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VENTILATION OF THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.

motion, care being taken at the same time that there shall be as free room given for the entrance of fresh air at a different place, as there is for the exit of the heated air.

Would you advise that such an apparatus should be placed on the floor of the House of Commons, which is the building to which the Committee is at this time devoting its attention ?-By no means; I would have it worked in an independent apartment. It is fitted up on the floor in my class-room because we take advantage of the heat; we find we can carry on a number of furnace operations, of a particular description, with a moderate heat, with the same fire which induces and regulates ventilation; that being no object whatever, for the purpose required in the House of Commons, it would be better to have the furnace in another place where it would not be inconvenient.

Whether you place the apparatus below, or in or above the room to be ventilated, it is immaterial?-It is of no great consequence; but this is to a certain extent of consequence, that if placed in such a manner that there shall be a current, we may draw the air from the House of Commons, not merely by the vent, but by the lower part which supplies the fuel of the furnace with air, thus furnishing it with additional power; I wish to take advantage not only of the current which is made to ascend from the lighter current produced by the heat, but also to draw from the House of Commons the air that feeds the fire. If the furnace were situated in an apartment immediately over the House of Commons, the air from the House of Commons would rise to it and create that draught, would it not? It might create a little draught, but the power as produced by the furnace is dependent upon the light and expanded air rising from the fire; at times we have the air warmer without than within, and were it not for the heat actually developed by specifie combustion, our currents might sometimes be reversed.

But under any circumstances, do you pro pose for the purpose of ventilation to have the vent tube placed in the chamber to be ventilated?-There is not the slightest necessity for it; if a communication is made by a tube towards the vent, that is all that is essential.

From whatever place the supply of air is taken, ought it not to be a spot freely open to the action of the winds and atmosphere ?-It would be preferable.

Do you contemplate that when the House is crowded the ventilating apparatus should also be used at the same time?-It should be ready for powerful action at all times; but I would not propose that the ventilating apparatus should be brought into full action until

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it was absolutely necessary; it could be worked always in such a manner as the varying circumstances of the case might require; I should of all things wish to avoid any accumulation of bad air, so that it became necessary to use the ventilating apparatus with great power; but I would not put on the ventilating apparatus until Members actually began to assemble, and from that moment the ventilating apparatus being in action, it would be better to keep up the purity of the atmosphere by a general and equal flow, than by allowing bad air to accumulate and then working it with great power. In many of the buildings which I have seen there is not nearly sufficient exit and entrance provided for the quantity of air required, so that when the windows are afterwards thrown open, cross draughts are induced in every direction.

It is your opinion, that in constructing the building generally, reference should be had to the position of the doors and windows, as well as to any ventilating apparatus that may be applied to secure good and proper ventilation?-The utmost attention, I think, should be paid to this, if it be intended to use them at times to assist the ventilation; but I would strongly recommend that they should never ventilate at all by doors (that there should be double doors), nor by the windows, except under the most peculiar circumstances. There might be arrangements made with advantage for throwing open the room by doors and windows to a certain extent; but if provision be made by other means, the ventilation will be completely under control when there is a power which can be regulated. The moment we begin to ventilate by doors and windows we may refresh those who are very near, but we have a sweeping current that runs in a particular direction, and there is no equality of ventilation; some may be refreshed or perhaps injured by the draught under such circumstances, but there will be no equality of diffusion; and others may receive no fresh air at all.

Do you suppose that the same ventilating apparatus might be made applicable to the House and the Committee-rooms of the House in the morning?-That is what I should wish to see done in every large establishment, not only the ventilation of the large room, but also tubes connected with the smaller apartment, and valves arranged so that the apparatus might work exactly in the same manner as water or gas in pipes laid through a city. If there be one great chimney or ventilator through which every thing is to pass, by opening or shutting a valve in every individual room or apartment, be it what it may, any degree of ventilation can be commanded that is required. But a general difficulty has arisen in consequence of these

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VENTILATION OF THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.

provisions in most places not having been made any thing to the extent that is absolutely necessary; consequently, when in full action, the doors and windows are thrown open all at once, and it disturbs every thing like unity of operation. There is another thing connected with ventilation as conducted by heated air, namely, that it is not liable to the noise produced when the ventilation is induced by the working of a fanner or other common mechanical power put in action by machinery. Further, the same power dependent upon the application of heated air will also enable cold air to be thrown in whenever it may be necessary, which may be artificially depressed in its temperature in warm seasons; this would give great relief when there are months together of continuous hot weather. I should wish to see, not only arrangements for renewing air and warming it in the winter, but for cooling it in summer, which I think might be done with very great facility.

