WATER FITTINGS AND APPLIANCES.
The water-fittings of a Turkish bath include a boiler of some form for
heating the water, a cold-water cistern, and a hot-water tank;
supply-pipes, flow and return pipes, and branch pipes; lavatorium
fittings, comprising bowls, basins, and cocks; douche room fittings, as
the "needle" bath, shower, douche, spray, and "wave" baths; a warm
shower-bath for bathers entering the bath, or desiring such a shower at
intervals; and the fittings of the plunge bath. In addition to this
there may be required a drinking fountain in the tepidarium, and an
ornamental fountain in the frigidarium; lavatories in various positions;
and, possibly, fittings and appliances for the laundry.
Premising an ample supply of pure water, it must be brought into the
building through a water-meter to the cold water cistern, which should
be at a sufficiently high level to obtain a good "head." This cistern
must be capacious and properly connected, on the ordinary circulating
principle, with a hot water tank and boiler. Of suitable boilers there
are several in the market, of many and varied designs. Simplicity of
construction should be the guide to a selection. The boiler will perhaps
its most conveniently placed in the stokery, and have be separate
furnace and flue, any scheme for combining the heating of the hot rooms
and of the water being out of the question. In small baths, however, the
hot-water tank may, for economy's sake, be placed near the ceiling in
the laconicum. Where waste steam can be obtained, a water super-heater,
with steam coil, may be employed with advantage; but in the majority of
cases the ordinary circulating system will be found the most suitable.
The supply-pipes must be of large section, and indeed, the whole scheme
of water-fitting should be liberal. It must be remembered that, in
addition to the wants of the lavatorium and douche room, plunge, &c.,
there will be a large amount of water required for laundry purposes, if
washing be done upon the premises.
The cold supply cistern may, by the exigencies of the case, be kept down
as low as the ceiling of the bath-rooms, and be placed over some
subsidiary apartment. This does not give much pressure of water. For all
purposes it is best to have the cistern at a minimum height of about 20
ft. above the draw-off taps and valves of the various bathing
appliances. This will ensure a good head of water, and make the douche a
formidable affair.
The pipes, unions, tees, valves, and cocks should all be of the best
description in so important a work as the fitting-up of a public bath.
Ordinary bungling plumbing is here out of place. Lead piping should be
discarded for all but very cheap work, and iron employed in its stead,
with proper screwed joints, angles, and tees. Should there be
sufficient means, _copper_ piping should be employed for anything under
1 in. internal diameter, and gunmetal should be used for unions, &c.,
and for cocks and valves.
Handsome, large, and well-made water-fittings conduce, in no small
degree, to the effect of a bath. There should be no attempt at hiding
away of pipes, &c. They should be made features of the bath, and be
designed with care and neatly finished. Every pipe, joint, and
connection should be prearranged, and the means of fixing and supporting
the same carefully designed. Boxings, and the like, should be discarded,
and everything frankly exhibited. The day for mysterious plumbing has
gone by. There is some beauty even in a pipe.
To consider the fittings, we will commence with the lavatorium. Branches
from the hot and cold water supply pipes must be conducted to each
shampooer's basin. These may be finished separately, with independent
nozzles, as at Fig. 12; or the pipes may be connected with the valve
shown at Fig. 13, about 18 in. above the basin, the outlet of the valve
being fitted with a foot or 15 in. of indiarubber hose. In the latter
case the pipes and valve would stand some 9 in. from the wall, and
depend from the horizontal supply pipes, which in their turn could be
carried on wrought-iron brackets affixed to the wall, or be hung by iron
ties, as indicated by dotted lines at Fig. 16. The _internal_
diameter--the measurement given in all the figures--of these branch
pipes to taps over shampooing basins should be 3/4 in.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.
A Shampooing Basin.]
Cocks and valves for the purposes of the Turkish bath are best of the
"gland" pattern. They should have bold handles. Those of the screw-down
type are useless, except as stop-cocks. Roundways should be used, and,
to insure freedom of running, the turning part should be equal to the
inner diameter of the pipes. The whole should be of gunmetal, and, if
the pipes to be used be of iron, screwed at the end. Fig. 13 shows the
type of valve to be employed to regulate the temperature of water for
shower baths, &c. To be useful, as well as bold and effective in
appearance, the handles should be large.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.
Valve for Regulating Temperature of Water.]
_In every case_, the cold water must be placed on the right hand, and
the hot on the left.
