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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[July, 



some other Grecian Doric temple, but on referring to the catalogue 

 discovered it to be " A project of a Curesal or Pump-room to be erected 

 on St. Ann's Clitf, Euxton, with plans, elevations, and sections," by 

 \V. L. Granville; and there certainly are some initiiature drawings on 

 the margin, which may be the plans, &c., but which it is utterly im- 

 possible to make out at such a height above the eye ; consequently all 

 we can say is that, however ingeniously Mr. G. may have contrived 

 the interior of his building lie has not shown much invention, or parti- 

 cular ])ro|)riety of character in the exterior of it. — We begin to get 

 altogether sick of Grecian temples. 



Tlie " Facade of the Wesleyan Centenary Hall," Xo. 105S, is now- 

 exhibited as executed, the Lysicratcs Monument, stuck upon it last 

 year, being lopped off from it ; which being the case we think that the 

 frame might have been reduced also, for at present the drawing occu- 

 pies twice the space the subject itself requires, and every square inch 

 is or ought to be of value in this room. 



No. 1UG5, "The Library, Northwood House," G. Mair, is a small 

 interior subject that appears to deserve a more favourable situation 

 than it has obtained. No. lo7], "Entrance Lodge to be built at Deane 

 Park, the seat of the Earl of Cardigan," J. Crake — a name new to us — 

 is also a clever design, in the Gothic style. We cannot say quite so 

 much for No. 1 1 10, " Design for a Gothic Roof in (iuildhall, London," 

 E. Woodthorpe, for though the drawing itself is a showy and elaborate 

 interior, the new timber roof here proposed, is a poor and meagre 

 aftair. If, too, it is intended to make any alterations at all in that 

 edifice, we think tliat the one most required, is to give it an entirely 

 new exterior, the present one being so atrociously ugly that we wonder 

 how even the corporation of London can stomach it. Taste they have, 

 — at least have the reputation of possessing it, but it does not lie in 

 architecture. — No. IIOS, "Entrance front of a design for a Mansion to 

 be erected at South Elkington, Lincolnshire," E. B. Lamb, is a good 

 composition in what may be called the irregular or picturesque Italian 

 villa style, — with a carriage porch and tower over it. While the 

 offices are kept subordinate to the house itself, they are made to aid 

 the general character very much, being treated consistently with it, 

 and so as to give importance to the principal mass, and at the same 

 time be of sufficient architectural importance in themselves. Both 

 picturesque expression and propriety have been consulted, by intro- 

 ducing only a single ground floor window on this side of the body of 

 the house : not only is great privacy thus secured, and the noise and 

 bustle of horses and carriages shut out from the sitting rooms, but a 

 degree of piquancy is imparted to the whole ; the internal arrange- 

 ment cannot be understood until we actually enter the house, which 

 is not the case wjiere there is a range of windows on each side of the 

 entrance. And here we will bring our strictures to a conclusion, lest 

 by continuing them we should be compelled to change our tone again, 

 and have to speak not quite so favourably. Towards some our silence 

 may be unbecoming, but there are a great many who have reason to 

 congratulate themselves that we lay down our pen before we give 

 them a touch of it. Very possibly we have passed over several draw- 

 ings that we should have been able to notice with approbation, had 

 they been hung where they could be seen ; so long as the present sys- 

 tem is persisted in, such is likely enough to be the case. That it is 

 persisted in is no fault of ours : on the contrary, did it depend upon 

 ourselves, we would correct it instanter,— if no other way, by cutting 

 the formidable Gordian knot, and reducing the Five tiers of frames 

 containing architectural drawings, now hung up, to Two. Three of 

 them might very well be spared, for the quality of the Exhibition 

 would be rather improved than not by their absence. 



ON THE INJURIES TO HEALTH OCCASIONED BY 

 BREATHING IMPURE AIR IN CLOSE APARTMENTS. 



Notwithstanding the various inventions and improvements which 

 distinguish the age we live in, it is lamentable to observe what little 

 attention has been paid to the ventilation of apartments in which we 

 are destined to pass the greater portion of our lives, and in which a 

 constant and well-regulateil supply of the element we breathe, is so 

 essential to bodily health and mental enjoyment. 



