The Turkish Bath, Its Design and Construction

by Robert Owen Allsop

Movable wooden-framed marble-topped benches may be substituted for those of a permanent type; but the plan has nothing to recommend it except lowness of cost.

The separate lavatorium need not be so large as its adjoining shampooing room, as here the bathers will not recline, but sit or stand before washing-basins, to which must be conducted the flow pipes of hot water, and branches from the cold water supply pipe. These basins—which may be of glazed earthenware if solid marble cannot be afforded—should be large and capacious. Of water-fittings I shall speak under the head of "Appliances."

In a combined shampooing and washing room the benches and basins will be required together. The basins may be fixed under a hole in the marble slabs, or affixed to the walls, as may be convenient. Whilst arranging the position of the benches with regard to the room, and the basins with regard to the benches, it will be as well to remember the postures that the bather assumes whilst being shampooed—viz. 1st, sitting; 2nd, on the back; 3rd, reverse. The basin must be so placed with respect to the slab that the shampooer may, without altering his position, take water from the basin with his handbowl, and pour it over the bather. A shampooer cannot well work with less than 5 ft. 6 in. between his slab and that of his adjoining fellow, when the slabs are at right angles to the wall and the adjoining shampooer is also working in the same space between the two benches. Where the room is long and a row of benches are placed at right angles to the wall, the shampooers have each their separate space to work in. Each one can then manage in 4 ft., and the slabs can be set out 6 ft. from centre to centre. Where the long sides of the slabs are against the walls and the basins are sunk into the slabs, there must be at least 7 ft. 6 in. from basin to basin. In the case of slabs at right angles to the walls, the basins are best placed between the slabs.

It is an excellent plan to provide a slight screen in one corner of the washing room, behind which the entering bather may, if he chooses, have a warm spray from a large rose before proceeding to the hot rooms.

In ladies' baths it is well to provide private shampooing recesses by means of partitions of sufficient height, which may be of wood and obscure glass. In this way any shampooing room may be rendered more private. Upright marble slabs will often be found useful in dividing the benches.

The walls and ceilings of the apartments now under consideration may, so long as there be a dado of glazed ware, be lined in the same way as the hot rooms. But as regards flooring, still more care is required to prevent slipperiness. The soap and water that will be plentifully spilt around, renders this precaution needful. Moreover, provision must be made for drainage.

The flooring may be of rough tile mosaic, or simple tiles. Marble is too slippery, and glazed tiles are wholly inadmissible. Marble mosaics, roughly set, may be employed. The fall to which the floor is laid must be determined by the position of the gullies.

The drainage system of a hot-air bath is a most important consideration. In a place where the occupants are, literally, breathing at every pore, it is obvious that too much care cannot be taken to prevent all possible odours, and the slightest suspicion of an escape of deleterious sewer gases. The traps employed in the washing rooms should be of the best possible design and material, and proof against the evil known as "siphoning." The gullies above them are best placed adjoining one of the ventilators in the walls, at the floor level, as then a current of air sweeps over them and up the extraction flues. It is not always that an opportunity is afforded to cut off the waste water from the drainage; where the bath rooms are above ground, however, this should be done if practicable. Where possible, an excellent plan is to construct a culvert under the basement floor. In this the whole of the pipes can be placed—the soil-pipes, the lavatorium and plunge bath wastes, &c., and access gained to them by a manhole. By this means a cut-off could be effected between waste-pipes and the sewerage system. The culvert itself could be ventilated by connecting it with an extraction flue. This is all costly; but the builder of a Turkish bath will do well to be prepared to lay out a liberal sum to perfect the system of drainage of the establishment, and in the end, when the public have appreciated the attention bestowed, he will thank his architect for having impressed upon him the necessity for this extra expenditure.

The Douche Room.

The douche room should be a small chamber adjoining the lavatorium, and fitted with a circular needle bath with shower or douche above, and any other kind of spray bath that may be required. It should not be a dark, cold, uninviting hole. For this reason, and also because a corner is admirably adapted to receive an appliance of the shape of a needle bath, it is better, often, to fit it up in an angle of the lavatorium. But of these additions I shall have much to say anon, as one of the most important points about a bath is the arrangement of the water-fittings. Needle baths will be found indicated, on the plans given in these pages, by an incompleted circle.