DRYING-HOUSES FOR CREPE.--It has already been shown in the previous chapter that one type of drying-houses--viz., that over a factory--stands condemned, except for the drying of low-grade rubbers. Generally speaking, a great advance has been made in the design of crepe drying-houses during recent years, and it has been possible even to improve older ones so as to bring them into line with the more modern buildings. Houses for drying crepe rubber may be of one floor, two floors, or even three floors. Doubtless those built with three floors were designed with a view to economising the available site for factory buildings, and as long as the ventilation is good there can be no very great objection to them. It might be pointed out, however, that even with the best of ventilation the air passing successively through three layers of rubber must be fairly saturated with moisture by the time it leaves the building. The effect of this upon the rate of drying in the uppermost chamber will not be so marked as it will be in the middle floor, as the temperature of the top floor must be many degrees higher than that of the other two rooms. It would be expected, therefore, that the rate of drying in the middle storey would be slower than that in either of the other two. In houses of two floors this objection would not have to be met, and drying-houses of this type are successful and common. HOW MANY STOREYS?--Again nothing could be urged against a building of two or three storeys in which the ground floor was occupied as a packing-room, except that, by negligence in not allowing wet crepe a preliminary dripping period, water might fall upon the packed rubber below.