86 
House & Garden 
Wash and Bathe in Running-Water 
The New Shingles 
(Continued from page 84) 
Why a morning shower 
gives you a two hour 
start on the day 
This applies especially to a cold 
shower. The clean, sparkling spray 
strikes the skin and contracts the sur¬ 
face blood vessels. This drives the 
blood momentarily towards the heart. 
Aroused to greater activity the heart 
drives the blood back again with still 
greater force filling even the tiniest 
blood vessel to its utmost capacity, 
stimulating and invigorating the en¬ 
tire system — and then the water runs 
off. Besides being delightfully refreshed 
you are actually clean. 
The Speakman Shower shown in the 
illustration is the H-952'/2; ideal in 
connection with the Deshler Bath fix¬ 
ture (the three handles) for either 
built-in corner or recess tub; has Mix- 
ometer and Anyforce Shower Head 
which put the shower’s force and 
temperature under the instant control 
of the bather. With this and many 
other types of Speakman Showers you 
can easily bathe without wetting your 
hair. 
EAKMAN COMPANY 
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE 
Let your plumber tell 
you about Speakman 
Showers. He will also 
give you a Speakman 
Shower Booklet; or 
write us. You might 
also ask your architect 
about Speakman 
Showers. 
SP 
with hip starters, ridge and terminal all 
somewhat after the old Spanish fashion 
and a French tile shingle with the in¬ 
verted tile, also a close shingle roof of 
tile, and other varieties which with their 
appropriate fittings give the unusual 
roof. The installation of these roofs 
is a matter, of course, for an expert 
builder. Fortunately, today, every de¬ 
tail for the laying up of roofing tiles, 
whether of the French, Spanish, Mission 
or Roman variety, can be had from the 
manufacturers who have made a study 
of these attractive roofings and who 
instruct builders in the method of con¬ 
struction which will bring about the 
most interesting and permanent results. 
A thatch of stone is perhaps one of 
the most curiously interesting new roof¬ 
ings today, that is, it is new so far as 
the use of stone in this country is con¬ 
cerned. For centuries it roofed the old 
houses in Sussex and in the Cotswold. 
The top layers of stone, which they dug 
out of their fields, were split and broken 
up, and used for roofs, fastened down 
to the hand hewn oaken rafters with 
heavy oaken pegs. 
But it is only within a comparatively 
brief time that we have thought of 
stone roofs for domestic architecture in 
this country. It seems that scattered 
throughout certain parts of New Eng¬ 
land are some of the finest roofing slate 
deposits in the world. The quality, 
texture and coloring of this slate varies 
in different sections, in fact from quarry 
to quarry. This gives an individuality 
and variation in the roof that could 
easily have come from weathering half 
a century. The making of these stone 
thatches into a desirable, almost lovable 
roof, is not only the result of breaking 
up stone into requisite sizes; it is also 
the skillful making of a huge mosaic 
into which various shapes, sizes, colors, 
density of slate are brought together. 
The sub-roof for the stone thatch is 
very simple; rafters are covered with 
sheathing boards which in turn are 
covered with heavy felting, and then the 
stone, which will endure for limitless 
time. 
Composition Roofing 
Composition roofing is a field of such 
wide activity that to begin to do jus¬ 
tice to it would not only take an entire 
article in House & Garden, but an en¬ 
tire issue of the magazine, and even then 
some practical permanent and interest¬ 
ing roof covering would doubtless be 
left out. 
One of the very best of these prac¬ 
tical new roofings is a heavy wool roof¬ 
ing felt which comes in both shingles 
and rolls, in interesting shades of red 
and green. These are thoroughly im¬ 
pregnated with a waterproofing mate¬ 
rial, then coated on one side with gen¬ 
uine crushed slate. Sometimes these 
wool slate shingles come four on a strip, 
and instead of having square corners, 
each shingle is octagonal. These four- 
in-one shingles save much labor cost, 
also time in laying the roof. That they 
are fire resistent and weatherproof we 
do not need to add. 
