The Turkish Bath, Its Design and ConstructionAllsop, Robert Owen
Science
The Turkish Bath, Its Design and Construction
Allsop, Robert Owen
Baths, Turkish
The ordinary "slipper," "length," or "shallow" bath is out of place in
the rooms of a Turkish bath; but where the bath has to be adapted with
economy to an existing bath room, as at Fig. 23, and in cases where,
say, some members of a family take the Turkish bath and others the
ordinary warm bath, it may remain as at the last-named figure, and serve
the purposes of a lavatrina. The lavatrina, as designed in the plan of
the large Turkish bath appended, however, is the most convenient
apparatus to facilitate the orthodox method of lathering and washing
oneself in this style of bathing, as distinct from the ordinary method
of immersion in a large body of water; and as the former manner is the
most economical of water, it is unnecessary, in providing a Turkish bath
in a house, to make any increased provision for the supply of hot and
cold water over and above that which would be allowed for an ordinary
slipper-bath.
In a private bath the lavatorium will also serve the purpose of a
tepidarium. This chamber should therefore be as large as possible. In it
may be required a shampooing slab, and, possibly, a small plunge bath,
in addition to the lavatrina, reclining-bench, and what water fittings
are to be provided. All that will be required are hot and cold water
taps over the edge of the lavatrina, which should also have a waste and
overflow. Having to be worked by the bather himself, the shower
arrangement should be such as shown at Fig. 17, _ante_. This will serve
all purposes, unless a douche and a needle are desired, when the
regulating valve of this appliance must be placed conveniently within
the bather's reach while standing in the bath.
The private bather, unless he can afford to engage a bath-man, must look
upon shampooing as a _luxury_ but not a _necessity_ of the bath. Dr. W.
J. Fleming, in a lecture on the "Physiology of Turkish Baths," read
before the Glasgow Physiological Society some years back, said that the
accessories of shampooing, &c., are, despite the popular opinion to the
contrary, non-essential. A shampooing slab--which must be of marble--is
therefore not a necessary provision in any but very elaborate private
baths.
A complete private bath must contain the _piscina_, or plunge. Unless
space and expense be no object, this cannot well be made capable of
affording a vigorous dive; but endeavours should be made to secure a
bath of such dimensions as will admit of a refreshing immersion of the
whole body. It will be constructed and fitted exactly as a small public
plunge bath.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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