Second report from the Select Committee on Ventilation and Lighting of the House : together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Ventilation of the House.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second report from the Select Committee on Ventilation and Lighting of the House : together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    large doors, one of which, 'as the Committee heard stated by D. B. Reid, the policeman this morning, is always open. I have been M- D« constantly surprised to find out that that is the case ; there- ~ ^ , fore the thing is exactly in the same condition as it was 185-2. before. Next, if you will take the door of the House of Com- mons itself, where the door-keeper stands, I do not think they ever keep it shut; at least, it is very rarely shut. The door is unwieldy; there ought to be a wicket to it; it is im- possible for the door-keeper to attend to it in its present con- dition, to open and shut it. I am for a completely different arrangement as to the doors there, by the introduction of a new double door between the door of the House and the outer door, at which the door-keeper attends. I have some models, which at a future period, perhaps, the Committee will do me the favour of inspecting; they illustrate that point. 379. Mr. Greened] Did the current of air which you com- plained of as going towards Mr. Dorington's office last night proceed from the opposite lobby, or from any other point ?—■ It. came from Mr. Dorington's office to us, not from the lobby to Mr. Dorington's office. 380. Mr. Hope.] With respect to the rooms above the Commons' Division Lobby, are those under your control ?— So far, but the angles at every one of'those places have only been completed since The House met. 381. I am speaking of the rooms communicating with the Members' gallery of the House of Commons, which are above the division lobby ?—Many of the arrangements there, for instance the basin stands, have only been put up since The House met. 382. Those rooms are under your control?—They are. 383. What means do you adopt for warming those rooms? —We have an apparatus which warms an iron floor under the central portion of those rooms ; but in consequence of the excessive heat in the galleries, we have kept those rooms at a temperature probably five or six, or seven degrees lower than thai of the galleries. We have shut off that apparatus, so that it has never been in action except one or two days at the commencement of the Session, for we found it was agreeable to those who were exposed to the intense heat within to retire there occasionally. 384. Is not there a constant operation of cooling the air going on in those rooms, in consequence of the large size of the glass windows, and because the roof has nothing between it and the external air ?—There is an operation of cooling going on to a certain extent at the windows, but there is a great
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