of Churches and Drying Rooms. 37 



bottom. The same plan, it would seem to me, would be the 

 most economical method of applying heat in drying rooms for 

 yarn, &c, as none but the coolest air could escape, and the 

 amount of hot air admitted could be regulated, so that no air 

 would leave the apartment until completely saturated with 

 vapour. By the ordinary method in use, for heating both drying 

 rooms and churches, the hottest air immediately makes its 

 way to the highest part of the building, and escapes by the 

 nearest outlet before it has done much of its intended work. 

 A method which has been successfully tried in our iron war 

 ships, but not yet in our churches — that is, to coat the interior 

 with a non-conducting paint — would be worth the experiment ; 

 it would likely prove a means of saving fuel and adding con- 

 siderably to comfort. Every one knows how much more 

 comfortable a new house seems, and no doubt is, after it has 

 been papered and painted, and how one will almost be inclined 

 to shiver on going into a new house with its bare plastered 

 walls. It is not a mere imagination that drawing the curtain 

 close adds to the comfort of a sitting-room on a cold winter 

 night. The curtains are really like blankets, only more distant 

 from the body than would be comfortable in bed. Let anyone 

 try sleeping in a room with the blind up in the cold weather 

 instead of drawn down. The difference in temperature will be 

 quite perceptible without the help of a thermometer, a difference 

 hardly to be expected from a thin piece of cotton hanging in 

 front of the window, or the loosely-fitting slips of a Venetian 

 blind. We have all noticed the dew forming on the carafe 

 of cold water on a dining-table. Often it will trickle down in 

 streams. Did anyone ever notice the table-cloth or napkin in 

 that state, or even damp, from the same cause ? In former days 

 tapestry must have added materially to the comfort of rooms, 

 acting as a non-conductor between the cold walls of the building 

 and the bodies of its inmates. 



