The Turkish Bath, Its Design and Construction — John Shaqi
The Turkish Bath, Its Design and ConstructionAllsop, Robert Owen
Science
The Turkish Bath, Its Design and Construction
Allsop, Robert Owen
Baths, Turkish
Double doors and lobbies must be employed to prevent the transmission of
the heated air to rooms where its presence would be injurious. To keep
the hot air of the bath-rooms from the cooling-rooms, &c., should be the
great aim of the architect. Many baths are rendered quite repulsive by
what I may perhaps term the "sudorific smell" that assails the nostrils
of the visitor entering the vestibule.
The space allotted to the sudatory chambers may be divided into the
various rooms, either by glazed brick walls or by framed and glazed
partitions; or again, they may be formed by a combination of solid
brickwork and glazed woodwork. Any piers in these rooms must be of
brickwork, iron columns being inadmissible. Masonry, too, must be
discarded throughout, or used with caution. Some stones--such as red
Mansfield--become black with exposure to the heat, and others fare still
worse. The employment of porous and absorbent materials must be guarded
against throughout this portion of the bath, as it should be remembered
that effete matters, particles of waste tissue, and possibly the germs
of disease, are continually being given off by the perspiring bathers,
and must be prevented from finding a lodgment.
The best woods for use in the hot rooms are close-grained and free from
essential oils. Mahogany is excellently adapted for the purpose, and so,
also, is teak. Pitch pine must be discarded altogether. Deal, when
employed, should be perfectly seasoned, and may then give trouble from
the exudation of turpentine.
The partitions, and the doorways in them, must be so placed as to govern
the flow of hot air. So long as the main divisions be planned with this
end in view, the separate rooms may be divided and broken up as the
architect may fancy. But the constant flow of the heated air from the
inlet in the hottest room towards the lavatorium must not be interfered
with by recesses, nooks, and corners, or anything that would cause the
current to stagnate. And here we may see the practical advantage
possessed by a bath where the hot rooms are _en suite_, and in a line
with one axis. For here the air sweeps uninterruptedly through the
different chambers without eddying around corners and stagnating in
recesses far out of the main stream.
The doorways in the partitions should not be too lofty. They should not
be hung with doors, as anything necessary in this way will be amply
supplied by depending curtains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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