wood--ash or oak--and leather seats to the chairs, or American
leather. Sideboards of the present day are very handsome and
rather elaborate. You can sometimes pick up very good second-hand
dining-room suites, upholstered in the best style, for half their
original price. If you intend to have a mirror over your dining-room
mantelpiece, see that it is framed in wood similar to your chairs and
table, and eschew gilt mirrors in any form, as they are the very acme
of bad taste and vulgarity. In choosing the dining-room curtains,
bear in mind the colour of the wall paper, or they may clash most
inharmoniously. The cheapest way of getting these curtains would be
to buy some tapestry stuff by the yard, and make them up at home.
Everything in a dining-room should match, see therefore that the
curtain pole, bell handles, and coal scuttle are all of the same wood
as the rest of the furniture.
If the drawing-room is on the first floor, with a small landing
outside, cover the latter entirely with carpet, do not simply
continue the stair carpet across it, it will look as well again
covered. Should it be a good sized landing, put a square carpet down
and stain the edges of the floor. By way of keeping out draughts,
and making the hall and staircase look less bare than is usually the
case, get some curtains and hang them outside the dining-room and
drawing-room doors. Indian dhurries are useful, as they are so cheap,
but the objection to them is that there are none made between 6 ft. 6
in. and 11 ft. in length.
There are no special rules to be laid down about furnishing a morning
room or boudoir: the remarks made on drawing-rooms would apply to
a great extent; the furniture should be suitably small, and only
very cosy and comfortable chairs and couches allowed, and no great
expense should be incurred. If the lady of the house cannot afford
to have more than one bedroom handsomely furnished, it should be the
one occupied by herself. Many advocate most strongly a “half tester”
bedstead, as in the event of sickness, the hangings and curtains
keep away draughts and shade the eyes from any strong light. Brass
and black bedsteads look best, with some pretty coloured dimity
hangings, and of course a spring mattress. Be particular about the
stuffing of the pillows, and if you decide on feathers, have them of
the very best, as the inferior ones are apt to have a slight smell,
besides being hard and uncomfortable to sleep on. Choose a suite of
some light wood, consisting of a wardrobe with a plate-glass door, a
washstand with tiled back, and a toilet table with a fixed glass and
with plenty of small drawers, the latter being invaluable for keeping
light easily crushed articles, such as feathers, flowers, &c., which
otherwise are apt to litter about the room in cardboard boxes. For
the windows, Syrian curtains are the cheapest, and have the extra
advantages of being fashionable and pretty, but coloured dimity to
match the bed look the nicest, though of course they would never do
in London. Buy (second-hand) a comfortable, old-fashioned armchair,
covering it with some serviceable material; and a small table, the
height of the bed. It is a good thing to have a small cupboard
under lock and key, to hold medicine bottles, &c. You can get very
artistic-looking oak ones, quite small, with a shelf above for books,
and they form a handsome ornament to the walls.
The spare room or rooms need never necessarily have the “half tester”
bedsteads, and so you are saved the expense of buying a quantity
of bedhangings and what follows in their train--a heavy washing or
cleaning bill. In the event of your not wanting to spend much money
on the furnishing of your spare bedroom, remember that at sales very
often good things can be picked up at a low price. If you will have
a charming bedroom suite at a low rate, be on the look-out for some
common deal furniture--never mind its being second-hand and the paint
dirty, so long as the wood is whole. Perhaps a friend has an old
toilet table or a chest of drawers that she wants to get rid of, or
you come across a cheap lot at a broker’s; do not be dismayed at the
paint being gaudy, perhaps, or dirty, for this is the secret--have
them all painted some uniform neutral colour (grey, picked out with
dark mouldings, looks well), and then varnished, and you will be
delighted with the result. In conclusion, a good substitute for a
wardrobe may be made in this way. If there is a small recess in
the room (there very often is one by the chimney), put across it a
deal board, stained or painted, and varnished, about 6 ft. from the
ground, with an ornamental moulding depending from the front edge,
and hang curtains in front, putting up underneath as many dress pegs
as the width of the recess will allow. (C. H. D., in the _Queen_.)
