HEARTH And HOME

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20574, 16 June 1932, Page 4

HEARTH And HOME

"Builder" invites contributions from readers on. any matters of interest which they might like to propose. Correspondence on various subjects pertaining to building will also be accepted. NOTES. Millinery wire sewn along the edges of short mats that show signs of curling at the corners will keep them quite flat without any trouble.

White paintwork can be given a ricli gloss if, after being cleaned in the usual way, it is wiped over finally with a cloth wrung out in starch water.

Turpentine is good for cleaning s iede shoes. Put them on boot-trees or ftuff them with paper before applying the turpentine, and, after completing the operation, hang them in a current or air to got rid of the smell. If odd pieces of paper are soaked to a pulp and then mixed with ashes and small coal and put at the back of tlw stove the fire will last for hours without any attention.

To clean rusty curtain rings put them into hot vinegar, and leaje JA hours, then dry and polish with dry bathbrick. It is a good plan to stick curtain pins through soap before a taching them to the clean curtains; this will prevent them from rusting.

Instead of throwing away stale sodawnter throw some occasionally over the coal-dust, stir for a minute, and let it remain. When the coal-dust is put on the fire it will burn into a red mass and throw out a great heat, io is even worth while to make some sodawater for the purpose, as it enables you to use up every scrap of coal-dust.

On a site in North London, wlncli report says is being kept a close secret, but which rumour places as well within a mile of Camden Town Tube Station, it is proposed to erect a cinema of the most modern type, to hold 3500 people, a boxing arena and dance hall with accommodation for 2500. a tearoom for 1000, and a sub-ground car park to take 350 cars. The building is estimated to cost £300,000, and, providing entertainment for over 7000 under one roof, seems to lie the most ambitious undertaking of this kind that has yet l>een projected in London. —The "Architect and Building News."

Chancery lane station, on the Central London tube railway, is to be rebuilt. The lift accommodation here Las for some time past been inadequate to deal with the rush-hour traffic, but the railway .company lias been unable to secure adjoining property whicii would permit escalators to be installed. Under the rebuilding scheme, to be begun immediately, a new station will be constructed under the roadway ot Holborn at the junctions with Gray s Inn road, aboufc 100 yds east of the present building, and it will have four entrances, two at the corner of Gray_s Inn road and two on tho opposite side of Holborn. The estimated cost is £230,000, says an English journal.

In n remarkable playroom in London children may smash their toj% play with the dripping water taps, and indulge in all the other forbidde;i longings of childhood. Blocks and building sets also are available. The National Institute of Child Psychology has established this school for difficult children. With the rule, "No praise, no blame, and no prohibitions," the experimenters believe that a child's real instincts and impulses will be revealed for study.

Tho drnin mi+siflp n. SPiillftry m* kitchen, which receives water from the sink, requires frequent attention to keep it in good order. Buckets are often emptied into it, and the stringy waste from floor cloths becomes matted in the iron gratings. After the drain has been well swilled with boiling water and soda the grating should be lifted out on the end of a stick or poker and placed on a fire. In quite a short time the fire will burn away tho greasy accumulation, leaving the grating perfectly clean. It may then be replaced as soon as it is cool.

The first contract to come to Great Britain in connexion with the new £2,000,000 headquarters of the League of Nations in Geneva, the Palais des Nations, has been secured by Roneo, Ltd.. manufacturers of office appliances (says the "Daily Mail"). This contract is for the "book stack" of the library, which means all the shelves and fittings. It will amount to between £40,000 and £50.000. Mr J. G. Sellars, manager of the firm, said: The carrying out of the contract will require the use of between 400 and 500 tons of British steel. The library will have ten floors, with a total of thirtyfive miles of shelves. It will be. capable of holding 1,000,000 books. We expect to have the work, finished by the end of the year. The British Empire is finding about one-fifth of the money for the building.

FUEL ECONOMIES.

FOUR VALUABLE HINTS

— : — • I.—Keep some old tins and punch holes round the sides. Mix coal-dust with salt and water, pack it tiglitly in a tin, and place in the middle of the lire. This may be used over and over again to keep the fire in. 2. —Put into a watering-can one large tablespoonful of salt and almost a pint of water, and sprinkle the liquid over a hundredweight of coal. The coal will burn the more brightly, and there will be no smoke or soot. 3. —Soak a piece of coke in paraffin, and use it instead of wood to light the fire.. 4. —A piece of small-mesh wire netting placed over the top of the kitchen grate ash-pan will let the fine ash fall through but keep the einders on top. These can be thrown on to the fire from time to time, thus effecting a saving of coal, and obviating the dusty job of riddling the ashes in the usual way. Iron, steel, concrete, and other materials which are constantly being used to a point just below theif limit of endurance nrp said to hwnmo so much stronger that the original limit increases.

ST. PAUL'S.

ENGINEER EXPRESSES ALARM.

COLLAPSE OF DOME PREDICTED.

