Part 5 (1/2)
Handsome, large, and well-made water-fittings conduce, in no small degree, to the effect of a bath. There should be no attempt at hiding away of pipes, &c. They should be made features of the bath, and be designed with care and neatly finished. Every pipe, joint, and connection should be prearranged, and the means of fixing and supporting the same carefully designed. Boxings, and the like, should be discarded, and everything frankly exhibited. The day for mysterious plumbing has gone by. There is some beauty even in a pipe.
To consider the fittings, we will commence with the lavatorium. Branches from the hot and cold water supply pipes must be conducted to each shampooer's basin. These may be finished separately, with independent nozzles, as at Fig. 12; or the pipes may be connected with the valve shown at Fig. 13, about 18 in. above the basin, the outlet of the valve being fitted with a foot or 15 in. of indiarubber hose. In the latter case the pipes and valve would stand some 9 in. from the wall, and depend from the horizontal supply pipes, which in their turn could be carried on wrought-iron brackets affixed to the wall, or be hung by iron ties, as indicated by dotted lines at Fig. 16. The _internal_ diameter--the measurement given in all the figures--of these branch pipes to taps over shampooing basins should be 3/4 in.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 12.
A Shampooing Basin.]
c.o.c.ks and valves for the purposes of the Turkish bath are best of the ”gland” pattern. They should have bold handles. Those of the screw-down type are useless, except as stop-c.o.c.ks. Roundways should be used, and, to insure freedom of running, the turning part should be equal to the inner diameter of the pipes. The whole should be of gunmetal, and, if the pipes to be used be of iron, screwed at the end. Fig. 13 shows the type of valve to be employed to regulate the temperature of water for shower baths, &c. To be useful, as well as bold and effective in appearance, the handles should be large.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 13.
Valve for Regulating Temperature of Water.]
_In every case_, the cold water must be placed on the right hand, and the hot on the left.
The earthenware basin is provided to hold water mixed to the required temperature. A waste and overflow are not shown in the ill.u.s.tration, but they should be provided. The basin is best wide and shallow--shallower than shown. There should be no overhanging ledge to catch the shampooer's hand-basin; for this reason I have shown, at Fig. 12, the basin sunk into the marble slab, instead of the marble being on top, as ordinary. The copper hand-basin is provided for the shampooer to take water from the earthenware basin and throw over the shampooing slab, or over the bather. In addition, a wooden, copper-banded soap-bowl must be provided.
Should there be a row of shampooing basins and benches, the horizontal supply-pipes must be continued along the wall, and branches dropped to each basin. The basins are most conveniently placed when raised somewhat higher than the benches. In the ill.u.s.tration given, I have shown how to arrange horizontal foul-air flues under the basins. In other cases the fixing of the basins will be much simpler. For pure lavatorium purposes these basins, c.o.c.ks, &c., are all the water-fittings to be considered; but in an apartment combining the purposes of douche room--and perhaps a plunge bath chamber--as well as a was.h.i.+ng and ma.s.sage room, more or less of the fittings about to be described will have to be accommodated.
The tonic appliances for treating the bather subsequently to the shampooing, the soaping, and the cleansing, are various. The most useful is the simple shower bath, with a very large rose, and amply supplied with water through a regulating valve. It is employed for thoroughly cleansing the bather before he enters the plunge, whose waters are for the common use of all. In many small baths its place is efficiently taken by an ordinary hand rose or spray of the kind shown at Fig. 15.
The shower proper is usually fixed above the ”needle” bath, as at Fig.
14, or formed by a continuation of the ”backbone” of the needle. It is best to have separate regulating valves for the needle and shower, as at Fig. 16; but at Fig. 14 it is shown with a branch from the pipe conducting to the needle, and with stop c.o.c.ks. The needle-bath is a skeleton-like structure having a large hollow backbone and branching ribs. The water ascends the backbone, and, pa.s.sing into the ribs, squirts out of small holes punctured in their internal circ.u.mferences.
The bather stands in the centre of the apparatus, with the ribs encircling him. The ribs should be of 1/2-in. copper piping, the backbone and lesser supports being of iron, 2-1/2 and 1-1/2 in. diameter respectively. In a convenient position for the attendant must be placed the regulating valve.
A more elaborate contrivance may be made, which will include needle, shower, ascending shower, spinal douche, and back shower; but this should be left for hydropathic inst.i.tutions and invalids. Simplicity in these matters should be the great desideratum. The above-named additions, however, may be briefly described. At Fig. 14 I have indicated the position of ascending shower. It would be connected with the pipe supplying needle and shower, and have a stop-c.o.c.k. The spinal douche is a little nozzle behind the shower proper, and should have similar connection with the supply-pipe. The back shower or spinal spray would be a rose placed about half-way up the iron backbone, and be connected in the same manner. Avoid these complications in a bath for healthy persons.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 14.
A Needle Bath.]
The needle bath is best left exposed, but it may be enclosed in a metal s.h.i.+eld if desired. This bath may be placed in one of three positions--(1) in the shampooing room, (2) in a separate chamber, (3) in the plunge bath chamber. It is most conveniently placed where the bather pa.s.ses it _en route_ from the was.h.i.+ng room to the plunge. For this appliance a good head of water is absolutely essential, as with a low pressure it is very ineffective. The ill.u.s.tration shows the bath standing on iron shoes. If fixed in a corner, as ordinarily, it can be secured to the wall by such cramps or brackets as may be necessary.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 15.
Spray, Wave, and Douche Baths.]
Besides the needle and shower, as above, the tonic bathing appliances may include an ordinary horizontal douche that can be pointed in any direction, a spray, or large rose, and a ”wave.” These three appliances may be placed together as at Fig. 15. They are connected to the pipes from the regulating valves by means of a foot or so of flexible hose. To this is secured a tapering copper pipe. The douche has a gunmetal nozzle. It is directed against the back and spine, but must not be used upon the head or chest. With a good head of water this is a most powerful appliance, feeling more like a rod of some solid substance pressing against one than a stream of water. The ”wave” is formed by a copper spreader. The spray is simply a large rose, 6 in. or 8 in.
diameter.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 16.
Regulating Valves for Needle, Douche, &c.]
It may be found convenient to arrange the valves for the whole of the above-mentioned appliances together, as at Fig. 16. Each pair of hot and cold handles are here brought together. These handles should be long, so as to admit of easy regulating of the temperature of the water; they may well be 9 in. in length. The douche, wave, and spray should be kept as close as possible to the handles that regulate their temperature.
I would repeat the caution that it is very necessary to beware of complications in these water-fittings and appliances. Some of the more ”fussy” contrivances--as, for example, the elaborated needle bath as above described--require so much regulating, and so many valves and stop-c.o.c.ks, that it is quite an undertaking for the attendant to set them going. Simplicity in design and construction should be observed in this work: the pipes as few as need be; the valves as simple as possible; and the whole put together in a manner that will permit of their being easily examined and repaired.
I have before hinted at the desirability of making some sort of provision whereby the bather may, on entering the bath, have a warm spray or shower, of any temperature that may be agreeable to him. In high cla.s.s baths this feature should always be provided, as it is a great luxury, and, moreover, to certain const.i.tutions a necessity, thus to be able to take such a shower before entering the hot rooms, or at such intervals during the sojourn in these apartments as may be desired.