consists in superheating ordinary gas and carburetting it by
admixture of the vapour generated from the albo-carbon material,
which is stored in a reservoir that can be attached to any existing
fittings. By its means, the light is very much intensified, steadied,
and purified, at very small cost for albo-carbon with a reduced
consumption of gas.
[Illustration: 58. Sugg’s “Osborne” Burner. 59. Albo-carbon Light.]
When gas has been laid on to a house, and the main connected with
the meter or even before the latter has been done, it is extremely
important to have all the gas-pipes tested, in order to ascertain
whether any leakage exists. A very good method is as follows:--All
the brackets and pendants, with one exception, are first stopped
up with plugs or screwed caps, and the meter is turned off or
disconnected. Upon the one outlet not stopped up a force-pump is
attached, into the interstices of which have been poured a few drops
of sulphuric ether. The force-pump is then connected with a gauge,
and is worked until a high pressure has been registered upon it, in
order that should the pipes have any latent weaknesses, the pressure
exerted will develop and discover them. When the gauge indicates
a certain figure, the pumping is stopped, and if the mercury is
noticed to fall, it is evident that there are palpable leaks, which
are at once searched for. The escaped ether will guide the operator
to the whereabouts of these leaks, and the defaulting pipes are at
once replaced by others. The pumping is then continued, and the same
routine recommences. If the mercury still descends in the gauge
glass, and the sense of smell cannot detect where the leak exists,
the joints and portions of the pipes are lathered over with soap,
whereupon the weak places will be found indicated by bubbles. These
parts where the bubbles escape are then marked, heated by means of
a portable spirit lamp made for the purpose, and covered over with
a durable cement. After a short time, the pump is once more set in
action, and if the pipes are tight, and the column of mercury in the
gauge maintains itself at the same figure, the soundness of the pipes
is assured.
An excellent portable gas-making apparatus is made by H. L. Müller,
22 Mary Ann Street, Birmingham. See also p. 998.
_Matches._--An American writer, speaking of the defacement of paint
by the inadvertent or heedless scratching of matches, says that he
has observed that when one mark has been made others follow rapidly.
To effectually prevent this, rub the spot with flannel saturated with
any liquid vaseline. “After that, people may try to strike their
matches there as much as they like, they will neither get a light
nor injure the paint,” and, most singular, the petroleum causes the
existing mark to soon disappear, at least when it occurs on dark
paint. Matches should always be kept in metallic boxes, and out of
the way of children and mice.
Countless accidents, as every one knows, arise from the use of
matches. To obtain light without employing them, and so without the
danger of setting things on fire, an ingenious contrivance is now
used by the watchmen of Paris in all magazines where explosive or
inflammable materials are kept. Any one may easily make trial of it.
Take an oblong vial of the whitest and clearest glass, and put into
it a piece of phosphorus about the size of a pea. Pour some olive
oil heated to the boiling point upon the phosphorus; fill the vial
about one-third full, and then cork it tightly. To use this novel
light, remove the cork, allow the air to enter the vial, and then
re-cork it. The empty space in the vial will become luminous, and the
light obtained will be equal to that of a lamp. When the light grows
dim, its power can be increased by taking out the cork and allowing
a fresh supply of air to enter the vial. In winter it is sometimes
necessary to heat the vial between the hands in order to increase
the fluidity of the oil. The apparatus thus made may be used for six
months. (_Chicago Times._)
_Electric Lighting._--This must not be undertaken without due
knowledge or the assistance of skilled workmen. The subject is
altogether too large for discussion here with any chance of making it
clear and simple. The reader should refer to the works of Hospitalier
and others who have made it a study. Allusion may here be made,
however, to an essentially domestic system recently introduced by
Hospitalier. His object is to provide 10 volt and 1½ ampère lamps
operating 3 or 4 hours daily. The result aimed at is that the
pile shall daily furnish a quantity of electric energy equal to
that expended, and keep the accumulators continually charged. The
accumulators form a reservoir, and compensate for the differences
between the daily production (which is sensibly continuous) and the
irregular production according to needs. This demands a continuous
pile of slow discharge, in which the products consumed can be easily
renewed, while repairs and supervision are minimised. The choice is a
potash bichromate battery.
