HOUSE AND GARDEN 
August, 
OH 
1 ioi to guards of rope, against which many objections may 
be urged, and is preferable to the life rail formed of hori¬ 
zontal lengths of metal placed at a distance above the water, 
for these, projecting as they do from the wall of the pool, are 
often in the way when entering or leaving the water, and are 
even sometimes the cause of serious accident to bathers who 
may chance to come to the surface directly beneath the pro¬ 
jecting guards. 
1 he important details which affect materially the success of 
a home bathing pool have to do with the source of water supplv 
and the method of keeping that water fresh and clear. The 
most attractive of water supplies would be a country brook or 
small stream, and it might be quite possible to connect the bath¬ 
ing pool with such a brook by means of pipes that would divert 
part of its waters at the times when the pool is to be refilled. 
A source of water supply to be reallv helpful, however, must 
be reliable. Unfortunately, country brooks, though highly ro¬ 
mantic, have a tendency either to dry up or else run verv low at 
just the season when a bathing pool would be most used and 
therefore in need of frequent renewal of its water. A far 
more reliable source of supply would be the prosaic water works 
with which most country es¬ 
tates are equipped, or the 
public water works which 
often exist even in rural lo¬ 
calities. 
Unless the pool be built in 
such a way that the water is 
continually renewed, it will be 
necessary to empty it occa¬ 
sionally for a thorough 
cleansing of walls and floor. 
A drain for this purpose must 
naturally be at the end of the 
pool where the depth is the 
greatest. Since drainage con¬ 
nections are vitally important, 
it were well to bear this 
Again, there are the pools, as does this at Red Bank, N. J„ that lend themselves 
to formal elaborate settings 
The position may alone be of sufficient interest, as in this instance, where in severe 
lines is mirrored the approach to the formal house 
is employed, the pool may be 
filled at the beginning of win¬ 
ter and allowed to freeze, 
thus forming a private skat¬ 
ing rink. The latest and most 
approved form of building 
involves the use of a specially 
prepared tiling with a surface 
glazed and absolutely non- 
porous. Such tiles are im¬ 
bedded in waterproof cement 
placed against a lining of 
brick, with several layers or 
thicknesses of canvas or bur¬ 
lap between the brick and the 
cement. 
This particular method of 
construction calls for the use 
of a narrow gutter of sec¬ 
tions of glazed terra cotta, which extends around the pool. It stood when cleansing the interior 
is sufficiently inclined to carry off into drains the water that may 
fall into it. Bathing pools built in this fashion are usually pro¬ 
vided with a water system by which the supply is continually 
forced into them. This constant pressure causes an equally 
constant overflow into the gutters at the edge of the pool, and, 
as the particles of dust or other impurities that fall into the 
water rise to the surface, where the water is readily affected 
by the current, they are quickly drained away. 
With water supplied in this manner, the contents of the pool 
are being continually renewed, and thus is solved the difficulty 
so often experienced of keeping the water fresh and clear and 
in a condition which renders it attractive to bathers. In in¬ 
stances where pools are built within doors, or partly within 
doors and enclosed for winter use, the water is first filtered, 
then heated, and even then sometimes sterilized, before be¬ 
ing forced into the pool. About the edges of the pool thus 
enclosed a floor of stone or concrete often extends, and, if 
these floors be slightly inclined toward the pool, water used in 
cleansing them will also be carried away by the tiny gutter at 
the pool's edge. 
The little gutter also serves as a life rail that may prove 
a very present help to the chilled or spent bather. The 
best of life rails is afforded by such a rim of glazed earthen¬ 
ware precisely at the surface of the water. It is vastly supe- 
m 
mind. The value of a non- 
porous material for lining a 
pool will be readily under- 
The most vigorous scouring 
may be necessary at, or just above, the water line, but the cleans- 
The classical setting in this California pool, while severe of line, fits its environments. 
It also has horticultural possibilities 
