The weekly Shasta courier. [volume] (Shasta, Calif.) 1872-190?, 1873-03-29
Plan for a Portable Tropic.


cost less, in proportion to its size, than |
an ordinary barn. 1t was a marvel of |
constructive skill, and must have given |
the crowds that thronged it enlarged
ideas of the future possibilities of man.
kind on this battle-scarred planet. The
glass and iron building that was erected
in New York two years afterward,
was LIGHTHOUSE compared to its Lon
. don predecessor, as it covered an area
of only two acres.
If such architectural miracles as
have been mentioned can be wrought |
for the cultivation of exotic plants, or
for exhibiting the progress of the ma
tions in art and mechanism, certainly |
still greater miracles can be wrought /
when the object is the much more i'm
portant one of restoring to health and
happiness multitudes of our fellow
beings. The one great measure needed |
to secure this wished-for result, as re-
CARDS the large class of invalids men
toned above, is to provide an artificial
winter climate maintained at desira-
Bile, uniform temperature, and having |
the proper hygrometric conditions of
atmosphere; in other words, to furnish |
the consumptive invalid with all the
advantages of winter residence in
Cuba, with the fatigues, dangers, and
expense of the journey left out. This
can be accomplished by system of
winter gardens, of less extent, inclosed
and rooted with glass in framework
of iron. y The precise form
of the proposed structures - whether
the ground-plan shall be a circle, a
square, an octagon, or other geometric
figures not, for purposes of illustra-
ton, very material. We will suppose
it to be circle. Its diameter should
then be at least fifteen hundred feet,
which should inclose an area of little
over forty acres-not far from the size
of Boston Common, exclusive of the
Public Garden. A forty
acre building is only little more than
twice as large in area as the Crystal
Palace of 1851, and it quite within the
limits of the practicable. The London
Exhibition building of 1862, though
only partly of iron and glass, covered
an area, with the picture gallery and
annexes, of twenty-four and half
acres. r The materials.
we have decided, would be mainly iron
and glass. The inclosing wall would
be at least fifty feet high, supported at
regular intervals, by round or octagonal
iron towers, eighteen or twenty feet in
diameter, and a hundred or more in
height. The immense glass roof, sup
ported on numerous iron columns,
would rise at regular pitch toward the
centre of the building, where it would
be hundred feet from the ground.
The roof would be constructed on the
ridge-and-furrow principle, making nu-
merous angular depressions and eleva-
tions-the lower angles forming cutters
to carry the rain-water into the hollow
iron columns, whence it would flow
into the underground system of drain
pipes and sewers. The steam boilers
for warming the building, in the alb
sence of the suns rays, would be locat-
ed in the lower portions of the towers,
outside the walls, which would thus
serve double use besides being an or
nament. Pure air would constantly
pass into the interior through numerous
apertures left for the purpose in the
walls. This fresh, cold air would be
warmed, on its passage into the build
ing, by passing through screens or pet
works of hot steam-pipes. Thus there
would be a constant and abundant,
though gentle, flow of pure, warm air
from all points of the circumference
toward the centre of the edifce, where
it would rise, and flow out through the
ventilators in the dome. The atmos-
phere within would have none of the
oppressiveness of common conserva-
tory, but would be, in the highest de-
gree, agreeable and healthful. The
means of ventilation would be under
such easy control as to enable those in
charge of that department to maintain
a nearly uniform temperature.
The grounds, within the walls, would
be laid out and ornamented IN the high
est style of the art of landscape garden
ing. Broad, winding paths would lead
among rock-work and through clumps
of balsamic trees filling the air with
healing odors; through grassy lawns,
and parterres of brilliant flowers; around
and across miniature lakes with foun-
tains in the midst, and graceful boats
gliding over the surface; by the side of
close-clipped hedges and green banks,
where the winter sunbeams would lin
ger as warmly as if it were June; amid
aviaries of birds from all chimes; over
ravines spanned by rustic bridges; un-
der vine-covered arboss; into stately
galleries of the finest pictures and stat
uary; into museums of natural history;
into libraries, reading and lecture rooms;
into gymnasia, where the relaxed mus
cles could gradually regain frmness
under judicious training; in brief,
wherever the invalid visitors should
walk or be wheeled, they would find
the beautiful, the entertaining, the in
structive in nature and art. Every
where would be an abundance of the
easiest chairs and lounges. Sitting or
reclining in these after the exercise
prescribed by the attending physicians,
the patients could pass the time in any
rational way to which they felt in
clined-in some light, agreeable work,