_Ceilings._--If the cornices of the rooms be deeply recessed and
filled with heavy plaster ornaments, they must of necessity hold
dust and other impurities, which are increased by the action of damp
air causing decomposition, and by mixing with the air in the room,
when stirred or blown away from their resting places by draught
from opened door or window, must render it impure and unhealthy. In
addition to this, they are more or less choked up by every coat of
so-called distemper decoration, and this again, by absorbing damp and
obnoxious exhalations, adds materially to the sense of stuffiness
and foulness which can be appreciably felt on first opening up the
room after it has been closed for some hours. It is better, if
possible, to paint all ceilings and cornices than to distemper them,
so as to render them as non-absorbent as possible; by painting, the
plaster-work is covered with a non-absorbent coating, on which if
desired a coat of distemper may afterwards be added.
_Walls._--As a rule it is desirable as far as possible not to
disturb the general flatness of wall surfaces, and to avoid
all patterns which obtrude themselves too prominently upon the
eye, or cause the space, whether covered with paper or painted
decoration, to be broken into groups of ornament, or into distinct
lines cutting it transversely or horizontally. The wall surface
may be divided either by a chair or frieze rail and be treated in
different shades of colour with good effect; or the upper portion
may be covered with good artistic painting, which will add to the
beauty and picturesqueness of the room. Where the upper space is
covered with paper or distemper, the pattern or colouring should
offer no startling contrasts, and the lower portion may be painted
and varnished, so as to be readily cleaned. The colour of the
wall surfaces of the different rooms must naturally depend upon
the purposes for which the rooms are used, as the apparent warmth
and pleasurable appearance of the room is materially enhanced or
detracted from by the treatment of the wall-colouring; and while
it is necessary to treat the surface of one room as a background
for pictures, it may be desired to have another brighter and more
decorative; but wherever possible, in passages, halls and staircases,
it is desirable to varnish as much of the wall surface as possible,
so as to render it non-absorbent and readily cleaned.
In the selection of paper or other hangings, and in the arrangement
of all ornament in wall or panel decoration, it becomes a matter of
importance to select none which shall have distinct and strongly
marked patterns, in which the ornament stands out and repeats itself
in endless multiplication and monotony. All staring patterns should
be avoided. Almost all papers may now be considered practically free
from arsenic; the largest printers of machine-printed papers now
use little or no arsenical colours; the principal manufacturers of
block-printed papers allow on colours with a known trace of arsenic
to enter their factories; and, as the colours of this class of
paper-hangings are more thoroughly bound with size than those which
are machine-made, they are to be recommended for house decoration in
preference to the cheaper kinds, as being to a certain extent more
lasting.
Paper-hangings must enter largely into the decoration of all the
wall surfaces of our houses; but, on sanitary grounds, all flock
papers, however beautiful in design, are especially to be avoided,
for, from the very nature of their design and treatment, they are
detrimental to the healthy condition of the room. The patterns stand
out in relief, and offer innumerable spaces for dust and dirt, while
the generally fluffy nature of the material, practically powdered
wool, renders it more absorbent and therefore more unhealthy; and the
surface holds dust and dirt to a much larger degree than the ordinary
printed papers, thus tending to a stuffy and unwholesome feeling,
which is essentially at variance with all laws of health and comfort.
Stamped papers, in which the pattern is raised in relief, offer the
same objections in a minor degree, as the surface is smooth and can
be readily cleansed; and in the case of the imitation leather papers,
the surface is varnished, and can be readily gone over with a damp
cloth without injury. These papers can be well used for the dados of
rooms or frieze decoration, and as such are exceedingly effective,
although, of course, from the very nature of the manufacture, much
more expensive than plain painting and varnishing. A good deal of
illness often arises from the bad nature of the size and paste with
which the ordinary wall-papers are hung, and great care should be
taken that no such inferior, and practically stinking materials are
allowed.
