and after picking up 

 branch mains from all the working laboratories, ends in a con- 

 crete tank of 7000 gallons capacity. Stores for house and steam 

 coal, and a room for refrigerating machinery, have been con- 

 structed outside the main Iviilding, the former under the street 

 pavement and the latter also parily in the area, which is here 

 roofed in with Hay ward's lights. 



The main entrance leads into the.ground floor, which contains 

 on the left a waiting room, the principal's private oftice, the 

 reference library, and the research laboratory (a room 34 x 17 



NO. 1458, VOL. 56] 



feet) ; on the right are the Crown contracts laboratories, a suite 

 of three rooms having a total length of 69 feet by 17 feet, the 

 private ofiice of the deputy principal, and the reference sample 

 laboratory, which is 28 feet long by 20 feet wide. 



The chief feature of the first floor is the main lalxiratory, the 

 central room already mentioned, adjoining which is a dark room 

 for polarimetric work and a refrigerated room for storing 

 samples. A short corridor leading to the main staircase gives 

 access to two rooms for the superintending analysts and to the 

 two tobacco laboratories. 



The second floors contain photographic rooms, typewriter's 

 office, museum, and four laboratories. 



The building is lighted throughout by electricity obtained 

 from the Strand Corporation, whose continuous ICX3- volt current 

 is also employed for working various motors. 



Rooms intended for oflices have open fireplaces fitted with 

 Teale's slow combustion stoves ; the remaining rooms are heated 

 by passing steam through iron radiators. In the main labo- 

 ratory the radiators are below the floor in the central duct, and 

 are connected with the external atmosphere by air channels 

 covered with slate slabs, and the warm air enters the room 

 through iron gratings which cover the duct. To prevent 

 down draught a copper steam pipe runs all round the base 

 of the dormer lantern ; in all the other laboratories the 

 radiators are on the slate slabs covering the air channels, 

 usually in the centre of the room. 



For ventilation, four large air shafts run from the upper 

 corners of the main laboratory down to the basement, where 

 they connect with the main shaft already mentioned, and in 

 every room through which they pass there is an opening con- 

 trolled by a " hit and miss" grating. The mouthpieces at the 

 back of all the evaporation and draught closets are contained 

 by downward flues into the same main shaft. 



The water supply is from the New River Company's high- 

 pressure main, branches from which run throughout the building 

 direct to the various tables for working filter-pumps, turbines, 

 and similar contrivances. Eor other purposes the water is 

 stored in three cistyns on the roof, having a total capacity of 

 7000 gallons, from which it is distributed for boiler feed and 

 ordinary laboratory work. To economise water, all the work- 

 ing tables are provided with special drainage outlets, which 

 are connected by a system of iron pipes to the " return clean 

 water main." The water discharged through this main into 

 the concrete tank is pumped up into the service cisterns on the 

 roof ; the only water run to the drains is that used for cleansing 

 purposes. 



For ice making and refrigerating, one of Messrs. J. and 

 E. Hall's carbonic anhydride refrigerating machines is em- 

 ployed, in which "brine" is cooled by the evayioration ol 

 liquid carbonic anhydride in copper coils surrounded by the 

 brine, the cooled brine being used for making ice, cooling water, 

 and for maintaining a low temperature in the sample store ad- 

 joining the main laboratory. This store is an insulated chamber 

 with hollow walls, made of steel plates placed immediately in 

 front of the insulation, through which the cooled brine circulates. 

 The main laboratory has been specially designed for the evalu- 

 ation of spirituous liquors, in connection with which a great 

 desideratum is a supply of water fairly uniform in temperature 

 all the year round. In the summer months the temperature of 

 the ordinary water is lowered by passing it from the cisterns 

 on the roof down to the refrigerating machine-room, where it 

 runs through a cooler fitted with coils through which cold brine 

 circulates. From the cooler the water is pumped by a centri- 

 fugal pump up to a special insulated cistern holding 1000 gallons, 

 from which all the tables in the main laboratory are served. 



The working tables have mahogany tops i^ inches thick, 

 with fronts and ends of varnished Riga wainscot. In all 

 rooms, except the main laboratory, the tables are placed 

 against the outer walls immediately underneath the win- 

 dows ; they stand on a 3-inch plinth, which is protected by 

 a recessed toe space and by making the table-top overhang 

 3 inches. They are uniformly 37 inches from floor to top of 

 table, with a row of cupboards above the plinth topped by a 

 single row of drawers. A space between the remcnable backs 

 of the cupboards and the walls serves for carrying the water- 

 pipes and draining troughs. 



A white ware sink (12 x 9X 4^ inches) is provided for each pair 

 of workers, and behind it is a water standard fitted with Kelvin 

 lap delivering into the sink, and side |ii]X's with lever cocks 



