406 



* KNOWLEDGE 



[Nov. U, 1884. 



sound and general principles, brought up to the require- 

 ments of the times, which characterise the labours of the 

 cultured architect. The planting of D-traps, the dissocia- 

 tion of the household from the closet-cistern, the know- 

 ledge that a damp-proof course ia useful ; these are the 

 utmost that we have found attended to in the most ad- 

 vanced types of the dwellings now under consideration. 



By way of an example we propose to consider an 

 averagely well-constructed house of moderate proportions ; 

 auch a one as would realise an inclusive rent of about £oO 

 a year. The capitalist endeavours to expend his funds to 

 the beat advantage, to erect a house which shall last for 

 the period of his tenure of the land and no longer ; and 

 yet, through the excessive competition of his rivals, he is 

 forced to make out that his commodity, if we may be here 

 allowed to substitute such an expression, is all that could 

 be desired. The would-be tenant, who is not only wholly 

 ignorant of the geological structure of the chosen district, 

 but also quite uninformed as to the suitable construction of 

 a healthy house, is made to appreciate sundry innovations 

 which are carefully pointed out to him, and he thereafter 

 lives, happy and contented, in the midst of a disease-pro- 

 ducing or aggravating neighbourhood, until its pernicious 

 influences have done their deadly work. And yet all these 

 evils are in vogue when only a slight excess of outlay 

 could wholly obviate their existence. 



The small capitalist, with his foreman to guide and 

 direct him, invests in bricks of the commonest quality ; 

 fortunately cheap bricks are nevertheless reliable — at least, 

 for the kind of work we are at present considering. He 

 buys ingredients for mortars and cements ; and once again 

 the expenditure is a primary motive power. He is quite 

 regardless of the nature of the sand used ; it is probably 

 sea-sand, thoroughly impregnated with the hygrometric 

 chlorides which abound in salt water, and which, when 

 mixed with mortars, is a perpetual cause of damp walls. 

 The walls themselves are but a brick and a-half thick ; 

 they have scarcely time to dry, and aggravated by the 

 employment of inexpensive and inefficient materials, result 

 in a humid and cold suite of apartments, instead of a 

 healthy and comfortable set of rooms. 



Every house has a foundation, that could not very well 

 be avoided. Every house, however, does not possess a 

 suitably-constructed area of ground underneath it. It has 

 long been known that swampy lands are unsuitable for 

 building purposes ; the consumption death-rate on clayey 

 soil is far greater than that on dry pervious strata, and it 

 can only be lowered by careful drainage. The causes of 

 pulmonary and other deadly diseases have only recently 

 been discovered; the researches of Pasteur, Koch, Lister, 

 Ewart, Watson Cheyne, and others, in the domain of 

 microscopical biology, have shown that those diseases are 

 attributable to the growth and multiplication in the tissues 

 of the lungs and other organs, of minute schizomycetous 

 ip\a.nts^Bacilhis tuhcrculosiis and its allies. These plants 

 only thrive under suitable conditions of temperature and 

 moisture, and it therefore stands to reason that houses 

 built on swampy or badly-drained lands are susceptible to 

 the invasion cf the germs which cause zymotic diseases. 



Now, although the unsuitable geological aspect of a tract 

 of land, which is conveniently situated for building pur- 

 poses, can be succepsfully modified by drainage so as to 

 become adapted to the erection of homesteads, there is 

 another thing which ought to be borne in mind by every 

 builder : — His house, to be freed from the possibility of 

 damp arising through the basement floor, ought to be built 

 upon an impervious layer of cement, concrete, or asphalte. 

 A substratum of this nature affords immunity from three 

 dangerous or undesirable things, viz., when the joists of the 



floor rest upon a consolidated area — (a), damp is avoided ; 

 (/>), suitable ventilation becomes easily and perfectly 

 possible, and dry rot ia thus prevented ; (y), vermin, such 

 as rats, mice, ifec, are efiectually excluded. Amongst the 

 numerous houses which we have lately examined, whether 

 completed or in progress, we have not found a single good 

 example ; yet, the greater number of houses near London 

 are built upon clayey soil, but imperfectly drained, as i8 

 clearly attested to by the pools [of water which remain in 

 the roads for several days together after a shower of rain. 



In ancient times, when our ancestors built walls several 

 feet in thickness, they thereby diminished the possibility 

 of damp houses ; but in the present day, when economy 

 regulates the thickness of a wall, something else must be 

 done. Apart from hygrometric mortar, damp is very 

 liable to rise in the walls of a building, and make it un- 

 healthy, for reasons which we have already indicated. It 

 is necessary to extend the impervious layer beneath the 

 basement floor, through the walls. Such an extension, or 

 damp-proof course, as it is technically termed by modem 

 builders, 'ought to be specially well constructed. When 

 architects first became aware of the value of the damp- 

 proof course, their attempts, although valuable, were 

 capable of vast improvement ; the counteracting influence 

 of expenditure again became manifest in the introduction 

 of a thin layer of tarred felt as a preventive to the rise 

 of damp in walls. Many houses which we have inspected 

 have no damp-proof course at all ; the more enlightened of 

 the aforesaid foremen use the tarred felt, but we are 

 sorry to state that we have not yet discovered a single 

 abode in which an efficient protection from damp is secured. 

 The damp-proof course ought, if anything, to be more 

 rigorously looked after than the impervious sub-basement ; 

 it ought to be perfect, especially at the exposed corners of 

 houses, where damp is most liable to rise. 



The circulation of fresh air without draughts underneath 

 the basement, is only second in importance to its introduc- 

 tion, under analagous conditions, into the inhabited apart- 

 ments. In small and moderate-sized rooms, such as those 

 which constitute the class of houses we are at present dis- 

 cussing, an efficient fireplace and suitably-constructed 

 windows are amply suflicient. The frames of the upper 

 and lower sashes of each window ought to be very accu- 

 rately fitted ; the meeting rails, especially those at the 

 middle, should be broader than the accepted inch or inch 

 and a half; and the bead on the window-sill ought to be 

 deep instead of narrow. The value of a deep bead may be 

 said to be two-fold, (i), when the lower sash is raised, the 

 inrush of air is directed ujjwards instead of directly to the 

 door or fireplace, thereby acting as a ventilator instead of a 

 draught>producer. This simple form of ventilator becomes 

 all the more efficient when the upper edge of the deep bead 

 is cut at an angle of 45°, or somewhat less; (/i), when the 

 lower sash is raised during a shower of rain, the fresh air 

 can gain access to the apartment to the exclusion of the 

 wet ; this is particularly desirable in a bedroom. 



We shall continue the subject of ventilation in our next 

 communication, and follow our remarks by a notice of some 

 of the most reliable contrivances that have hitherto been 

 brought forward, in practical illustration of our foregoing 

 observations. In this way we hope to point out what ia 

 desirable in the framework of a modern dwelling-house, 

 and show our readers how those desiderata may become 

 available. 



The paragraphs on " The Moon Eclipse" and on " The.Aotioa of 

 Moonbeams," which appeared as quasi-editorial ones among oar 

 "Miscellanea" on pp. 369 and 370, were received from cor 

 esteemed contribntor, Mr. H. J. Slack, F.G.S., &c., and should hav9 



borne his signature. 