A roll composition “shingle” is one 
of the most practical of economical roof¬ 
ings. It comes in red and green, and can 
be put on old wooden shingles which 
have commenced to leak. It also may 
be used on the new house, in which case 
it is laid over a tight wooden sheathing. 
It' is the ideal roofing for a modest 
home, and has much the effect of a flat 
tile, while it is most inexpensive to lay. 
An asphalt shingle which is designed 
in a twin shape for the speeding up of 
laying is a very practical fireproofing 
type. It comes in red and green slate 
surface and if laid according to direc¬ 
tions will protect every point on the 
roof. It can also be used over old 
wooden shingles, eliminating labor, time 
and extra cost. There is also a compo¬ 
sition roofing with a mineral surface 
which is unaffected by extreme heat, 
cold or dampness. This particular roof¬ 
ing can be put on by unskilled labor 
and is most economical because of the 
long service it renders. It is not only 
used on the modest home and all kinds 
of farm buildings, but is practical for 
summer camps, and bungalows can be 
built of it quickly and economically, 
using it for side walls as well as the 
roof. It comes in rolls and is strong 
enough to stand any kind of wear and 
tear and is good looking because of its 
mineral surface. 
Using Slate 
Some of the most interesting slate 
roofs today are reproductions of the 
ancient slate roofs, for slate was used 
centuries ago. 
A rare variety of beautiful slates are 
found in various parts of America today 
—deep grays of the Pennsylvania quar¬ 
ries, rich red from New York State, 
black and gray from Vermont and sea 
green from Western Vermont. Nothing 
could be more durable than these modern 
slate roofs. The texture is rough and 
as picturesque as the old Cotswold 
slate. 
For flat roof purposes, slate possesses 
several leading advantages. It elimi¬ 
nates the clogging of leaders and drains 
as from loose gravel or slag. Being a 
light surface it seals in the volatile mat¬ 
ter of the asphalt thus making perma¬ 
nent its waterproofing qualities. Snow 
can be easily shovelled off. And such a 
roof is automatically cleaned by every 
rainstorm or can be swept or scrubbed 
clean if necessary. Rain water from the 
slate roof is clean and potable. The flat 
slate roof can be made use of for play¬ 
ground, storage, clothes yard, etc., with¬ 
out damage of any sort. It can also be 
trucked over. Its permanent surface 
never becomes a fire hazard. 
Dignified and artistic treatment is of 
manifest importance in handling slate. 
With its 900-year ancestry, slate abso¬ 
lutely avoids fads. Its range includes 
both period and individual adaptations. 
In standard grades, slate is adapted to 
the most modest of structures—even 
cheap speculative work, if investment 
counts. 
The old European custom of cover¬ 
ing buildings with slate was always to 
use slabs of different thicknesses, vary¬ 
ing lengths and random widths. Crude 
quarrying facilities enforced the use of 
slate of a rough texture and uneven 
assortment of sizes, and the method of 
laying was so ingeniously developed that 
eventually graduated roofs became dis¬ 
tinct features of the buildings, many 
examples of which stand today as 
masterpieces. Prominent architects in 
this country have reverted to this old 
graduated method of laying slate roofs, 
finding in them an individuality impos¬ 
sible of expression with the checkerboard 
precision of the more conventional ar¬ 
rangement. 
The Role of Tin 
Tin of the best quality finds a prac¬ 
tical place among the sought after 
modern roofs. It is equally serviceable 
for hip or flat roof and has the advan¬ 
tage of being economical as well as inter¬ 
esting. Most of us do not know that 
roofing tin has been on the market for 
over a hundred years for public build¬ 
ings as well as houses; this fact is un¬ 
questionably related to other important 
facts, namely, that it is fireproof as well 
as damp-proof; that it is water-tight as 
well as weather-tight; that it actually 
diverts lightning from its destructive 
path. 
To accomplish such beneficent ends, 
a tin roof, of course, should be put up 
with locked and soldered seams; also, 
when so much is expected of a tin roof, 
