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
To turn to methods of heating from a radiating surface of firebrick, at
Fig. 10 I have given the plan, elevation, and sections of a fireclay
heating apparatus. It is constructed wholly of fireclay--fireclay
bricks, quarries, and cement. In the main it consists of a long flue of
firebricks and slabs, which coils backwards and forwards over itself
till the desired amount of radiating surface is gained. Between the
coils are spaces for super-heating the air already warmed by passing
over the actual furnace and into the warm air chamber, the air passing
through by means of perforated bricks. The illustration shows a simple
furnace; but it would be an easy matter to improve upon this by
providing iron air-tight doors lined with fireclay, for cleansing flues
and air-chambers. The example given is only suited to heat a small
public bath. For a large set of hot rooms, a compound apparatus could be
constructed by placing an additional furnace in a sub-basement, the one
on the level of the sudatory supplying radiant heat, and the lower one
hot air. Two such apparatus might be placed one behind the other, end to
end, or might form the _sides_ of the laconicum; the last plan, however,
being the least to be recommended, as in such positions they would not
directly radiate their heat into the adjoining hot rooms.
The advantage of such a furnace as that shown is that it supplies
radiant heat of a most exhilarating kind, besides a proportion of heated
air, and from a fireclay surface, the employment of which renders it
absolutely impossible to overheat the air, or to contaminate it by
deleterious particles resulting from the decomposition of metal.
Moreover, the stoking of this class of furnace requires less arduous
attention than an iron stove. Its disadvantage is that, should the
temperature of the bath be allowed to fall markedly, it requires some
time for the extra heat to be made up again. Inasmuch, however, as fires
at public baths must be kept banked up overnight, this is not a matter
of importance. It is this very slowness of increase in temperature that
constitutes the safeguard against that overheated air, the presence of
which we can, with practice, detect by the smell in so many baths. The
difficulties involved in the construction of a furnace of this nature
relate to the prevention of cracking and consequent escape of sulphurous
fumes and carbon into the air. The very simplicity of the construction
of the flues and air-chambers constitutes the chief danger, as the
chances are that, unless the architect stands by and sees every joint
made, the work will be done badly. Absolutely faultless workmanship must
be employed throughout, and the fireclay materials must be literally of
the very best and soundest description. Every single joint must be
perfectly made with fireclay cement or paste. The fireclay bricks, &c.,
must be selected with regard to the amount of indestructible silica in
the clay, consistent with hardness and toughness. Homogeneity of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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