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BLOCK DWELLINGS FROM WITHIN.

(Contributed.)

We are still, to a greater degree than any other nation with a large urban population, dwellers in single houses rather than in flats. In London, however, as has been pointed out in a recent number of HOUSING, the proportion of the population living in "Block Dwellings" rises, in some parts, as high as 33 per cent. In these districts the necessity, or the desirability, of living close to the place where work is to be found has overcome the national desire for domestic isolation. The following extracts from essays recently written by members of a Working Boys' Club in one of the most congested districts of central London may be worthy of consideration by those who are concerned with the future development of urban areas.

It should be remarked that of a score of essayists all but five live themselves in block dwellings; that three only wrote in favour of life in flats, and that these three all live in somewhat insanitary ordinary dwelling houses, in the near neighbourhood of one of the most modern model buildings. So easy is it to see the advantages of that which you have not!

In Favour of Block Dwellings.

"Flats would be best because it would allow a much greater number of people to live near the work and would greatly facilitate the rush for tram and buses, etc. Moreover a proper flat should have a square or playing ground for children, which would save a lot of accidents, for the children would not wish to stray into dangerous roads if the square was made attractive for them. Flats also induce companionship, for a woman, when her work is done, can ask the tenent next door to come in for a few minutes. I think there is a rule for closing, which discourages late hours, for they have no key to let themselves in, and are so shut out for the night. Life in flats developes cleanliness, for each tenent has a fixed duty to do and there is plenty of people to see that it is done properly. Tenents also have the use of washing houses, baths, which many houses do not possess, and hot water ready for use.'

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'In a single house a person is able to disinfect his house without anybody interfering, or complaining of the smell of carbolic or whatever disinfectant is being used. block of buildings one person starts disinfecting the house, while another complains of the smell." The irksomeness of sharing domestic conveniences with other families is insisted on by all the writers.

"In a tenament you have to use the same wash house and sinks and when the children play on the landing or balconies, the other tenants come out and complain about the noise, and then there is a row whose part of the landing it is. When you have your morning wash, the people next door come out and line up, jawing about us being on the tap all day."

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"If you live in a block of buildings there is noise all day long, and there are strangers running up and down and making as much noise as they can. When they are living over your room and there is about ten dancing, then that is the time to grumble, when your pictures fall down and your mantel breaks, and if there is anybody ill it makes them as if they can die, that's why I would like to live in a single house."

'When you want to go to sleep early you generally find someone having a gay time overhead."

On the other hand, some boys find themselves sore let and hindered in making wholesome noises themselves. "I would sooner live in a single house because you have no stairs to climb, and can make as much noise as you like without disturbing anyone underneath. ... You can have dancing and singing without people coming up and complaining about the noise."

"You cannot (unless you are a callous person) chop wood. do some cobbling, or any other such things that would necessitate a little noise, if Mrs. So and So has an ailment of some kind; sometimes it occurs that although the other residents in the block are quite healthy and well, one or the other of them would put in a complaint for making what they would term an unearthly din."

Detriments to health and the difficulty of taking exercise figure very prominently in the arguments adduced, and lest this anxiety should be thought in any way morbid, it may be as well to explain that these boys have a higher technique in boxing and gymnastics than essay writing.

"When we get up in the morning (this is if we were living in houses) we could go out in the garden and do some excercise such as physical culture, some skipping and have a few runs round the garden, which would keep us in good health; this is impossible in tenaments."

Living high up has obvious disadvantages.

"If you live up very high it makes the place very dirty with the soot from the chimneys."

"In buildings in there are no lifts and perhaps your mother or father is a bit weak and cannot climb the stairs very easily, and walking up decreases her strength, and if there are any children in the building they are more liable to fall down the stairs than in a private house." Some of the writers complain that in their buildings all pets are forbidden.

"You cannot even keep a puppy if you give me one," says one boy, willing to impute generosity in intention. Another mingles breathlessly idealism and frank realism:

"It is nice to live in a house of your own because you can have chickens and dogs and a nice big yard and have flowers and Creepy growing up the wall, and you are not disturbed by your drunken neighbours and any of their thealty* language, and you are your own master of your house. That's why I like to live in a single house and not in a block of buildings."