In a single liquid potash bichromate pile, the elements to be renewed
are the zinc and the liquid which contains at once the excitant
(sulphuric acid) and the depolariser (potash or soda bichromate). In
order to obtain an easy renewal of the zinc, Hospitalier employs the
metal in the form of a rod 18 in. in length that dips for about 3
in. only into the liquid, and that is placed in a perforated porous
vessel which supports it and prevents all contact with the carbon. A
certain mobility is secured to it by means of flexible attachments,
so that as it wears away it descends into the liquid. Its lower
extremity dips into a mass of mercury, and this keeps it amalgamated.
When one rod is used up, another may be substituted for it in a few
seconds. The remaining portion of the old zinc is thrown into the
porous vessel. The mercury suffices to set up a perfect electric
communication with the new rod that has just been introduced. The
zincs are thus entirely utilised. The flow secures the continuous
renewal of the exciting and depolarising liquid. The precaution to
be taken is to cause the liquid to enter at the upper part, and to
remove it from the lower. This prevents the elements from getting
choked up, and so they may remain mounted several months, operating
day and night, without any attention having to be paid to them.
The positive pole consists of three or four carbon plates which
surround the porous vessel that contains the zinc, and which are
connected with each other by a strip of copper and screw clamps.
The connection of a zinc with the following carbon is made by means
of flexible wires, in order to permit the zinc to descend into the
liquid as it wears away, as has already been seen.
The four elements are mounted one above another. The liquid enters
them from an earthenware reservoir of 5-6 gal. capacity, through a
rubber tube. The discharge is regulated by means of a pinch-cock.
Practice has shown that it is useless to make the solution of
bichromate. It is only necessary to throw some crystals into the
upper reservoir and to pour into the latter some water, acidulated
with a tenth of its volume of sulphuric acid. A sufficient quantity
of the salt dissolves every time to assure depolarisation. The same
liquid may serve 10-12 times before renewal.
There are no precise directions to be given as to the velocity
of the discharge, since this must vary according to the needs of
consumption. A good average is 1-1½ gal. per day. When the liquid
is nearly exhausted, it is well to cause it to circulate a little
more quickly. The regulation of the velocity of the flow by the Mohr
pinch-cock is one of the simplest operations. After traversing the
four pile elements in succession, the liquid enters glass bottles of
2 gal. capacity provided beneath with a pipe to which is affixed a
rubber tube.
It is only necessary to take a full bottle, place it over the
reservoir, and put the pipe into the reservoir, in order to empty it
in a few minutes.
An inspection of the piles is advisable every two days. Were a larger
reservoir employed and the velocity of flow moderated, the interval
might be still longer.
The four elements in tension alternately charge two series of
accumulators each containing three elements. This arrangement allows
the use of two kinds of lamps, 6 volt ones in the cellar and small
rooms, and 10 volt ones in the dining-room and office.
The cellar lamp is so arranged that it is lighted by opening the
door, and extinguished by closing it. Aside from the lamps just
mentioned, another is arranged for lighting a dark ante-room, and
which lights up for three minutes, only, whenever a button near the
door is pressed.
The use of accumulators and flowing piles presents the following
advantages: (1) Convenience, the apparatus being always ready to
furnish light upon turning a tap; (2) Ease of keeping in repair
and of supervision, the flow and the dimensions being capable of
regulation so that the consumer need look after the piles only at
irregular intervals. (3) Better utilisation of the products as a
result of the use of a pencil of zinc instead of wide plates. The
surface attacked is reduced to the dimensions that are strictly
necessary for the production of a current, and local action is thus
diminished. On the other hand, the active liquor is not thrown
away until completely exhausted. (4) Quality of the light. This
remains steady during the entire time of the lighting, without any
manipulation of the pile or any special appliance.
A few hints may be culled from Preece’s lecture on Domestic Electric
Lighting, read before the Society of Arts last session.
