An enquiry into certain principles of architectural physiology / by D.O. Edwards.

  • Edwards, David Owen, 1801-1878.
Date:
[1866]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An enquiry into certain principles of architectural physiology / by D.O. Edwards. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    coming from bcneatli f.lie flooi- would hardly bo prevented, and would not be found pleasant; the object generally was to admit the air into a room above the level of the head. He believed if the air was admitted at a higher level it practically ventilated more than from below, though theoretically it was not so. Another point of ventilation was, the size of the aperture for admitting the air was of the same size as that for the exit of the vitiated air ; he had found it fail in a large workshop. The reduction of the aperture for the entrance of the air to one half, in that case, occasioned it to work perfectly. On the subject of windows, no doubt there were many evils connected with them, one, however, could be pro- vided, in a great measure, by the introduction of a thicker quality of glass, which would present greater resistance to atmospheric influences, and also be less liable to fracture. Everyone must have found a room much warmer with plate glass in the windows, and the great reduction in the cost of glass enabled tliick, if not plate glass, to be used for the commonest purposes. The question of chimneys is a very important one, and he believed the plan proposed in the paper was the most perfect of all if the flues were in use; but suppose there were two flues with fires, and the other two were without fires, and suppose there happened to be a room which wanted a supply of air, the opening into a well staircase, the staircase acted as a long arm of a syphon, and would very soon fill the room with smoke from the down draught, particularly as the staircase would, probably, supply the air for the rooms with fires. The great object should be to heat the passages instead of heating the rooms. If they heated the passages sufficiently, and the warmth entered the rooms, they occasioned not only more ventilation but made a more healthy house than when the rooms were heated by separate fireplaces. Another object was to bring pure heated air into the room. On the general question of obtaining this warmed air, if they could accomplish it by double flues, that would be the best thing; practically, this had not been done becarrse it was too expensive, but in theory it was perfect, and no doubt it would eventually be accomplished, and they could, at all events, be employed in the higher class of houses. He begged personally to express his thanks to Dr. Edwards for bringing tins subject before them. Mr. W. White, Fellow, in seconding the vote of thanks, remarked that, although much of the details could not be called architectural, yet there were several subjects treated of in the paper sufficiently associated with architecture to make them of use and interest to this Institute, especially those points commented upon by Mr. Jennings. It was scarcely clear whether this draught was to come in through the ceiling, or through the floor, as ]\Ir. Jennings supposed. [Dr. Edwards replied, it came down from the ceiling.] That made all the difference; and it was simply following out an old device in the shape of a square tube carried through a room beneath the ceiling, perforated in the sides, which had the same effect as the mode proposed, and as he (Mr. White) thought with much simpler construction. As regarded the draught of the chimneys, if it so happened that these [referring to diagram] three fires were alight, and the other one (away from the wind) was not lighted, it appeared to him that this room would require a supply of air, which it would still, probably, receive from the chimney above, and, consequently, might draw down smoke. If the other fire-place, away from the wind, was alight, the others not being lighted, it might create ventilation by displacing the air above. But he thought the same remedy for a smoky chimney, by the prevention of down draughts arising from wind, was as easily effected by a plan he had adopted, by covering each flue at the outlet, transversely, by a gable projecting over the sides of the flue, through which the wind passed. The only thing to be careful of in that, was not to have a level space on the outside of the flue for the wind to collect upon, birt it ought to slope upwards towards the flue, so that if the wind came on the incline, the air would rush upwards to the ridge of the gable and pass out. There was one other question, which was rather of a sanitary than an arcliitectural character, yet practically connected with the building of dwelling houses, that was with respect to the disposition of all offensive drainage; and it seemed to him that the plan discovered and patented by a country clergyman, in