This inattention can only be accounted for either by the want of 

 education in the major part of that class of persons who call them- 

 selves builders, or an apprehension on the part of those who aspire to 

 the more elevated designation of architects, that the introduction of 

 any thing new would expose them to the charge of a want of taste, or 

 of that acquaintance with the style of the ancients to which it is the 

 fashion so strictly to adhere (imitation being, in their opinions, more 

 deserving of commendation than originality of design, or a desire to 



meet the improvements of the age, and fashion of more importance 

 than health). If they construct our doors and windows in so superior 

 a manner as to exclude every possible particle of air, they flatter 

 themselves with having attained an advantage to which the' inhabi- 

 tants of ancient Greece and Rome did not aspire. They should, how- 

 ever recollect, in their apparent anxiety for imitation, that the ancient 

 architects of warmer climates did not overlook the necessity of a free 

 admission of air, and also that a constant supply and free circulation 

 of this element, is as necessary for sustaining life as a given quantity 

 for the combustion of the fuel we require to warm our apartments ; 

 our builders, nevertheless, only provide for the latter, as if the former, 

 although the more im|)ortant, was of minor consideration, or that they 

 conceived the chimney draft sutficient for both purposes, when, in 

 reality, it does not answer that for which it is principally intended — 

 as by far the greater portion of the heat generated in our open fire- 

 places is carried up the chimney, by sharp currents of air from occa- 

 sional openings of doors, or such crevices as it may force its way 

 through, being moreover, frequently productive of serious bodily in- 

 juries, particularly to those of delicate frames, while it cannot be 

 sufficient for the purposes of wholesome ventilation; this air being 

 colder than that already in the room, is consequently of greater specific 

 gravity, and must form a lower stratum, not unfrequently felt by those 

 placed round the fire, suffering from an undue proportion of heat at 

 one side and of cold at the other. 



It should also be borne in mind, that the openings of our fire-places 

 being seldom more than three or four feet from the floor, the upper 

 stratum of air is neither removed or purified by this under current, 

 and must, from being breathed over and over again, be productive of 

 most prejudicial effects, and that the contamination of this atmosphere 

 is considerably augmented at night by the combustion of lights, the 

 quantity of air breathed by an ordinary sized person being calculated 

 to be about 20UU cubic feet per hour, and that two mould candles con- 

 sume as much of the oxygen of this air as a human being, and that the 

 nitrogen and carbonic acid gas which remain are peculiarly inimical 

 to animal life, and that when carried up by the currents occasioned 

 by combustion and respiration they form an upper stratum, where 

 they remain, and must be repeatedly inspired before they make their 

 escape into the chimney — the only ventilating flue with which our 

 houses are provided. 



It should also be observed, that the heat thus generated is in pro- 

 portion to the quantity of oxygen abstracted from the atmosphere, 

 which enters into combination with the carbnretted hydrogen of the 

 flame of candles, coal gas, oil or other inflammable matter, from which 

 light is produced, that every cubic foot of carburetted hydrogen con- 

 sumed unites on an average with two cubic feet of oxygen, that por- 

 tion of the atmosphere required to support animal life, and that the 

 product of this combustion is about 2i inches of water, and one of 

 carbonic acid gas, which, when inhaled in its pure state, proves in- 

 stantly fatal, and the greater the proportion we inhale in addition to 

 the animal vapours evolved from the lungs and skin, the more per- 

 nicious the effect. 



Supposing for example that the perfect lighting of an ordinary 

 sized apartment requires 15 cubic feet of carburetted hydrogen per 

 hour, this would form about a pint and a half of water and 1 J cubic 

 feet of carbonic acid gas, for whenever carburetted hydrogen gas is 

 burned with oxygen, or atmospheric air, these are the products of the 

 combustion, whether the carburetted hydrogen is obtained from wax, 

 tallow, oil, or coal. If, therefore, this lighting continue in an unven- 

 tilated apartment for seven hours, one gallon of water is produced, 

 the greater part of which must be deposited on the walls, windows, 

 furniture, polished metal, or other cold surfaces with which it comes 

 in contact, and to some articles of this nature it is known to prove 

 highly prejudicial, in addition to the injury to health occasioned by 

 an increased quantity of moisture mixed with the air we breathe — as 

 one of the principal functions performed by this air for the preserva- 

 tion of health, is to carry oft' with it a considerable quantity of vapour 

 in order to prevent its undue accumulation on the lungs ; it is there- 

 fore evident, that after it has been already so loaded, it cannot pro- 

 perly perform these functions, and that consumption and other com- 

 plaints are thus frequently induced. 



The prejudicial eft'ects of carbonic acid gas (which is the same as 

 the choke damp of mines) as well as of the nitrogen of the air, which 

 is set free by the abstraction of the oxygen, (and amounts in quantity 

 to four times that of the ox)'gen,) are well known, and ought by all 

 possible means to be provided against. This has been attended to 

 within the last few years in our public hospitals, and the mortality, in 

 consequence, considerably decreased, and likewise in several of our 

 manufactories and public establishments, where the diseases generated, 

 by the numbers of persons congregated in such establishments, have 

 been proportionably diminished. In the House of Commons, also 



