The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-10-20 00:00:00

Oct. 20, 0146.

vey the passengers at a suitable rate, there can be no
doubt that the scheme has many advantages. Where
land is to be bad for £lOO the acre, each cottage may
have its living-room, scullery, three or four bed-rooms,
the usual conveniences, and the twentieth part of an acre
for garden, for say 4s. per week, including the carriage
by railway to and from work.

,
In connection with the subject of improved houses, I
have a few remarks to make on the means of aiding the
ventilation of houses, a point in which some of the im-
proved plans we have looked at appear deficient. Sashes,
I have said, should generally be hinged in two halves;
but where they are hung with lines and weights, either
both halves should be hung, or if only one, the upper, as
that is more effectual for changing the air of the room.
Sometimes, however, it is undesirable to have the window
shut, yet a change of air is still wanted. To meet this
case, in the Birkenhead Barracks air-bricks with sliding
shutters are introduced. A square of perforated zinc in
mild weather answers very well; but in winter it requires
a curtain or shutter, and at all times it obscures the light.
A combination of the air-brick and perforated zinc would
probably answer in new houses. Mr. Forrest, of the Old
Haymarket, has registered a design for ventilation of very
simple construction, which would be found cheap and
useful on many occasions. One of the ordinary squares
in a window has circular holes cut through it, and on the
centre of the square a circular piece of glass is fixed, re-
volving upon the centre, in which holes of the same size
and at the same distance are also perforated. By revol-
ving the circular plate, the apertures can be opened or
shut at pleasure. Some time since Mr. Fairs took out a
patent for a transparent ventilator, which was constructed
of slips of glass placed in a frame, like the slips of a
Louvre shutter; and by raising or lowering the panes by
a screw, the ventilator could be opened or shut at plea-
sure. But the air came in in a cold stream, particularly
unpleasant to the party sitting below ' • and the frames and
slips, in course of time, clogged with dust. Messrs. Bai-
ley appear to have added a sliding pane of glass to Mr.
F.'s patent, which is hung upon balance weights, and
appears to afford greater facility for regulating the
drafts ; but I do not think any of these schemes equal to
the perforated zinc in diffusing the air when admitted, no
draft being perceptible except by holding the hand close
to it; but it has the disadvantage of being opaque, and is,
therefore, not so desirable for introduction into the win-
dow of a house already built, where no other position can
be found. The subject of ventilation is still one upon
which much is required, but it is to be expected that the
general attention it is receiving, will lead to the dis-
covery of the true principles and laws for our guidance in
the erection of buildings of every kind.
I must be allowed to explain on behalf of my profes-
sion, that they are not to be blamed that so little progress
has been made in this branch, or in that of acoustics.
The duty of the architect is not so much to make scien-
tific discoveries, or to invent theories, as to carry into
practice the principles of science. An' architect's time
and thoughts will be quite sufficiently employed with the
interests of his principals, and the improvements and dia-
coveries of the day.
A long discussion followed, after which a unanimous
vote of thanks was carried for Mr. Boult's interesting
con mun;c Akin.

LONDON GAZETTE.-TUESDAY, OCT. 13.