Gr. H. F. Nuttall 
119 
laboratory about it; being provided with comfortable chairs, a fire-place, a 
cupboard and hidden sink for storage and the washing up of eating utensils 
which are kept out of the laboratory entirely. A long, cushioned, bench which 
can be widened by a flap affords if need be a sleeping place; the writer has in 
the past spent many an uncomfortable night in laboratories that lacked such 
a resting place for workers who have to make periodic observations at night 
in connection with their researches. 
The aquarium room, as shown in the plan, is on the first floor and it faces 
north 1 . It has a slate window bench that is drained by a white glazed channel. 
The asphalted floor slopes to one corner where there is a large drain to prevent 
the danger of flooding. The sink is large and shallow to facilitate the cleansing 
of large glass vessels which may be used as aquaria. Three stopcocks deliver 
tap-water to one side of the sink, one of them being fitted with a hose coupling. 
The rain-water supply to the aquarium flows down vertically through a glazed 
pipe from the slated collecting area on the roof (see below) and is stored in 
a slate cistern (position indicated on the plan by a dotted line), held in a steel 
frame beneath the ceiling of the aquarium room. The cistern measures 
8' x 4' 6" x 2' 2 , its capacity being about 350 gallons. The top of the cistern 
is covered with slate and access thereto is gained through a teak trapdoor in 
the floor of the room above, a movable slate slab preventing the entry of dust 
into the cistern. To obviate undue condensation of moisture upon the steel 
bearers and slate surface of the cistern in the room, the whole is enclosed in 
sheets of uralite with an interposed air-space. The water used for the aquaria 
is conducted out of the cistern in a tin pipe provided with two tinned stop¬ 
cocks with tapered nozzles, one over the sink, the other over the end of the 
window-bench nearest the sink, a glass gauge joined to the tin delivery-pipe 
near the cistern serving to indicate the stored water level. A vulcanite stand¬ 
pipe conducts any overflow from the cistern into a large pipe opening near the 
floor drain above-mentioned. 
The second floor is almost entirely devoted to the research museum whose 
north side may serve for demonstrations, practical instruction, or for research 
work, being, if necessary, divided up by light movable partitions to form cubicles. 
Museum cases, cabinets and various cupboards occupy the south side. A 
preparation room opens into the museum at one end, whilst the northwest 
corner of the building contains a store-room. 
The roof, to which access is gained at the west end, is flat and of reinforced 
concrete finished with asphalt, with a closed brick parapet, 4 feet high, forming 
a court in which there can be accommodated terraria, aquaria, and small 
animals in hutches, etc. Extending along the middle of the roof is the research 
museum skylight, constructed on the weaver-shed principle, glazed on the 
north and slated on the south. A glazed earthenware gutter collects the rain- 
1 The writer is much indebted to his friend Mr Edward Bles, M.A., for advice in practical 
matters relating to the arrangement of the aquarium room and its rain-water supply. 
2 See footnote, p. 121. 