Five years ago Mr Alexander Drew, consulting engineer, warned the Dean, and Chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral that the dome of the cathedral would collapse in five years unless the supporting piers were immediately repaired. "In 1925 I gave the dome five years," said Mr Drew to a "Daily Express" representative, "but now I wouldn't give it a week. The danger to-day is extreme, and the collapse may occur at any time. "Should we have a really dry summer," he added, "the sand and gravel bed on which the foundations rest, and which is being continuously drained, would subside still more and become "dangerously unstable. The entire edifice would then be in imminent danger of crashing." Mr Drew was called in by Mr Mervyn Macartney, the cathedral architect, during the repairs undertaken in 1915. Over a period of two years he made frequent examinations of the structure. Saving the Dome. In 1925 Mr Drew sent to Dean Inge a report in which he emphasised the danger to the cathedral and submitted a plan for saving the dome. lie received from the Dean a postcard containing the single sentence: "Thank you for your kind letter about the cathedral." In this report Mr Drew submitted that the cathedral should be closeid at once to the public, the building shored up inside and out, the piers rebuilt and carried down below the bed of sand into a 60und foundation in the London blue clay. "I said in 1925," continued Mr Drew, "that there was danger of tho dome going like the Campanile at Venice, which fell in 1902 after repeated warnings had been given—and ridiculed. The dome of St. Paul's would come down 'with a run.' All the piers are so defectivc that they will collapse together. The dome will probably pile up instead of falling sideways, as it might do if some of tho piers were strong enough to rcijist the strain a little longer. When Wren designed St. Paul's he never foresaw present-day conditions/'

restoration.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

QUESTIONS OF ACCURACY

A new chapter is about to open in the architectural history of the north transept front of Westminster Abbey, writes Mr J. G. Isoppen, F.S.A., in the London "Observer." Serious decay of the stonework has rendered urgent the necessity for repair, and the work is very soon to begin. The front was said by Professor W. K. Lethaby, to have represented, in its original form, "the supreme example of our medieval art," and it is of unusual interest to the student of English architecture. Its fascination is increased l>y the still unsettled controversy regarding the accuracy of its various restorers. At the present moment the transept stands as it was left when the close screen, which hid it from the public gaze between 1884 and 1892, was removed. Mr J. L. Pearson then entirely refaced the front, but it may be at once said that no such drastic restoration is now necessary or contemplated: Nevertheless, the state of the fabric calls for prompt attention, and, were nothing done, its repair might soon become a serious and costly problem. Limowash. and Paint. The medieval exterior of the Abbey, from the date of ita erection until the sixteenth century was .protected by occasional coats of limewash and paint. The practice was to some extent revived by Professor Lethaby, who, during his surveyorship, used limewash with successful'results on the chapel of King Henry VII., and in the cloister. There are those who may be shocked by the suggestion that limewash should be applied to the north front of the Abbey, and thoughts may arise concerning the charm of "old grey stone." But the transept front is comparatively new stone, arid its premature decay is due to the fact that it has never enjoyed any protection. The medieval builders knew well the need to shield masonry from the elements. There are accounts at the IRecord Office, which mention Adam, the whitener, who dressed the Abbey Cliurch in what might bo termed its first overcoat. The sculpture which originally adorned the portals was coloured and gilt. It is to this custom of whitening and painting that the preservation of old masonry and sculpture is due. When it fell into disuse rapid decay become prevalent. It is a mistake to think that a coat of limewash would give the exterior of a church an nnpleasing appearance, or that it would'hide the jointing or any other, features.

SAVING SPACE.

WAGGON AND TABLE

A new product of the furnituremaker tliat is both a dinner waggon and a table is being manufactured in Wellington, and trill shortly be placed on the market. Its designers claim that it is ideal for small flats, or where space is limited. This "dinner service coach," as it is to be called, though an elaboration of the well-known dinner waggon, is exceedingly simple in construction. It contains three trays or tiers, the centre tray being in the same relative position as the top of an ordinary waggon, and the upper and lower trays being attached at either end of movable metal supports. When the "coach" is loaded ready for removal from one room to another the trays remain one above the other, but_ after the coach is wheeled into position for afternoon tea or a' light meal the upper tray is pulled sideways and downward. The supports swing on a pivot at the centre, and the lower tray at-the same time moves upward and to the other side. When the movement is complete the upper and lower trays rest on either side and level with the centre tray, thus forming a roomy littfe table, equal to three times the area of the top of an ordinary dinner waggon. _

WATCHBEETLE.

ENGLISH RESEARCHES

REMEDY YET TO BE FOUND

The annual report of the Forest Products Research Laboratory (London) contains some interesting information on investigations concerning the death •watch-beetle.

Although reports of damage by tho beetle were continually reaching the laboratory, they had had no success in obtaining specimens of the live larvrc, which %ould have enabled them to follow up the life cycle of the pest. Specimens of affected timbers that reached them rarely contained any larvre, and if one was present it was dead. It -was difficult to decide, therefore, whether the damage was recent or of long standing. In a lecture to the Association of Economic Biologists, Air F. It. Cann described som<s of the investigations carried out at the laboratory, and pointed out thai the larvae worked several inches below the wood. There was no trace to be seen on the surface, and it was almost impossible to decide whether or not the larvro were present. Even X-rays had failed. Cutting into the wood would settle the question, but this could not be done with the timbers of old buildings. Exhaustive Tests. Exhaustive tests over a period of years had failed to produce a satisfactory method of treating timbers to kill the beetle with certainty. The ideal insecticide must penetrate to a considerable depth, must be non-flammable, non-poisonous to human beings, must not discolour the timber, and must be as permanent as possible. 'A convenient insecticide, fulfilling these conditions, had yet to be found. For the moment, therefore, it seems that the pest has the upper hand. An architectural journal points out, however, that the experts have always represented the joints of the timbers as the vulnerable points, into which the female beetle creeps to deposit her eggs, and from which the larvee, when hatched, pursue their depredations. Perhaps the investigators could devise some control material for flushing up joints when made, or which could bo ■forced, under pressure, into the joints of existing sound timber structures, to prevent the ingress of the female, the journal suggests.