The walls of the rooms
can be made clean at any time by the simple use of water, and the
ceilings, which are turned in light arches of thinner brick, or tile,
coloured to match the wall, are open to the same cleansing process.
The colour selected for the inner brickwork is grey, as a rule,
that being most agreeable to the sense of sight; but various tastes
prevail, and art so much ministers to taste, that, in the houses of
the wealthy, delightful patterns of work of Pompeian elegance are soon
introduced.
As with the bricks, so with the mortar and the wood employed in
building, they are rendered, as far as possible, free of moisture. Sea
sand containing salt, and wood that has been saturated with sea water,
two common commodities in badly built houses, find no place in our
modern city.
The most radical changes in the houses of our city are in the
chimneys, the roofs, the kitchens, and their adjoining offices. The
chimneys, arranged after the manner proposed by Mr. Spencer Wells, are
all connected with central shafts, into which the smoke is drawn, and,
after being passed through a gas furnace to destroy the free carbon,
is discharged colourless into the open air. The city, therefore, at
the expense of a small smoke rate, is free of raised chimneys and of
the intolerable nuisance of smoke.
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