A handbook of house sanitation : for the use of all persons seeking a healthy home ; a reprint of those portions of Mr. Bailey-Denton's lectures on sanitary engineering given before the school of military engineering, Chatham, which related to the "dwelling."

  • John Bailey Denton
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handbook of house sanitation : for the use of all persons seeking a healthy home ; a reprint of those portions of Mr. Bailey-Denton's lectures on sanitary engineering given before the school of military engineering, Chatham, which related to the "dwelling.". Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    35/254 (page 23)
    area, without admitting any obnoxious effluvium from the sewer with which it may be connected. Small self-acting syphon flush tanks connected with a down pipe from the roof may be made a means of washing the floor of the area in times of rainfall, and at the same time flushing the outfall pipe from the cesspit to the sewer. XXIV. No Cellar or Basement to exist in Dwellings built on Clay Soils.—In clay soils cellars apd basement floors should be avoided altogether, for the retentive properties of clays will invariably cause dampness around the dwellings, and coldness within it, which neither under-drainage nor the existence of areas can overcome so effectually as to render them dry and comfortable. Dwellings erected on clay soils ought universally to be well raised above the ground surface, with free ventilation between that surface and the ground floor. It may, moreover, be taken as a general rule that no house built on any description of soil should be without space for ventilation between the earth or concrete and the joists upon which the ground floor is laid, and that such ventilation should secure a free and perfect circulation of air. XXV. Ventilating Shafts in connection with Chim- neys.—When setting forth the special provision to be made in the structure for securing a healthy condition of walls and basements, it may be stated that no arrangement will better conduce to successful ventilation than the construction of an extra flue in the principal stacks of chimneys, which shall serve—not for the passage of smoke—but for the extraction of foul air from the rooms on the different floors through which the stacks of chimneys pass. This extraction is secured by the higher temperature of the air within the shaft, raised, as it would necessarily be, by its forming one of a number of flues heated by fires beneath. All chimneys should be built as much as possible inside the dwelling and not against external walls, in order that the warmth they impart may not be lost. Under any circum- stances it will be found of advantage that a ventilating shaft should be built in connection with the kitchen flue, which is always in use, when, by a perforated hollow cornice, or some such device, means can be taken to give an outlet from the rooms into the shaft without any objectionable appearance. [The subject of ventilation being of paramount importance, it is treated separately in Chapter VI]. XXVI. As to the situation of Kitchen and Cooking Departments and the avoidance of Smells therefrom.— Without trespassing more than necessary on the province of the