There are, of course, many expedients for producing perspiration by heated air much simpler than by the special construction of a suite of bath rooms; but as they will be familiar to all studying the subject of baths, I will pass them over here as mere makeshifts. For although there is something to be said in their favour, in that the head is free and one can breathe cooler air, there are serious objections to their use, as the lamps employed burn the air, and there is also an absence of that rapid aërial circulation which is so much to be desired. Besides the actual objections to their use, more or less inconvenience attends the employment of the sheet and lamp (or cabinet and lamp) baths, and there is little of the luxury of a true sudatorium about the extemporised bath, admirable as it may be as a hydropathic expedient.
The bath in the house may consist of one of the following arrangements:—(1) A single room used as a sudatory chamber and for washing; (2) a hot room and a washing room; (3) a combined hot room and washing room, and a cooling room; (4) a cooling room, washing room, and hot room; or (5) a suite of chambers of such extent as to provide every possible luxury, such as even the old Roman gentlemen would have coveted. Where there is no second room the bather must use his bed room as a cooling and reposing room, as he must also in the cases where only a washing room and a hot room are provided.
Fig. 22.
Plan of Mr. Urquhart's Small Private Bath and of the Hot Room at Sir Erasmus Wilson's Bath at Richmond Hill.
For a simple sudatory chamber, where washing operations are also conducted, all that is required is a room with brick walls and fire- and heat-proof floor and ceiling, with an adjoining lobby, a flue to conduct smoke from a simple stove, and a sunk washing tank or lavatrina. Allowance must be made for a couch opposite the stove. Fig. 22 (A) shows the simplest form of a bath room possible; it is that which Mr. Urquhart constructed, and has described in his 'Manual of the Turkish Bath.' It was erected by him to show how cheaply an effective bath room might be built, the whole arrangement, with water fittings and building of three of its walls, only costing 37l.
The room or rooms forming the Turkish bath in a private house should be cut off by a lobby from the other apartments of the house, with carefully-fitting self-closing doors at either end; and in the case of an elaborate bath, another little lobby with double doors and heavy curtains, should be placed between the cooling room and the two bathing rooms, as at Fig. 24. The air of the hot rooms should, of course, be perfectly and absolutely cut off from that of the house.
The position of the bath in a house will depend upon the size of the bath and the house and its situation. In town houses, where the bath consists of only a washing and a hot room, the first floor will be the most convenient. Where a cooling room is provided, the ground floor is as handy as anywhere; and this position allows of the easier construction of the heating apparatus. In the country, the bath is best built away from the house, connected by a short lobby, which may be utilised for boots, &c., as at Fig. 24. The main difficulties to be overcome are the heating of the bath, and the non-conduction of heat to places where it is not wanted.
The heating apparatus of a private bath may be, for the simplest, a common laundry stove, as at Fig. 22 (A) and at Fig. 23; for bigger baths, a small convoluted stove, as at Fig. 24; or a furnace of firebrick with an iron flue, as at B, Fig. 22—a plan of the hot room (15 ft. by 12 ft.) of the bath which Sir Erasmus Wilson built at Richmond Hill. For elaborate baths, a small furnace wholly constructed of fireclay, such as that of which I have given complete plans in the chapter on "Heating and Ventilation," would be the best. A furnace of this description is shown in the design for an elaborate private bath, at Fig. 25. Should the bath be heated regularly every day, a firebrick furnace is certainly the best, as such furnaces retain their heat a long time. It should be "banked" at night. A bath only required at times, and quickly, is best heated with a thin iron stove. A portable iron stove and a long length of iron flue will rapidly raise the temperature. The simple baths illustrated at Figs. 22 (A) and 23, are therefore very convenient and effective. The principle of heating by the transmission to the hot rooms of freshly-heated air is also a very convenient one for private purposes, as on this system the bath may be on an upper floor, and yet have its heating apparatus conveniently stowed away below, as at Fig. 24. A small furnace chamber, such as that at Fig. 6, ante, must be constructed, and a hot-air flue of large section built up to the hot room. If the bath be on the ground floor, the construction of any form of heating apparatus is rendered easier.
To prevent the transmission of heat to other apartments of the house, the precautions hereinbefore mentioned must be observed. Hollow walls must be provided round the heated chambers, to prevent loss of heat on the external side, and the transmission of heat through internal walls. The floors above and below should—if not of solid fireproof construction—be formed as described in the section dealing with the design of the sudorific chambers, with puggings of slag-wool, asbestos, sawdust, or materials having similar properties. Windows should be double. Wherever possible, concrete floors should be provided to the hot rooms and washing rooms, so that they may be covered with tiles or mosaics, and on account of the spilling of water. It should be needless to point out the necessity of having most careful regard to safety from fire by the stoves or furnaces.
The ventilation of private baths should receive as much careful attention as those for public use. The hollow external walls may often be used with advantage for the extraction of the vitiated air, which must be let into the cavity at the floor level. If the bath be constructed on the ground floor, with nothing beneath, the system of carrying off the vitiated air by horizontal conduits—recommended for public baths—should be employed, as in the accompanying design for a large private bath, where the whole of the foul air is drawn into one vertical shaft of sufficiently wide section. Much that I have said on the heating and ventilation, and, indeed, on many matters in connection with the design of public baths, applies in the case of the private one, and the reader is therefore referred to preceding pages for many hints as to its construction.