The earthenware basin is provided to hold water mixed to the required
temperature. A waste and overflow are not shown in the illustration, but
they should be provided. The basin is best wide and shallow--shallower
than shown. There should be no overhanging ledge to catch the
shampooer's hand-basin; for this reason I have shown, at Fig. 12, the
basin sunk into the marble slab, instead of the marble being on top, as
ordinary. The copper hand-basin is provided for the shampooer to take
water from the earthenware basin and throw over the shampooing slab, or
over the bather. In addition, a wooden, copper-banded soap-bowl must be
provided.
Should there be a row of shampooing basins and benches, the horizontal
supply-pipes must be continued along the wall, and branches dropped to
each basin. The basins are most conveniently placed when raised somewhat
higher than the benches. In the illustration given, I have shown how to
arrange horizontal foul-air flues under the basins. In other cases the
fixing of the basins will be much simpler. For pure lavatorium purposes
these basins, cocks, &c., are all the water-fittings to be considered;
but in an apartment combining the purposes of douche room--and perhaps a
plunge bath chamber--as well as a washing and massage room, more or less
of the fittings about to be described will have to be accommodated.
The tonic appliances for treating the bather subsequently to the
shampooing, the soaping, and the cleansing, are various. The most useful
is the simple shower bath, with a very large rose, and amply supplied
with water through a regulating valve. It is employed for thoroughly
cleansing the bather before he enters the plunge, whose waters are for
the common use of all. In many small baths its place is efficiently
taken by an ordinary hand rose or spray of the kind shown at Fig. 15.
The shower proper is usually fixed above the "needle" bath, as at Fig.
14, or formed by a continuation of the "backbone" of the needle. It is
best to have separate regulating valves for the needle and shower, as at
Fig. 16; but at Fig. 14 it is shown with a branch from the pipe
conducting to the needle, and with stop cocks. The needle-bath is a
skeleton-like structure having a large hollow backbone and branching
ribs. The water ascends the backbone, and, passing into the ribs,
squirts out of small holes punctured in their internal circumferences.
The bather stands in the centre of the apparatus, with the ribs
encircling him. The ribs should be of 1/2-in. copper piping, the
backbone and lesser supports being of iron, 2-1/2 and 1-1/2 in. diameter
respectively. In a convenient position for the attendant must be placed
the regulating valve.
A more elaborate contrivance may be made, which will include needle,
shower, ascending shower, spinal douche, and back shower; but this
should be left for hydropathic institutions and invalids. Simplicity in
these matters should be the great desideratum. The above-named
additions, however, may be briefly described. At Fig. 14 I have
indicated the position of ascending shower. It would be connected with
the pipe supplying needle and shower, and have a stop-cock. The spinal
douche is a little nozzle behind the shower proper, and should have
similar connection with the supply-pipe. The back shower or spinal
spray would be a rose placed about half-way up the iron backbone, and be
connected in the same manner. Avoid these complications in a bath for
healthy persons.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.
A Needle Bath.]
The needle bath is best left exposed, but it may be enclosed in a metal
shield if desired. This bath may be placed in one of three
positions--(1) in the shampooing room, (2) in a separate chamber, (3) in
the plunge bath chamber. It is most conveniently placed where the bather
passes it _en route_ from the washing room to the plunge. For this
appliance a good head of water is absolutely essential, as with a low
pressure it is very ineffective. The illustration shows the bath
standing on iron shoes. If fixed in a corner, as ordinarily, it can be
secured to the wall by such cramps or brackets as may be necessary.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.
Spray, Wave, and Douche Baths.]
Besides the needle and shower, as above, the tonic bathing appliances
may include an ordinary horizontal douche that can be pointed in any
direction, a spray, or large rose, and a "wave." These three appliances
may be placed together as at Fig. 15. They are connected to the pipes
from the regulating valves by means of a foot or so of flexible hose. To
this is secured a tapering copper pipe. The douche has a gunmetal
nozzle. It is directed against the back and spine, but must not be used
upon the head or chest. With a good head of water this is a most
powerful appliance, feeling more like a rod of some solid substance
pressing against one than a stream of water. The "wave" is formed by a
copper spreader. The spray is simply a large rose, 6 in. or 8 in.
diameter.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.
Regulating Valves for Needle, Douche, &c.]
It may be found convenient to arrange the valves for the whole of the
above-mentioned appliances together, as at Fig. 16. Each pair of hot and
cold handles are here brought together. These handles should be long, so
as to admit of easy regulating of the temperature of the water; they
may well be 9 in. in length. The douche, wave, and spray should be kept
as close as possible to the handles that regulate their temperature.