Makers of lamps seem to consider that there is great credit in
securing long life. Unfortunately, glow lamps deteriorate sadly
with age. The carbon wastes imperceptibly away, and we are scarcely
conscious of the fact that, after 200 or 300 hours, the lamp gives
only half the light it did at first. The fact is lamps last too long.
The price of a lamp should be such that we could afford to give them
a short and merry life. Long life is therefore an objection.
Lamps fail in giving their light occasionally from having an
imperfect vacuum. This is very easily detected by feeling the globe.
If the vacuum is bad it gets quite hot. Occasionally, but very
rarely, lamps explode with a loud report when the current is first
put on. This is, perhaps, due to a slight leakage of air making an
explosive mixture with the residual gas.
At the present moment, both the nomenclature and the efficiency of
glow lamps are in a very unsatisfactory state, and we are buying pigs
in a poke at a very high price.
Considerable difference of opinion exists as to the character of the
globe enveloping the carbon filament. Some like them clear, some like
them ground; others envelope them in shades, or make the globe of
a beautiful opal glass. It is very objectionable to have the optic
nerve irritated by a brilliant glowing filament; but it is equally
absurd to produce a good thing and then strangle it. Grounding
and shading mean loss of light. Lamps can be placed so high that
they need not affect the eye, and if they do, the light can be so
reflected as to be useful elsewhere. The art of lighting a room is to
flood it with light without the delicate eye being offended with the
direct rays from the source of light.
Switches to turn the lamps on and off are a source of great trouble
in a house. As a rule, they are cheap and nasty. When fixed away from
the lamps, they introduce into the circuit additional resistance, and
therefore waste energy, but they are distinctly serviceable when they
are fixed outside the door of a room, so that you can light it before
you enter it.
In many cases the lamp is its own switch, but it is objectionable to
handle a lamp, and attempts have been made to utilise the weight of
the lamp itself when suspended from the ceiling to maintain contact,
and to break that contact when the weight is released.
Cuts-out or safety-valves are essential to the security of a house.
Short circuiting ought not to occur, but it does, and generally when
showing off. It may occur when cleaning. The cut-out is so cheap and
so effective that there is no excuse for its neglect. They should be
fixed on every circuit.
No one must imagine that electric lighting is absolutely safe from
fire. It certainly possesses elements of danger, but elements that
are perfectly under control. It is very simple to secure safety if
the rules and regulations to avoid fire risks be carefully followed.
The simplest rule is to use nothing but the best insulated wire, and
to employ none but experienced men to put it up. All accidents that
have occurred have arisen from careless wiring and ignorant handling.
The design of the circuits of a house, the dimensions of conductors,
the quality of the materials used, the provision against fire risks,
the testing of the work done, the adaptability of means to an end,
should come within the province of the professional adviser, and not
be left to the successful competing contractor, however eminent the
firm may be.
Estimates for furnishing electric light installations, ranging from
about 3_l._ upwards, can be had from Messrs. Woodhouse and Rawson
United, Limited, 88 Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C., and of
Messrs. Appleton, Burbey, and Williamson, of 91 Queen Victoria
Street, London, E.C. See also p. 1001.
=Furniture and Decoration.=--Obviously half the benefit to be derived
from good sanitary arrangement of the house itself will be lost if
the internal fittings are not arranged with similar regard to healthy
conditions. Good drainage and ventilation are thrown away if every
corner is to be a receptacle for accumulated dirt and every carpet
and curtain a resting-place for dust. Yet that is just the condition
of ninety-nine houses out of every hundred. Existing systems of
furnishing and decorating are faulty to a degree in this respect, and
have called down the strictures of many sanitary reformers. Foremost
among them is Edis, who has made this branch of sanitary science a
special study. His suggestions for improvements in furnishing and
decorating our homes are worthy the attention of every housewife.
The following remarks are mainly culled from his paper in one of the
Health Exhibition handbooks, and deserves to be more generally known.