_Cupboards._--In most houses it is common to have the store places
for clothes and other household goods, practically self-contained in
every room, and therefore we put therein furniture sufficient for
our requirements; but we all know how soon our drawers and wardrobes
get overcrowded, and the nuisance and annoyance it often is to have
to take out coat after coat, or dress after dress, until we reach
the particular one we want, which may be stowed away at the bottom
of the drawers or chest, and it surely must appeal to ordinary
common sense, to utilise in every way, with constructional fittings
as far as possible, all spaces which, as a rule, are practically
useless. If the cupboards are taken up to the ceiling line, that
is to say an extra tier added to the ordinary wardrobe fitting,
increased storeroom would be provided for clothing not immediately
required. There would be less crowding up of the existing cupboards
and drawers, and the ills of the flat exposed tops of the ordinary
fittings, to which Edis before referred, would be done away with. Why
not, in the window recesses of every bedroom, provide fixed ottoman
boxes which can be used as seats, as well as store places, and if
covered with stuffed tops, may thus not only be made useful, but
comfortable; while in the sitting-rooms they might be used for store
places for papers and magazines until bound up, and thus help to do
away with the littering of our rooms, or the storing away of all such
things in inaccessible places, where they are seldom dusted, and only
help to breed dirt and disease.
_Windows._--If instead of the usual heavy and ugly valances, which
so many people still insist upon placing over their windows, as
a top-finish to the curtains, we were to provide framed recesses
constructed with the architraves, or mouldings, which run round
the window-openings, with slightly arched heads, leaving room for
a slight iron rod to be fixed behind and out of sight, with space
for the proper and easy running of the curtain, we should have not
only a much more artistic, but certainly a much more healthy and
less expensive arrangement; and these arched heads would form part
of the constructive finishing, at no more cost than the framed and
panelled window linings and architraves, and if carried up to the
ceiling, with the cornice returned round, would leave no spaces for
the accumulation of dirt and dust, such as are now provided by the
projecting boxed linings and the heavy valances, fringes, and poles,
which the modern upholsterer provides.
_Bedrooms._--The wall surfaces of bedrooms should be hung with some
small and simple decorative paper of one general tone, but with no
particularly emphasised design, so that we are annoyed at night with
flights of birds, or symmetrical patterns of conventional primroses,
daisies, or fruits, which might in any way suggest a countless and
never-ending procession along the walls. Any pattern or design which
shows prominently any set pattern, or spots which suggest a sum
of multiplication, or which, in the half-light of night or early
morning, might be likely to fix themselves upon the tired brain,
suggesting all kinds of weird forms, are especially to be avoided.
The design should be of such a description that, saving as regards
colour, it should offer no specially marked pattern.
The general wall surfaces should be varnished if possible, so that
they may be easily cleaned down and be made practically non-absorbent.
The general woodwork of the doors, windows, and skirtings should be
painted in some plain colour to harmonise or contrast with the wall
decoration, and the whole varnished; woodwork finished in this way
can be easily washed or cleaned, and the extra expense of varnishing
will be saved in a few years. The bedstead should be of brass or
iron, the furniture of light wood, varnished or polished; and, now
that good painted tiles can be obtained at small expense, they may
be used in washing-stands with good effect, or the wall above may be
lined entirely with them to a height of 2 or 3 ft.
As regards the general floor surfaces, let them be entirely painted,
or stained and varnished, so as to present non-absorbent and easily
cleaned surfaces, or better still, finished with parquet flooring,
which is almost entirely non-absorbing, and which can be cleaned by a
damp cloth every day; with rugs or simple homespun carpets laid down
beside the bed, and elsewhere, where required, so as to be easily
taken up and shaken every day without trouble. There is one objection
to square carpets in a bedroom, and that is, if you are lightly
shod, or, as is often the case, barefoot, the polished floor is very
unpleasantly cold; and also, as it is not every one who can indulge
in the luxury of a bedroom fire, a wholly carpeted floor tends to
keep out draughts and make the room generally warmer.