*In this part of London, "th" and "f" are interchangeable in ordinary speech.

By psychologists the most damning part of the indictment may be thought to be contained in this quotation:

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The impossibility of securing quiet is emphasised by be an optimist. all, and is thus put in its simplest form :

W. McG. E.

NOTES FROM THE BUILDING RESEARCH BOARD.

Plaster of Paris.

Under a recent Japanese patent, building blocks are made of plaster mixed with sawdust, one portion being damped with acid and the other with soda. The result on mixing is the liberation of gas, and a very light block is obtained.

The ordinary temperature for calcining gypsum is 200 deg. C. The result is "Plaster of Paris." If gypsum is calcined at a temperature between 250 deg. C. and 500 deg. C., but not long enough to remove all the water, a slow-setting cement is obtained. This cement was used years ago in England for making cottage floors (not on the ground floor). It is now used in America, reinforced with iron cable and waterproofed, as a roof covering: The waterproofing is necessary, because the cement is appreciably soluble in water. Treated with boiled oil this cement would probably make a satisfactory "jointless " floor in a modern house. It would have the advantage of being a bad conductor of heat.

Coal used in Preparing Materials.

The burning of Portland cement, in a plant that is not being forced beyond its economical capacity, should only require coal from 25 per cent. to 33 per cent. of the weight of finished cement, i.e., from 5 cwt. to 6 cwt. of coal per ton cement.

The amount of coal used in burning lime may be taken at much the same figure; but before a comparison can be made, the amount of coal needed for the various power operations in the manufacture of cement must be included, and this raises the total amount of coal required to "some 50 per cent. of the weight of cement produced."*

Further, to waste coal in the lime-burning process is possibly to spoil the out-turn, and certainly to gain no advantage. To waste coal in cement-burning, however, increases the out-turn of a kiln without spoiling the product. In a time of great shortage of cement, when it could be sold at any price asked for, it might be advantageous to cement makers, therefore, to waste coal.

In the manufacture of bricks, certain clays only require from 5 cwt. of coal per 1,000 bricks; ordinary clays. require about 15 cwt., and high-class special bricks may require as much as 30 cwt. per 1,000. A figure given for the manufacture of sand-lime bricks is 2 cwt. per 1,000. This does not include the coal used in burning the lime.

Condensation on Walls.

Moisture condenses on the inner surface of external walls because that inner surface is "cold," i.e., because the wall is too good a conductor of heat from the warm interior of the room to the cold air outside.

To provide a porous material to soak up the condensed water merely hides the fact that the wall is a "cold" one; it does not make the room warmer.

The rational way to prevent such condensation of water is to make the wall a bad conductor of heat. This may be done by thickening the wall, by careful

* Bertram Blount's "Cement."

choice of material, or by the provision of a cavity, or cavities, in the thickness of the wall. Of these three methods the ideal is the careful choice of material. Loss of Heat from Buildings.

The problem of the loss of heat from dwelling-houses is one involving not only the conduction of heat through the material of the wall, or roof, but also the loss by radiation and convection.

Convection losses depend on the size and position of the surface; radiation losses depend on the nature of the surface; each is independent of the material.

That is to say, where the roof covering is very thin the colour and character of the surface is of more

importance than whether it is made of corrugated iron or asbestos-cement sheeting.

A dull dark surface radiates heat rapidly, while a light-coloured polished surface retains it.

Protection of Chalk Walls.

At the Amesbury Experimental Cottages all the chalk walls have stood the winter very well. So far no one protective coating has shown itself to be any better than the others. A plain wash of lime mixed with boiling water is one of the coats being tested on a patch of chalk pisé.

A block-chalk wall, near Dorking, in a cottage 150 years old, is in an excellent state of preservation, although if has never had a protective coat.

From observation and enquiry, it would appear that if chalk block is cut as it should be, in the spring, and naturally dried in the air before use, it does not need protection against the action of frost. The face hardens naturally.

Thin block-chalk walls are not waterproof; they can be made so by a protective coating of silico-fluoride. Milk has been used for the same purpose. It was successful up to a point, but the first frost brought away the skin in flakes, leaving the soft chalk exposed.

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