2 DR. DAUBENY ON THE QUANTITY AND QUALITY 



Other, which supply respectively the King's Bath, the Hot Bath, and the Cross Bath. 

 In addition to the above, which belong- to the Corporation, there is likewise said 

 to be another spring of water, which supplies the Kingston Baths, the property of an 

 individual. 



Of these by far the most copious is the first-named, which fills the King's Bath and 

 the Queen's Bath annexed; it gives out in a regular and imremitting stream no less 

 than 126 gallons of water per minute, and in nine hours replenishes the whole area of 

 these two baths, when emptied, to the height of forty-six inches. 



The evolution of gas takes place chiefly from this spring, the quantity discharged 

 by the Hot and Cross Baths being comparatively insignificant ; for I found that the 

 latter of these, which, of the two, is considered to yield the most, disengaged no more 

 than about twelve cubic inches a minute at the time I attempted to estimate it. 



I therefore confined my inquiry to the King's Bath, from the centre of which gas 

 rises in great quantities, whilst it is also given off in a slighter degree and in a more 

 irregular manner, from the various holes and crevices, that exist in the stone pavement 

 of the bath throughout the whole extent of the area embraced by it. 



To form an exact estimate of the amount of the gas which escapes from these minor 

 lateral spiracles, would have been an irksome and difficult task ; but I ascertained, that 

 it bore but a very small proportion to that discharged from the centre, and from 

 a certain distance round it, being in the one case emitted in bursts at uncertain but 

 distant intervals, in the other proceeding in a current as regular and unintermitting 

 as the spring itself. 



I therefore attempted to do no more, than collect that portion of the gas which finds 

 its way upwards, from an area round the centre of the bath, about twenty feet in 

 diameter*: and in order to accomplish this, I contrived a funnel-shaped apparatus, 

 which for brevity's sake I shall in the rest of this paper call the Shield, consisting of 

 several sheets of iron riveted together, and rendered airtight by means of white lead 

 interposed between the seams of the joints, so that there might be no means of escape 

 for the gas detained under the lower surface of the shield, except at its centre, where 

 an aperture of two inches in diameter was left, towards which it would be conducted, 

 and thus find a ready vent. The apertures in the pavement of the bath within the 

 area above specified, which the shield was not large enough to cover, were carefully 

 stopped up either with corks or tow, covered over with boards, which by means of 

 weights were made to press closely upon the surface of the pavement. 



The apparatus being thus arranged, it was easy, by placing inverted jars of suitable 

 dimensions filled with water over the central orifice, to collect and measure the gas 

 that might escape within a given period. 



The iron shield being six feet square, and therefore from its size somewhat unwieldy, 

 it was found convenient to erect a kind of temporary framework of wood, from which 

 the apparatus, when not in use, might be suspended out of the way of bathers. 



* See the ground plan of the bath. 



