The interior of the building is painted and wainscoted, and the roof is ornamented partly in blue and oak, and partly with panels of tulip-tree wood.
There are only two windows, and they are near the southern angles of the roof. While they admit sunshine on some occasions, they can on others be closed, and the interior be reduced to darkness. In the southeast corner a small opening e may allow a solar beam three inches in diameter to come in from a heliostat outside. The greatest facilities are thus presented for optical and photographical experiments, for in the latter case the whole room can be used as a camera obscura.
b. The Dome.
The roof of the observatory is 20 feet square. The angles are filled in solid, and a circular space 15 feet in diameter is left to be covered by the revolving dome. Although such a construction is architecturally weak and liable to lose its level, yet the great advantages of having the building below square, and the usefulness of the corners, determined its adoption, the disadvantages being overcome by a very light dome.
The dome is 16 feet in outside diameter, and rises to a height of 5 feet above its base. It is, therefore, much flatter than usual, in fact, might have been absolutely flat, with this method of mounting. It would then have been liable, however, to be crushed in by the deep winter snows.
Fig. 39.
Joints in Tin of Dome.
It consists of 32 ribs, arcs of a circle, uniting at a common centre above. Each one is formed of two pieces of thin whitewood, b, Fig. 39, fastened side by side, with the best arrangements of the grain for strength. They are three inches wide and one inch thick at the lower end, and taper gradually to 2 1/2 by 1.
Over these ribs tinplate is laid in triangular strips or gores, about 18 inches wide at the base, and 10 feet long. Where the adjacent triangles of tin a a′ meet, they are not soldered, but are bent together. This allows a certain amount of contraction and expansion, and is water-proof. It strengthens the roof so much, that if the ribs below were taken away, this corrugated though thin dome would probably sustain itself. The tin is fastened to the dome ribs b by extra pieces c inserted in the joint and doubled with the other parts, while below they are nailed to the ribs. In the figure the tin is represented very much thicker than it is in reality.