Scientific American Supplement, No. 647, May 26, 1888 — John Shaqi
Scientific American Supplement, No. 647, May 26, 1888Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 647, May 26, 1888
Various
Science -- Periodicals
Light is often limited or misapplied on account of faulty position or
size of windows. The use of pilastered walls permits the introduction
of larger windows, which are in most instances virtually double
windows, the two pairs of sashes being set in one frame separated by a
mullion. A more recent arrangement, widely adopted in English
practice, is to place a swinging sash at the top of the window, which
can be opened, when necessary, to assist in the ventilation, while the
main sashes of the window are permanently fixed.
Rough plate glass is used in such windows, because it gives a softer
and more diffused light, which is preferred to that from ordinary
clear glass. White glass may be rendered translucent by a coat of
white zinc and turpentine.
The top of a window should be as near the ceiling as practicable,
because light entering the upper portion of a room illuminates it more
evenly, and with less sharply marked shadows, than where the windows
are lower down.
The walls below the windows should be sloped, in order that there may
be no opportunity to use them as a resting place for material which
should be placed elsewhere.
FIRE WALLS.
Brick division walls should be built so as to constitute a fire wall
wherever it is practicable to do so. Such walls should project at
least three feet above the roof, and should be capped by stone, terra
cotta, or sheet metal. They must form a complete cut-off of all
combustible material, especially at the cornices.
FIRE DOORS.
All openings in such walls must be provided with such fireproof doors
as will prove reliable in time of need. Experience with iron doors of
various forms of construction show that they have been utterly
unreliable in resisting the heat of even a small fire. They will warp
and buckle so as to open the passageway and allow the fire to pass
through the doorway into the next room.
A door made of wood, completely enveloped by sheets of tinned iron,
and strongly fastened to the wall, has proved to resist fire better
than any door which can be applied to general use. I have seen such
doors in division walls where they had successfully resisted the flame
which destroyed four stories of a building filled with combustible
material, without imposing any injury upon the door except the removal
of the tin on the sheet iron; and the doors were kept in further
service without any repairs other than a coat of paint.
The reason for this resistance to fire is that the wood, being a poor
conductor of heat, will not warp and buckle under heat, and cannot
burn for lack of air to support combustion. A removal of the sheet
metal on such a door after a fire in a mill shows that the surface of
the wood is carbonized, not burned, reduced to charcoal, but not to
ashes.
Many fire doors are constructed and hung in such a manner that it is
doubtful whether they could withstand a fire serious enough to require
their services.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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