_Kitchen Walls._--Commencing at the bottom of the house, Edis advises
lining the whole of the scullery walls, and, as far as possible,
those of the kitchen also, with glazed tiles, so that there be no
absorption and retention of the smells, which must necessarily
accrue with the ordinary work of this portion of the house. For a
large house, he strongly advocates finishing all the walls in a
London basement, so far as the working portion of it, together with
the passages, are concerned, with glazed tiles; they are cleanly,
absolutely non-absorbent, reflect and give light, are easily washed,
and tend to make the house sweet and healthy. The pantries and
larders should be so arranged that they have continual ingress of
fresh air, and should in all cases be lined with glazed tiles or
bricks, so that the smells arising from the contents should not be
allowed to be absorbed in the distempered walls, and to render them
stuffy and unhealthy. The shelves should be of slate, or better
still, of polished marble, so as to be absolutely non-absorbent and
easily cleaned.
In every basement a comfortable room for servants should be provided:
some small sitting-room fitted up with book-shelves and cupboards,
and, if possible, facing the street, so that the workers of the house
may have some sort of spare room, in which they may be at rest from
their ordinary duties; for, if we want good servants, we must treat
them as ordinary beings like ourselves.
_Floors._--It is particularly desirable to counteract as far as
possible the deleterious influences which are brought about by the
absorption of offensive odours in the common deal floors of the
various rooms, by having all the joints carefully stopped in, and
the whole surface painted over with three or four coats, so that
the pores of the wood may be effectually closed, and the crevices,
through which dirt and filth of all kinds can enter, and lodge in
the spaces between floor and ceiling, practically sealed up. Or the
floors may be stained and varnished all over, for varnish of the
cheapest kind, whether made with resin in place of hard gums, or
petroleum in place of turps, is not only healthy in its application,
but cleanly and economical, as it can be readily cleaned of all
impurities by a wet cloth, and lasts longer than a mere painted
surface, if done properly at the onset, and every coat left to dry
and become thoroughly hard before a second coat is put on. Good
varnish will dry and be free from all stickiness in one or two days,
if the general atmosphere is free from damp. (Edis.)
Boarded floors are at present much more fashionable than carpeted.
Whether they are stained or not is a secondary consideration. In
hospital wards it is, no doubt, desirable that the boards should be
as closely laid as possible, and well waxed, to obviate the necessity
of scrubbing, and the possibility of any organic matter sinking into
the floor. But in private houses, so long as the carpets are loose
and can be taken up, and the boards either scrubbed, dry rubbed, or
waxed, we have all that health demands. Were it practised by some
Continental nation, and not by ourselves, we should be horrified
at the custom of keeping carpets nailed down for a year or more to
collect all the dirt that falls throughout that time. Of course, a
stained floor looks better than plain deal boards, and oak parquet
looks better than either. But in a bedroom the appearance is of
secondary importance, and staining, however it is put on, does not
last long in a room where there are children or schoolboys. A strip
of carpet by the side of the bed, and a square of matting or linoleum
before the washing-stand, is sufficient for health. All carpets, of
whatever kind, wear better if the boards are perfectly even, and
if they are laid down over “carpet lining,” brown paper, or coarse
canvas; but this plan is not feasible unless the carpet is fastened
down, and a much better plan than nailing is to have loops on the
carpet and nails in grooves on the floor, when it can so easily be
unhooked, that there is no excuse for not taking it up frequently.