You do not contemplate the principle of regulating it by a self-regulating action ?-I should almost doubt whether that could be done; I do not say it might not ultimately be effected; but I have seen such a great number of ventilators fail in this respect, being subject to such a number of influences, that unless we were almost to attribute to them a kind of mental reaction, they could scarcely adapt themselves with precision to the varied circumstances under which they must act; but any ordinary attendant may be taught, by a little attention to the thermometer and the number of Members present, to increase or diminish the working of the apparatus to any extent.

A thermometer might be placed in some great thoroughfare, so as to be open to inspection?-Yes, it might be placed in the body of the House, so as always to be before the Members. One might easily be con. structed for this purpose, both large and sufficiently delicate to be a constant check upon the ventilating apparatus; the usual registerthermometer might also be used, so that a most complete check may be obtained over the machinery, and the attendance of the person engaged in conducting it, at times when no one might be present to examine the heat, &c.

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Supposing the thermometer rose very suddenly, do you think that then the apparatus you are talking of would rapidly reduce that apartment to a proper state of ventilation?-It could be made to work to any extent. may mention, on several occasions, gentlemen may have come in from a distance, foreigners and strangers, to see the working of my ventilating apparatus; when there was nothing doing in the laboratory, we have put on the

fire with a few pieces of wood, and in the course of five minutes we were able with that to bring it into such a state of activity that fumes produced in showing some experiments were carried with great rapidity by these ventilators, which in the course of three minutes would have filled the room to such an extent that we should have been obliged to go out, had they not been in action.

With regard to one apparatus being efficient in ventilating the new Houses of Parlia ment, and all the Committee-rooms and other buildings, should you adduce that as an advantage in point of economy, or in point of general equability of ventilation ?-In every point of view; better than having more than one, for a very small power is quite sufficient to work a great number of small ones.

Taking the Houses of Parliament, without going to the other rooms, suppose there are thirty Committee-rooms, would you say that one apparatus should be sufficient to ventilate all this over a large surface of ground, as well as the House of Commons and the House of Lords in the same way?-They might all be ventilated by one large furnace.

It is rather a matter of judgment, arising from the extent and number of apartments, than any thing else, as to how many of these furnaces you would have?—It may be more economical to have two large ventilating furnaces if the rooms are very much apart, than to carry all the independent flues a very great length.

Can the tubes be conducted to any considerable distance from the room to the apparatus?-To any length almost; I have seen them conducted hundreds of feet without any material difference.

You would not have the tube of so large a diameter as to occasion inconvenience in making the building originally ?-A tube so very large and inconvenient would not be required; but every thing would depend on the primary arrangement made by the architect; it is not a thing to be added, but to be seen from the foundation, and all those flues could be carried under ground, and there would not be the slightest necessity for one to be conducted in any way where it would interfere either with ornaments or any thing connected with the building. You may carry the air down as easily as you can carry it up. I admit, indeed, that the movements induced during the rarefaction of air are such that it would be more easily carried up than otherwise; but yet, with furnaces, the difference is not so great as to make a decided alteration in any plans connected with the arrangement of the ventilating tube.

You would be more liable to a return current in case of any mismanagement of the tubes, in case you convey them down from

VENTILATION OF THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.

the ceiling of the room?-Yes, I admit that; but, at the same time, when the furnace is attended to with moderate care, I should not anticipate there would be any danger of those accidents occurring.

As to the admission of air for the House of Commons, how would you propose to arrange the tubes for its admission; would you distribute them over the floor, or would you admit the air at one great aperture?-I should prefer that the air were taken out at one aperture, but admitted by a great many, and broken as much in its impetus as possible by the division of the tubes, as far as that could be effected; and if no arrangement be adopted for preparing the air in its temperature before it be admitted into the House, which I consider the most effectual mode of conducting a proper system of ventilation, I should perhaps be inclined to prefer that the air should be admitted at a little height, than exactly on the floor or on the ground, for though the air be admitted from the floor in 10,000 little apertures, still there is some danger of the Members feeling the effect of the direct introduction of the cold air in very cold weather.

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thirty feet from the floor there might often be observed a stratum of air at a temperature above that of boiling water, while below the air has been disagreeably cold.

In the admission of warm air to supply the room, it would be necessary to distribute the apparatus evenly over the whole surface of the floor?-As widely as possible.

And as numerously as possible?-Yes, so far as it could be conveniently done, the heating surface on the floor could not be too extensive.

