Fig. 6
Mr. Samson, the architect of the County Club at Taunton, and also of Mr. Fowler’s room, very recently showed me a system of ventilation which he had introduced into the Club billiard-room with absolute success. Fully realising the difficulty of keeping rain out and letting air in with a skylight of the ordinary type, he decided to carry the skylight the whole length of the room, so that the sashes which open at one end are far removed from the table. The skylight is of the ordinary section (fig. 6), and in order to avoid undue glare he has fitted the space between the coamings with horizontal sashes of ground glass, sliding one on another in such a way that the amount of light can be easily regulated by the marker. At one end of the skylight two vertical sashes (of the full width of the skylight) are fitted, one being above the coaming, the other in the wall below the coaming, so that it can be opened whether all the horizontal sashes be closed or not. At the other, or fireplace end of the skylight, two large gratings are fixed, one (as at the opposite end) above, the other below the level of the base of the skylight, communicating with a flue in the chimney, which is, of course, kept warm by the heat of the fire. Thus a powerful exhaust is working at one end of the room, while as much or as little fresh air as is required flows in at the other. I append a rough sketch, which may, perhaps, tend to make the description clearer (fig. 7).
Fig. 7
The two great advantages of his plan seem to me to be, first, the risk of water on the table is greatly diminished; second, no matter how cold it be, some air can be admitted, and some can be sucked out, although the skylight may be completely shut by the closing of all the flat sashes.
Fig. 8.—Mr. Samson’s Sections of a Billiard-room (32′ × 24′)
Fig. 9