IS4i5.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



2ir 



lie (ielermlned. and it may rise to a very great Iieislit above tlie level of 

 the soil ; and if it be arrested more or less, that will be caused by live in- 

 (luenne of Ihe neutralising power of ihe temperaUire of the alniosphere ; so 

 that a wall, which may be very damp at the beginning of summer will be 

 much less so at Ihe end of Ihe dry season, and particularly so if immedi- 

 ately exposed to the sun, but Ihe followinc winter the damp will return, 

 unless the ori;^iual causes of humidity be subdued 



It is desirable in all and every class of soil, to have a substratum of con- 

 crete under the footings. I"or the purposes of damp this need not be very 

 deep, perhaps not exceeding a foot h\g\\. As soon as the footings and 

 lower part of the wall arc cirried as hiRh as the level of the crouud inside, 

 it will be well to introduce a thin sheet of lead the whole thickness of Ihe 

 wttll, or a layer of bituminous substance as thin as possible, so as to pene- 

 trate the brick and slone and fill the pores, or a double course of thick 

 elate set in cement. 



7 he purpose of the sheet of lead and of the bituminous substance, and 

 the slaliDC, is to prevent the wet from rising up froiu Ihe fooliugs. But 

 other precautions are necessary to prevent Ihe access of damp from the 

 surface of the ground next the outside face of the wall. A facing of stone 

 is the best reinedy. It need not be very thick, but it is well for it lo be at 

 least two or three feet high ; and if a small interval between this facing 

 slab and outside surface of the wall, so luiich the better, providing a circu- 

 lation of air be kepi up in the space. By this provision neilher Ihe rain 

 beating against this part of Ihe wall, nor the water returning from the pave- 

 ment or ground, will be able lo reach the main substance of the wall ; for 

 although Ihe faring slabs maybe leiuporarily damped, they will sooa be 

 dried without ccmimunicating the damp to the body of the wall. 



The inside of external walls shoidd never have the plastering applied 

 immediately on Ihe face. They should he battened by means of long nar- 

 T(»w slips of wood, attached by hold-fasts lo the inside face of the v^all. 

 These slips or battens receive the laths upon whiidi the plastering is ap- 

 plied. The space formed by Ihe battens between the wall and the lathiug 

 ^flfectually. keeps out the humidity. 



No impervious covering should be laid on wooden floors in the lower- 

 most story, such as oil-dolh, for instance ; a certain moist air always rises 

 from the grouud, and escapes through Ihe joints of the boards, but if this 

 be intercepted by an oil-clo h, the air will rot ihe boards and oil-cloth in a 

 very few months. 



But it is important to keep the damp from the floor which come upon 

 the ground, that is, Ihe floors of the lowermost story. It is eviilent that 

 the limber of stone slabs should not be in imiuediale contact vvilh the soil ; 

 for this purpose, let a stratum of concrete be laid over the whole surface 

 -of Ihe house, six or uine inches thick at the least. Upon this form sleeper 

 -walls or piers up to the necessary herght, and on Ihem lay ihe plates or 

 paving slabs; as an additional precaution, a thin sheet of lead might be 

 laid under each pier on the bed of the sleeper walls. In palaces, as a 

 greater precaution, and In buildings where expense is a secondary object, 

 a thickness of asphalle might be laid on the concrete. In the dwellings of 

 the poor it is expedient ai all events, to have the sleeper walls or piers, 

 which need be only half brick wide, and one course high, wilhout the ce- 

 ment, and generally that will be a sufficient precaution ; where slone pav- 

 ing foims the floor, bricks must be laid under all the joinls. Thus will the 

 'humidity be more or less prevented from reaching the floors. 



But of all precautions to prevent damp entering by the face of Ihe wall, 

 Ihe best remedy is have an area, which, by keeping the soil at a distance, 

 preclude its fatal ertijcts on the wall. There areas may be three or luore 

 feet wide, and may serve as a passage all round the building, and aH'ord 

 access to cellars outside, as in the London houses ; or if this, from want o, 

 «pace or the expense, be impracticable, it will be sudicieut to have wha. 



Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 



are called blind areas, with convex walls against the earth, the points of 

 contact with the outer wall of the house being as small as possible, lo 

 diminish the possibility of the communication of damp. Care must be 



taken to leave openings at A A A (fig. 2), 90 as to raainlain a draft or cir 

 eolation of air throughout the several areas ; and to render this circulation 

 perfect it will be requisite to form iu the wall three or four shafts, as B B 

 (fig. 1 ), to beep up a coinmunicaiiou with the outer air. It is necessary lo 

 leave the angle C, quite free and clear, for Ihe angle at C being a solid 

 mass, requires the greater exposure, that it may throw olf the damp, which 

 it originally acquired by exposure to the atmosphere, as it tends Iu make 

 it evaporate. The top of the areas must be covered by stone slabs, which 

 it is desirable to Iveep above the surface, anti the face of the wall immedi- 

 ately above should be reiulered with cement. If it be necessary to have 

 the covering slabs below the earth, the face of the wall must be rendered 

 with cemeni, or the damp will undoubtedly penetrate through the wall 

 from the slightest deplh of grounil next to it. 



