NA TURE 



[December 29, 1898 



interest only, but the educational value of the study of natural 

 objects. The Corporation of Liverpool has been one of the 

 first to recognise this advance in opinion in raising the city's 

 museum to the position of a first-class scientific institution, by 

 voting the necessary funds for its proper support, and keeping 

 the collections abreast of the stream of discovery. 



The additions — chiefly by purchase— to both the Derby and 

 Mayer Museums have been within the last three or four years 

 so specially numerous that since 1893 it has been evident to 

 the Museums Sub-Committee of the Libraries, Museums, and 

 An Committee of the Council that increased space was urgently 

 necessary. 



The Technical Instruction Sub-Committee then al.so found 

 itself in the same position in regard to a central school to 

 accommodate the more advanced classes, which were and are 

 now being held in widely separated parts of the city, in buildings 

 most of them ill adapted for teaching purposes. 



A special Sub-Committee was therefore constituted in 

 December 1894, empowered to take immediate steps for the 

 extension of the museums, and for providing suitable accommo- 

 dation for the Liverpool School of Science, Technology, and 

 -Vrt The credit of ..vcrc.imini; llie diliiciillies wliich Ix'^.'n ihe 



horse-shoe shape, and 420 feet in length, 33 feet in breadth ; 

 the lower — to contain the Invertebrates — 19 feet in height, 

 while the upper — for the Vertebrates — will be 27 feet. The 

 lower floors will be lighted from the side, and the upper from 

 the roof New and well-appointed laboratories — which, when 

 the first building was erected, had been entirely overlooked, or, 

 at that date, considered quite unnecessary adjuncts to a museum 

 — for the director and his assistants, are also to be provided, as 

 well as new administrative offices. 



The new buildings will be of brick, faced with StancliflTe 

 stone from the quarries at Darley Dale, in Derbyshire, the same 

 which furnished the material of which St. George's Hall is 

 built. They will be the largest built by the Corporation of 

 Liverpool for fifty years, and the largest since the erection of St. 

 George's Hall, and, next to it, the largest building in the city. 

 The front to Byrom Street rises from the very edge of the 

 original " Pool," and is close to the site where the old bridge 

 connected Liverpool with the heath. 



The ventilation and heating of the buildings will be carried 

 out on a system which provides upwards of four miles of three- 

 inch pipes, discharging into every room purified and wanned 

 air t.. ihe amount of 8,000,000 cubic feet jiei I. I . i 



initiation of so large a scheme, and of arranging the preliminaries, 

 is chiefly due to Sir William Korwood. 



The present museum buildings stand on a rocky plateau 

 sloping abruptly towards the west. By excavating this slope, 

 consisting of I'ermian rock, down to Ihe level of Byrom Street, 

 sufficient accommodation, three stories in height, could be pro- 

 vided for the Technical Schools, while the museum galleries 

 could be carried forwat<l, on their present level, over the schools. 

 The Technical Schools will thus be distinct and entirely 

 isolated, and have their own entrance in Byrom Street. 



This being so, designs with estimates for a building — whose 

 rc<iuirements were sketched out by the Director of Technical 

 Instruction and the Director of .Museums respectively — were 

 invited from a selected list of architects of eminence in I'.ngland. 

 In the summer of 1S96 the designs of Mr. Edward William 

 Mounlford, of London, were awarded the first premium. The 

 nandsome and stately building so designed, which is represented 

 in the accompanying illustration, will be 90 feet above the level 

 of Byrom Street, and measuring from north to south 162 feet, 

 and from east to west 190 feet, occupying an area of 27,000 

 s<|uare feet. The galleries of the museum will tun in continuity 

 with those in the existing building, and will lie undivideil in any 

 pan of their course by walls or partitions. I'hey will be of 



NO. 1522, VOL. 59] 



are of stone, the floors of concrete, and the roof chit fly of steel, 

 so as to reduce the chance of fire to a minimum ; in case of 

 which, however, an emergency staircase will provide exit for 

 visitors in the museum. 



The work of excavating the rock, of which the slope extending 

 west of the present museums is composed, was commenced on 

 November i, 1897. 



On July I last the foundation stone was formally, and very 

 appropriately, laid by .Alderman Sir William Bower Korwood, 

 who has for many years been Chairman of the Standing Com- 

 mittee in charge of the libraries, museums, and art gallery, and 

 to whose energy and jiowerful advocacy, not only the approach- 

 ing realisation of this much-needed extension of the two 

 departments of technical instruction and the museums are, in 

 a very special manner, due, but also the large increase and 

 development of the two other departments under his chairman- 

 ship — the libraries and the art gallery. 



On the stone being " well and truly laid," Sir William 

 Forwood gave an interesting address, in which he said the City 

 Council, by that day's proceedings, announced to Liverpool 

 that they believed that technical instruction had come to stay 

 with them ; that it was now part of the life ol the people ; and 

 that it was worthy of that magnificent home. "This building 