It is necessary to conduct the heated air over the whole surface of the floor, and not to trust to an apparatus radiating the heat?-I should think it absolutely necessary to con duet the heated air when it is supplied in currents; but if you have different stoves heated by steam in different parts of the building, or surfaces of iron heated by hot water or otherwise, that may make a great difference. The great objection to stoves or large plates heated by water or steam, is the unequal currents which necessarily accompany them, and the return of respired air in a descending

In all lofty buildings, it is impossible to have that sweet and fresh atmosphere which might be so easily commanded in a less elevated apartment, where a stream of air might be made to rise slowly but continually from the floor to the top of an in clined roof, to be removed there by the ventilator. A lofty room is generally preferred, because, from the mass of air present, a long time is necessarily required to contaminate it; but when prolonged debates are carried on, it is evident that the very cause which prevents it from being contaminated to such an extent at first, will render it exceedingly difficult to renew the air when once it shall have been vitiated.

stream. This system must necessarily be considered defective, as the cold air, though broken in its force before it could reach the Members, would tend to carry along with it a portion of the respired air with which it must necessarily mix; whereas by introducing over the body of the floor the whole of the fresh air at a regulated temperature, air once respired would be carried away, and the atmosphere would never be of that oppressive character which often increases to such an extent in some buildings, where the respired air is not so easily carried away, as to produce a very powerful sedative effect, often accompanied by severe headache, more espe cially when it is necessary to maintain a continued and anxious attention to any subjeet under discussion.

The evils of a current of a certain velocity may be equally great whether the air be moist or dry?-There must be a difference there; a very dry current of air passing across the face may produce a very different effect from a very moist one; I would consider it of equal importance, indeed of much more importance to divide the current of hot air than of cold air, because when a current of cold air is introduced, it naturally falls down and diffuses itself; but if hot air be introduced from any particular source, and in great quantity at one place, that will rise in a stream to the top, without benefiting those in the body of the building. We have had remarkable instances of that in public buildings, which it was said could not be heated, though great sums were expended upon them.

At a distance of twenty or

Would you propose to regulate the velocity of the air admitted by artificial means, or trust to its change of place simply by its altered gravity ?-I would propose to have every part of the ventilating apparatus under precise control, without that, it is utterly impossible to adapt the currents to the varying circumstances of the place; arrangements ought to be made to cut off the supply entirely, to exchange a pipe of cold air for the hot air, and, in short, to effect any change upon the currents we may wish at a moment's notice.

Those apertures might be so regulated, that a person sitting in another room, by turning a handle, might open or close the valves?-Yes; it is easy to do that; at the same time it would be necessary to have them all under some general control or superintendence in case of their not acting harmoniously together.

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NOTES AND NOTICES.

NOTES AND NOTICES.

It is said that the Marquis of Westminster contemplates the construction of a magnificent suspension bridge over the Thames to the Red House, Battersea.

Prize Chronometers.-Government having determined on discontinuing the prizes for chronometers, which shall have performed within certain limits during a twelvemonth's trial, at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the last public trial terminated on the 1st inst., when Mr. John Carter, of 207, Tooley-street, was again declared (as last year) alone entitled to any reward; his chronometer, No. 160, being the only instrument remaining on trial since January 1836, although, at the commencement, in March, 1835, sixty-four chronometers were placed in competition, but, exceeding the prescribed limits, were returned to their respective makers. It certainly reflects great credit upon Mr. Carter, when we announce this as the fourth year his chronometers have, by their uniform and steady rate, under great variation of temperature, been found deserving that high and proud distinction which the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have been pleased to confer. The extreme error, for twelve months, of Mr. Carter's chronometer, No. 163, was one second, 47 hundredths.-Daily paper.

New Discovery in the Process of Casting IronDr. Charles Schaffhautl, a German at Sheffield, has lately discovered that by producing an evaporation of the chlorine in making cast-iron of the second and third quality, an iron of the first quality is produced. A patent has been taken out for the discovery, of which Messrs. Hollis, Solly, and Son, of the Tividale Iron-works, are proprietors.

Ballooning. Dr. Agme in a recent essay, which he read at the French Institute, endeavours to prove that it is possible to obtain such a hold on the upper atmosphere as to be able to direct a balloon with all the steadiness and certainty of a boat moving in the waters. This he proposes to accomplish by means of oars or levers to be attached to the car, and which are to be made of oiled skin, or cloth, capable of containing an adequate quantity of hydrogen-gas, the specific gravity of which being lighter than the air would obtain a hold on the natural fluid, as they would meet with the same resistance as the balloon does itself.-Globe.