Another precaution must alivavs be taken in regard lo floors, and that 

 is, lo insert in the outer walls iron gratings, with channels in the wall, say 

 UX*'. so as to let air pass into the floor from the outside ; and in order to 

 exclude the air from the floor in winter time, or Ihe event of damp v^ea- 

 ther, it is well lo prepare a sliding plate in the skirting, which may shut it 

 off or open the holes for the re-adiuissiou o( the air, as the one or the other 

 ert'ecl may be desired. 



Dripping eaves and rain-water shoots or gurgoils, wilhout standard 

 pipes, sh 'uld always be avoided; for the water, which falls from the eaves, 

 or gushes from the piojecting spouts or shoots, is driven against the face of 

 the wall ere it falls a few feet, and keeps the brick or stone- work saturated 

 at limes with the water. Hence eaves-gutters and standard rain-water 

 pipes are always indispensable, and a proper shoe at the foot of the pipe 

 should never be omitted, otherwise the force of the water causes it to un- 

 dermine the wall, producing the most disastrous results, whereas a shoe 

 keeps the water from the wall, and turns it into a drain prepared to re- 

 ceive it. 



ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS. 



June 8.— \V. Tite.V.P., in the Chair. 



Sir T. Deane, of Cork, made some observations on the drawings which he 

 exhibited of the Abbey Church of the Holy Cross at Tipperiiry. 



An address on Ventilation was delivered by J. Toynbee, Ebq.,^F.R.S., Sur- 

 geon to the St. George's and St. James's General Dispensary. He introduced 

 the suhject, by stating that during the whole of his professional career he 

 had almost constantly been attached to public medical institutions ; and that 

 he had slowly become aware of the existence of an enorracui amount of dis- 

 ease in the human race. \. large share of this disease was incurable when 

 once produced ; but he was iu a position to prove that much of it could be 

 wholly prevented. He, therefore, felt that it was the duty of medical men, 

 while they devoted themselves to the cuie and palliation of disease, also to 

 exert themselves in behalf of preventive measures. In the performance of 

 this duty, he had investigated the sources of disease ; and he found that one 

 of the most fertile was the want of a due supply of air in dwellings and 

 public buildings. In speaking on the Necessity for Ventilation^ it was shown 

 that 10 cubic feet of air, or a volume double the size tf the person, is re- 

 quired for the purposes of respiration and transpiration each minute. The 

 circulation of the blood was described as the process of carbonization — re- 

 s|iiratiou as the process of decarbonizalion, in the 170,000,000 of air cells, 

 forming a surface 30 times as large as that of the skin. In the process of 

 transpiration, the so-called insensible perspiration was continually given off; 

 which, together with the vapour expelled from the lungs, amounted to two 

 fluid ounces per hour. Thus, 500 people in a church during two hours give 

 off fifteen gallons of water into the air ; which, if not carried away, saturates 

 everything in the building, after it has been breathed over and over again, in 

 conjunction with the impurities it contains collected from each individuaL 

 The use of lamps, gas, and oil, was shown to deteriorate the air, and to add 

 much moisture to it. The efl'ects of neglect for carrying out plans for ven- 

 tilation are shown in the production of three of the most formidable and 

 frequent diseases which afl"ect the human race, — fever, scrofula, and con- 

 sumption. Numerous facts were adduced in proof of Ibis view ; and the 

 way in which these diseases was produced was pointed out. Thus, it was 

 shown that all those who were among the victims in the Black Hole of Cal- 

 cutta, and did not perish from immediate suflTocation, died, in a short time 

 afterwards, of putrid fever. The proportion of people dying of consump- 

 tion who follow in-door occupations is double that of those who work out 

 of doors; and it increases as the space for labour is more contracted. Dr. 

 Guy has shown that it is more common iu the upper parts of large establish- 

 ments, as printing-houses, &c., where the air is most vitiated. The inhabit- 

 ants of tonus exposed to the wind are much less liable to consumption than 

 those which are well protected and sheltered; and the goitre afflicting the in- 

 habitants of the valleys of the Rhone is produced by a stagnation of air. 

 Instances were cited of schools in which the mass of the children were scro- 

 fulous, and to whom an increased diet, warmer clothing, &c , was not pro- 

 ductive of any benefit — and by the aid of proper plans of ventilation the 

 disease disappeared entirely. The same result has taken place in the Zoolo- 

 gical Gardens, Uegent's Park, since the new dens opened to the air have 

 been in use. It was then shown that hitherto there had been a total absence 

 of plans for the suppy of pure air, in a sufficient quantity, to the abodes ol 



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