If you do away with all resting-places for dirt and dust on the tops
of wardrobes and hanging closets, and behind and under chests of
drawers and other heavy furniture, there will naturally be much less
labour required in cleaning and purifying the rooms. Heavy curtains
should be avoided, indeed it is difficult to see why curtains are
needed at all in bedrooms, if the window-blinds be of some dark-toned
stuff sufficient to hide light, and to keep out the glare of the
morning sun.
_Nurseries._--In all the upper rooms of a house, which may be used as
nurseries, Edis would, where practicable, construct semi-octagonal
projecting bays, so as to provide for the greatest possible light and
sunshine; and if this cannot be arranged, the windows should be as
widely splayed inside as possible, and no light or sunshine shut out
by heavy curtains or venetian blinds; and here, too, as in the best
rooms of the house, should be thick plate, instead of the miserably
thin glass, which is considered sufficient in the upper portions of
so many houses; the thick glass gives truer light, is less penetrated
by sound, and helps to retain the warmth of the room after the fires
have gone out, and the house is left to cool in the long night hours.
The walls of the nurseries should be hung with some bright and
cheerful pattern paper, varnished for health’s sake, while the upper
portion should be distempered; the upper space or frieze should
be divided from the general wall surface by a small deal painted
picture rail, but the ceilings and frieze should be cleaned off and
re-distempered every autumn, as nothing tends so much to sweeten the
rooms as this annual cleaning off and re-doing of the ceilings, which
naturally are more impregnated with the impurities of the shut-up
rooms than any other portion of them. Paint or varnished papers are
always more healthy than distemper, as they can be readily washed,
and do not absorb and hold dirt and other impurities.
The walls of the night nurseries should be hung with a soft,
general toned paper, varnished, so as to be sponged every week, or
distempered all over, so as to be re-done at small cost at frequent
intervals, for it is essential in the ordinary low-pitched upper
rooms of town houses, generally devoted to nurseries, to wash out as
often as possible, the peculiar stuffy bedroom atmosphere, which must
be absorbed in the walls and ceilings of all low rooms. The tone of
colouring or pattern on the walls should above all not be spotty or
glaring, with strongly defined forms presenting nightmare effects to
drive away sleep, or disturb our little ones in the hours of feverish
unrest or sickness. But in the rooms they live in there is no reason
why the “writing on the walls” should not be the earliest teaching
of all that is beautiful in nature, art, or science, and by good
illustrations of fairy lore and natural forms incline the thoughts
of our children to all that is graceful and beautiful in nature or
imaginative faculties.
=Bells and Calls.=--No house can now be considered complete without
it is fitted with call-tubes or bells, especially the latter.
Call-tubes are more general in places of business, but they might
often replace bells in a house with advantage to all concerned.
The wires for bells are carried in tubes and boxes concealed by
the finishing of the walls and skirting. These tubes are often of
tinned iron or zinc, but they ought to be either of brass or strong
galvanised iron. Zinc cannot be depended on: in some places it will
moulder away; if not soldered, it opens, and the wires work into the
joinings of the tube, which stops their movement. The old-fashioned
system of bells is being largely supplanted by electric bells.
_Electric Bells._--An ordinary electric bell is merely a vibrating
contact breaker carrying a small hammer on its spring, which hammer
strikes a bell placed within its reach as long as the vibration of
the spring continues. The necessary apparatus comprises a battery to
supply the force, wires to conduct it, circuit-closers to apply it,
and bells to give it expression.
[Illustration: 60. Battery.]
The Leclanché battery (Fig. 60) is the best for all electric bell
systems, its great recommendation being that, once charged, it
retains its power without attention for several years. Two jars are
employed in its construction: the outer one is of glass, contains
a zinc rod, and is charged with a solution of ammonium chloride
(sal-ammoniac). The inner jar is of porous earthenware, contains
a carbon plate, and is filled up with a mixture of manganese
peroxide and broken gas carbon. When the carbon plate and the zinc
rod are connected, a steady current of electricity is set up, the
chemical reaction which takes place being as follows:--The zinc
becomes oxidised by the oxygen from the manganese peroxide, and
is subsequently converted into zinc chloride by the action of the
sal-ammoniac. After the battery has been in continuous use for some
hours, the manganese becomes exhausted of oxygen, and the force of
the electrical current is greatly diminished; but if the battery be
allowed to rest for a short time the manganese obtains a fresh supply
of oxygen from the atmosphere, and is again fit for use. After about
18 months’ work, the glass cell will probably require recharging with
sal-ammoniac, and the zinc rod may also need renewing; but should the
porous cell get out of order, it is better to get a new one entirely,
than to attempt to recharge it.