I would repeat the caution that it is very necessary to beware of
complications in these water-fittings and appliances. Some of the more
"fussy" contrivances--as, for example, the elaborated needle bath as
above described--require so much regulating, and so many valves and
stop-cocks, that it is quite an undertaking for the attendant to set
them going. Simplicity in design and construction should be observed in
this work: the pipes as few as need be; the valves as simple as
possible; and the whole put together in a manner that will permit of
their being easily examined and repaired.
I have before hinted at the desirability of making some sort of
provision whereby the bather may, on entering the bath, have a warm
spray or shower, of any temperature that may be agreeable to him. In
high class baths this feature should always be provided, as it is a
great luxury, and, moreover, to certain constitutions a necessity, thus
to be able to take such a shower before entering the hot rooms, or at
such intervals during the sojourn in these apartments as may be desired.
The proper position for this shower-bath requires some consideration.
Were it only for the entering bather that it should be provided, it
would be best placed in a lobby near the entrance to the hot rooms; but
as the occupants of the hot rooms may frequently desire some such
shower, it must be arranged with regard to this fact. It should be
convenient for the entering bathers and for those in the bath. A small
chamber entered by doors from the lobby to the tepidarium, and also from
the tepidarium itself, would be convenient. At times it may be placed in
a nook off the shampooing room. Wherever it be placed, the apparatus
provided for the purpose of the shower must be such as can be managed by
the bather himself, so as not to take up the time of the attendants; and
for this reason it must be capable of easy regulation, and free from
liability of scalding the user, unless through gross carelessness. A
valve with one handle only must be employed, as, unless the bather has
had some practice, it is difficult to obtain this immunity from danger
of scalding when two handles are used. A valve such as that shown at
Fig. 17 should be employed. This valve must be so designed as to supply
cold, tepid, and hot water _in regular gradation_--not intermittently,
as do some valves of this description. It must be so placed that any one
taking the shower may, whilst beneath the rose, be able to easily reach
the handle. The rose should not be less than 6 in. or 7 in. diameter.
Fig. 12 illustrates the complete fitting up of this bather's
shower-bath.
In hydropathic establishments it might be an improvement to add a small
foot-bath, formed by a sinking of about 6 in. in the floor, and filled
with hot water; for physiologists tell us it is bad for invalids to
enter the hot rooms with cold feet. Supply pipes, a waste, and overflow
would have to be provided for this bath, and a marble seat might be
placed round it. A marble coping and mosaic flooring would render it
pleasing in appearance.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.
Bather's Shower Bath.]
I have hereinbefore, at Fig. 4, given plan and sections of a plunge
bath, and shown its water-fittings. The overflow and waste run into
cast-iron drainpipes, which should be employed till outside the
building. On the end of the overflow pipe is screwed a gunmetal rose
with leather packing, the screw-holes being drilled into the flange of
pipe. For the waste I have shown a "disc" valve of gunmetal. This is
similarly screwed to flange of pipe, and with leather packing. The valve
is opened and closed by a movable rod. If _fixed_, it might catch the
toes of the swimmer, and for this reason it would perhaps be best to set
the valve itself back in a recess. Instead of this valve, an ordinary
4-in., 5-in., or 6-in. "plug" waste could be employed, but it is rather
clumsy on such a scale. When practicable, a screw-down valve, with wheel
and spindle outside the bath, is the best means of letting out the waste
water. The supply-pipe should be connected with the main supply just
after the water meter. The valve should be of the "screw-down" pattern,
either with a thumbscrew, wheel and spindle, or a key.
In coast towns, where a _sea-water_ plunge may be employed, a little
rose on a bracket should be provided in a convenient position, for
cleansing the hair from salt water.
Of the lavatory fittings in the cooling room, and of the "sanitary"
water-fittings, it is unnecessary to speak, except to say that, in a
place devoted to the attainment of cleanliness, plumbing of this nature
should be as perfect as possible.
A drinking fountain is a desirable feature in the tepidarium of a bath
of any pretension. It should be placed at the coolest end of the room,
affixed to a wall, and provided with a supply-pipe, waste, and tap of
some sort. The bowl is best formed of glazed earthenware.
If an ornamental fountain be required in the frigidarium, it should be
of terra-cotta or modelled glazed ware, and must be provided with
supply-pipe, waste, and means of regulating the jet of water. A fountain
is a very desirable addition to a cooling room, as it is restful to the
ear, and may be made pleasant to the eye by means of flowers and plants
arranged around and upon it.