Cultivation of the Vine in England.--I planted a small vineyard for an amateur, which the third year produced so abundantly as to enable him to send large quantities of fruit to his friends, and also to make a hogshead of wine for summer drink-the sorts, Burgundy and sweet water. The best me. thod in establishing a vineyard on a small scale is this-To plant out vines raised from buds, or cuttings, or layers (say of one year's growth), let them be put out in rows, eight feet apart by six feet from plant to plant in the rows; if the shoot is strong and well ripened, head them down at once to within two feet of the ground; when they break, let the two top buds each form a shoot, which is to be trained parallel to the ground at that height, and fasten each to an upright stake. At Midsummer shorten back each shoot to about two feet, or, if strong and plenty of fruit, tree feet. The following year four, five, or six buds may be left, according to the strength of the plant, each to form a fruiting bough, and trained as before. These radiating equally from the cent: e, will be the maximum number allowed. Every winter pruning season each shoot is to be cut back to one well-formed bud of the preceding summer's growth, which bud is to produce the succeeding summer's fruit. In the summer pruning each fruiting bough is to be shortened back to the length before stated, allowing three or more bunches of grapes to ripen upon each. These bunches, when the fruit is stoned, should be well thinned out (say half left) to allow the berries to grow to a large size and colour equally, which

add to their weight, beauty, and flavour. If the soil is a cold stiff clay, it can be prepared by trenching it two spades deep, and burning it with faggots. If a thin soil, or a chalk subsoil, then it ought to be prepared with good loam, or rich alluvial soil, at least a foot deep. If a wet bottom, it should be drained. Plants treated in this manner will last many years; to vary the vineyard, a few plants might he trained upright to a pole, or in graceful festoons (one shoot only), which should never be headed back lower than the height you wish it to grow, the lateral shoots should be shortened back to the main stem every year, leaving only one bud as before directed; and last, in thinning over the leaves, it should be remembered that their functions are important, and necessary to the perfect elaboration of the sap, and consequently the perfection of the fruit. The hardiest sorts for our climate are the black Hambro', Burgundy, cluster, white, sweet water, and royal murcadine; but the curious amateur may perfect tenderer varieties by the aid of temporary glass, placed close over the branches in a proper position to catch the sun's rays.-Sunday Times.

Double-acting Gasometers-Another Claimant.— Sir, I beg to inform you the Messrs. I. and T. Waites, of Diss, have invented and constructed (without previous knowledge that there was such a thing in the world,) a double-lifting gasometer-it has been made about one year, and is in constant use and answers remarkably well. A model of it may be seen in their shop.-I remain, your obedient servant, J. M. BECKLEY. Wortham, near Diss. March 14, 1836.

Baron de Férussac.-We are sorry to announce the death of the indefatigable Baron de Férussac, the founder and editor of the Bulletin Universel. He had long suffered from an affection of the lungs, but did not quit his labours till just before his death. Among other excellent works, his Natural History of Mollusca was one of the first, and is illustrated by the best plates published in France; his monograph on Cephalopoda is equally beautiful, but neither of these undertakings is finished. He was always anxious to forward the views of those connected with science, and was particularly obliging to foreigners. He was in his fifty-second year.Athenæum.

Errata.-In Iver Maciver's article in our last Number, p. 14, col. 1, line 4, for "rising 1 in a foot" read "rising 1 in a feet;" lines 5 and 6, for "the resistance has been found to be th part" read "the resistance on a level has been found to be L ¿.” In cǝl. 2, line 8 from bottom, for "19" read "19" Also in Mech. Mag., No, 655, p. 434, col. 1, line 20 from top, for "240b" read "200=b."

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Patents taken out with economy and dẻspatch; Specifications, Disclaimers, and Amendments, prepared or revised; Caveats entered; and generally every Branch of Patent Business promptly transacted. Drawings of Machinery also executed by skilful assistants, on the shortest notice.

LONDON: Published by J. CUNNINGHAM, at the Mechanics Magazine Office, No. 6, Peterborough-court, between 135 and 136, Fleet-street. Agent for the American Edition. Mr. O. RICH, 12, Red Lion-square. Sold by G. W. M. REYNOLDS, Proprietor of the French, English, and American Library, 55, Rue Neuve, Saint Augustin, Paris.

CUNNINGHAM and SALMON, Printers,
Fleet-street.

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Mechanics' Magazine,

MUSEUM, REGISTER, JOURNAL, AND GAZETTE.

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