On short circuits, 2 cells may suffice, increasing up to 4 or 6 as
required. It is false economy to use a battery too weak to do its
work properly. The battery should be placed where it will not be
subject to changes of temperature, e.g. in an underground cellar.
The circuit wire used in England for indoor situations is “No.
20” copper wire, covered with guttapercha and cotton. In America,
“No. 18, first-class, braided, cotton-covered, office wire” is
recommended, though smaller and cheaper kinds are often used. The
wire should be laid with great regard to keeping it from damp, and
ensuring its perfect insulation. Out of doors, for carrying long
distances overhead, ordinary galvanised iron wire is well adapted,
the gauge running from “No. 4” to “No. 14,” according to conditions.
Proper insulators on poles must be provided, avoiding all contact
with foreign bodies; or a rubber-covered wire encased in lead may be
run underground.
The circuit-closer, or means of instantaneously completing and
interrupting the circuit, is generally a simple press-button. This
consists of a little cylindrical box, provided in the centre with an
ivory button, which is either (1) attached to a brass spring that is
brought into contact with a brass plate at the back of the box on
pressing the button, or (2) is capable of pressing together 2 springs
in the box. A wire from the battery is attached to the spring of
the press-button, and another from the bell is secured to the brass
plate. Platinum points should be provided on the spring and plate
where the contact takes place. While the button is at rest, or out,
the electric circuit is broken; but on being pressed in, it completes
the circuit, and the bell rings.
[Illustration: 61. Bell.]
The relative arrangement and connection of the several parts is shown
in Fig. 61. _a_, Leclanché cell; _b_, wire; _c_, press-button; _d_,
bell. When the distance traversed is great, say ½ mile, the return
wire _e_ may be dispensed with, and replaced by what is known as the
“earth circuit,” established by attaching the terminals at _f_ and
_g_ to copper plates sunk in the ground.
The bells used are generally vibrating ones, and those intended
for internal house use need not have a higher resistance than 2
or 3 ohms. At other times, single-stroke and continuous-ringer
bells have to be provided, the latter being arranged to continue
ringing until specially stopped. The bell may or may not be fitted
with an annunciator system; the latter is almost a necessity when
many bells have to ring to the same place, as then 1 bell only is
requisite. A single-stroke bell is simply a gong fixed to a board
or frame, an electro-magnet, and an armature with a hammer at the
end, arranged to strike the gong when the armature is attracted by
the magnet. A vibrating bell has its armature fixed to a spring
which presses against a contact-screw; the wire forming the circuit,
entering at one binding-screw, goes to the magnet, which in turn is
connected with the armature; thence the circuit continues through the
contact-screw to the other binding-screw, and out. When set in motion
by electricity, the magnet attracts the armature, and the hammer
strikes the bell; but in its forward motion, the spring leaves the
contact-screw, and thus the circuit is broken; the hammer then falls
back, closing the circuit again, and so the action is continued _ad
libitum_, and a rapid vibratory motion is produced, which makes a
ringing by the action of the successive blows of the hammer on the
gong.
The following useful hints on electric bell systems are condensed
from Lockwood’s handy little volume on telephones.
With regard to the battery, he advises to keep the sal-ammoniac
solution strong, yet not to put so much in that it cannot dissolve.
Be extremely careful to have all battery connections clean, bright,
and mechanically tight, and to have no leak or short circuit. The
batteries should last a year without further attention, and the glass
jars never ought to be filled more than ¾ full.