Very often carpets and heavy furniture are left untouched because of
the difficulty of getting a man in to help where a man-servant is
not kept. Of the different sorts of carpeting, those that cost most
to start with are certainly not the dearest in the end. Compare, for
instance, a good Brussels with a tapestry of about half the first
cost, and probably not a sixth part of the durability. The only
rooms where tapestry carpets are admissible are where there is little
or no traffic, and where the mistress desires much appearance for
little money. Inferior floor coverings of whatever kind are dear. A
small pattern cuts to greater advantage, usually looks better, and
always shows dirt less than a large one,--looks better because the
floor is not the part of the room where we wish all eyes to be at
first directed; and, therefore, though a light ground often wears
better than a dark, we cannot venture to recommend it. Kidderminster
is now fashionable; it wears well and can be turned. Small patterns
in Kidderminster, as in all double wool fabrics, wear best, because
the threads decussate more frequently. Felt carpets wear much better
if the colour runs through; if it is only stamped on the top, white
patches appear long before the carpet is in holes, which, however,
are not long in coming with even a moderate amount of wear. The
cheapest carpets have cotton or jute woven in them, and very quickly
fade. As to matting, it, too, is of many kinds. The coconut matting,
with a coloured pattern or border, looks well on dark wood stairs,
and wears better than any other, but it is too rough for most
sitting-rooms, even if we do not experience its rapid fraying of
skirts and wearing out of thin house shoes that walk over it. India
matting of good quality wears a long time, especially if it is kept
damp. It is made of grass fibre, and if it gets too dry it quickly
splits. In hot weather it must be washed over with water once or
twice a week and left wet, and the fibre will absorb enough moisture
to keep it fairly tough. Oilcloth, kamptulicon, linoleum, and similar
floor coverings, are made of canvas with layers of oil paint. It
must be kept for some time after it is made, to harden the paint; if
this is not done it splits, and soon wears out. The quality can be
judged by the weight, and the heaviest is generally the best. It can
be scrubbed with soap and water, and then polished with a dry cloth
and a little oil; as little water as possible should be used, or it
runs underneath, and causes the cloth to rot. In the country it is a
good plan to wash oilcloth with a little skim milk, thus cleaning and
polishing it at the same time. (E. A. B., in the _Queen_.)
_Furniture._--It must be evident to common-sense people, that all
furniture which collects and holds dust and dirt, which cannot be
easily detected and cleaned; that all window valances and heavy stuff
curtains with heavy fringes, which cannot be constantly shaken; and
that all floor coverings which are fastened down, so that it is
impossible to clear away the dust, that gradually, but surely, finds
its way under them, and prevents the coverings themselves from being
constantly shaken, are objectionable and unhealthy. Such people will
therefore avoid all wall coverings which offer resting-places for
dirt--such as the high-relief flock patterns, which, however good
artistically, are certainly to be avoided on sanitary grounds; will
not cover the whole of the floor surfaces with thick carpets, which
absorb and retain dust and disease germs, and which cannot be easily
removed and cleaned, or shaken, at least once a month; will do away
with all heavy window-curtains and valances, which, in small rooms,
add so materially to their stuffiness and unhealthiness; and will, as
far as practicable, avoid filling their rooms with heavy lumbering
furniture, which cannot easily be moved for cleaning purposes, and
under and above which dust and other impurities may collect and
remain. (Edis.)
Second-hand furniture is often preferable to new. The warps and
started joints are plainly visible if bad wood has been some time in
use; no more warping will take place, and the price, in comparison
with that of new, is often much less than the amount of wear and tear
would indicate. There are circumstances that give to old furniture a
distinct excellence, quite apart from the existence of a fashion for
buying it. It was made by hand; generally the same man worked on each
piece throughout, acquiring a special interest in every detail, and
thinking no trouble too great to make it more perfect. (E. A. B.)
In choosing chairs and tables for the drawing-room, the more varied
they are in size and shape the better. Let the wood be all fairly
similar, but the materials may be as widely different as possible,
and a judicious blending of several colours is the one thing aimed at
by those who have good taste. Let me warn my readers against cheap
cretonnes; they wear atrociously, and only look well for the first
few months. Plush and Utrecht velvet last for ever, but, as they are
rather expensive, less costly material can be used for the sofa and
a few of the chairs. Do not get one of those dreadful curved sofas
that only admit of being sat on, for the primary object of a sofa is
to allow of your reclining at full length when fatigued or ill. In a
good-sized drawing-room a centre ottoman is allowable, but never in
a small room, as it would take up too much space; it is a good plan
to have the ottoman made to come to pieces, it will then form several
small couches in the event of a large “at home” or dance being given.