848

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

May 5, 1916.

efficient primer for this purpose is a solution of zinc-
sulphate crystals dissolved in water in the proportion of
41b. to Igal., applied with a wide brush to the surface
of the cement, and allowed to dry. Then a heavy coat
of prepared oil paint, made with zinc and lead, should
be brushed well into the surface of the cement. There
should then be applied a surface coat of special gloss
floor paint.

The walls of the building should be high, perhaps 16
or 18 ft., particularly if the clothes of the miners are to
be suspended from' the ceiling. The bottom of the
windows should be about 6 or 8 ft. above the floor for
the sake of privacy, and also that the windows may be
opened without causing a direct draught on the men.
The windows should be ample in area, so that the build-
ing will be well lighted and well ventilated, and should
be so arranged that they may be opened and closed
easily. It is preferable to have them hinged like a
transom, instead of sliding up and down, as that arrange-
ment permits the full area of the opening to. be utilised
for ventilating purposes.

The type of roof is important, because the roof is a
part of the ventilating and drying system. In some
instances, a monitor is built along the full length of the
ridge, with windows that may be operated from the floor
by a geared device (fig. 2). Instead of the monitor roof,
a gable roof is sometimes built,, in which rotary venti-
lators are installed to draw the air out of the building.
If a sufficient number is installed, the rotary ventilators
are perhaps more efficient air removers than monitors,
because advantage may be taken of shifting winds.

Artificial Lighting and Heating.

The building should be provided with incandescent
lighting so. that it can be well lighted, since light
banishes dirt, and also adds cheer. The building should
be scientifically heated, a good arrangement being to
have the steam pipes on the wall underneath the
windows. Generally speaking, the building should be
maintained a little above the temperature of the mine,
so that the men will not become chilled when undress-
ing. In cases where the clothes are wet, the tempera-
ture of the building may be raised after the miners have
departed, so that the clothes will be thoroughly dried out
when they are put on again. Thermometers should be
provided so that temperature control will not be a
matter of guesswork for the attendant. If lockers are
used for mine clothes, steam pipes should be placed
underneath, for the double purpose of drying out the
clothes and heating the building.

Drying Arrangements.

A satisfactory method of drying the miners’ working-
clothes was one of the worst difficulties encountered in
the development of the wash and change house. In
some of the earlier buildings a wooden locker was fur-
nished each man, and was used both for street clothes and
mine clothes. It can be easily imagined how offensive
the conditions soon became in these wooden lockers.
They were fertile breeding places for vermin. Because
there was no circulation in the lockers the mine clothes
would not dry out., and the miner was forced to put on
damp clammy clothes at the outset of his day’s work.
The street clothes became soiled and absorbed the odour
from the mine clothes..

These early crude arrangements have undergone
marked and rapid improvements. The perforated metal
locker supplanted the vermin-harbouring wooden locker;
to improve the drying oif the clothes, a steam pipe was
placed under each row of lockers. Then, in order to
keep the mine clothes separate from the street clothes,
two lockers have been furnished for each man, one for
street clothes and one for mine clothes. The former is
made of expanded metal that is well perforated. The
mine clothes locker is made of sheet metal, and is built
as airtight as possible, except for the vent pipe at the
top', and the mine clothes lockers are grouped together
in a different part of the building from where the lockers
for street clothes are placed.

Other installations have furnished metal lockers with
upper and lower compartments. The upper compartment
is for the mine clothes, and the lower one for street
clothes. A steam pipe is run through the bottom of the.
upper compartment to furnish heat for drying out the
mine clothes. Its top is connected by a pipe to a main
duct leading to the outside air. To induce circulation,
a motor-driven fan is placed in the duct to suck up the
heat, moisture, and odours from the mine clothes com-
partment. The upper compartment is made as tight as
possible to prevent any odours escaping into the room.

Clothes racks instead of lockers have been used for
drying mine clothes, fig. 4, with the idea of permitting
the clothes to hang unfolded. The racks can be reached
from the floor level. Coils of steam pipes circulate
among the clothes, and a large galvanised-iron hood with
ventilators penetrating the roof overtops the racks.
Lockers for street clothes are supplied in addition to the
racks, which are used only for mine clothes.

Ceiling Hooks.

Suspended from the ceiling of some wash houses are
clothes hooks, which are raised and lowered by means of
a chain and pulley. When the damp working clothes
are hanging near the ceiling they are in the path of
warm air, which is constantly passing upward through
the building. Circulation of both air and heat is neces-
sary to get the best drying results.

When the clothes are hoisted to the ceiling they are
beyond the reach of anyone on the floor; a locking device
is furnished so that the hook can be lowered only by the
possessor of the key. Benches are placed under the
hooks for the men to sit on when they are changing their
clothes, and the chains may be locked to the back of
the benches. At some places the benches are trans-
formed into boot boxes. At one. “ wash house,” the
miners tie their boots to a piece of wire about 4 ft,, long,
which was suspended from the ceiling hook, so that the
muddy boots hung below the clothing.

The hooks should be placed about ’30 in. centre to
centre, so that the clothes of the different men will not
come into contact; 30 in. spacing is necessary, as closely
spaced hooks, aside from the objection named, would
bring too many men into the building at one time, caus-
ing congestion and inconvenience. If the hooks are
inserted in an endless chain they will be prevented from
swinging back and forth and becoming entangled with
other hooks (fig. 3). The endless chain removes the care
of the surplus chain which results when the hook is
attached to the free end of a chain.

Ceiling hooks are a more economical arrangement than
lockers. They require for the best results a specially
designed one-storey high building. Such a system should
not be installed in the basement of a building used for
several other purposes. Although this ceiling embossed
with overalls, jumpers, old boots, and the like, looks
anything but attractive, it is hygienically sound; nothing
is hidden away and concealed in the lockers.

Ceiling Hooks and Lockers.

One criticism against ceiling hooks is that at mines
where night and day shifts are working, the mine clothes
of the night force will be intermingled with the street
clothes of the day men, and the odours of one will be
communicated to the other. With the view of remedy-
ing this condition, lockers have been installed for the
street clothes, and ceiling hooks provided for the mine
clothes. When this arrangement is followed, the chain
passes through the locker and is fastened by a clip, so
that the chain can not be raised or lowered until the
locker is opened.

Arrangement of Lockers.

Only perforated metal lockers should be considered.
They should be raised on legs off the floor level so that
the space under them may be flushed out. If they have
a steep-slanting top they can be more readily cleaned,
and the top cannot be used for storing rubbish. They
should be locked either by means of a combination as

Indians chain

Washing placa

ELEVATION

Detail qf locker arrangement and celling hooks.

12"

10.5J

PLAN

10.5“

12"

- Lockers ITX 15"X 3’

Fig. 3.—Details Designed by the Bureau
of Mines.

on a safe or by a keyless lock so as to do away with the
necessity of a key. A locker 12 in. by 15 in. by 3 ft.
high is amply large when furnished with hooks.

Fig. 3 shows a desirable arrangement of lockers used
in conjunction with ceiling hooks. The hooks are 30 in.
centre to centre. The lockers are in separate rows, not
back to back, and adjoining lockers do not open up on
the same aisle. This permits a seating place for every
locker, and relieves crowding in the aisles. The bench
is about 15 in. high, and 9 in. wide.

Desirability of Separate Wash House.

There are certain advantages in placing all the washing
appliances in a small building separate from the change
house except for a short connecting passageway. As
previously stated, it is desirable not to> have other
activities housed in the same building with the wash and
change house. The suggestion that the wash house be
separated from the change house carries this idea of
specialisation one step further. The wash room is neces-
sarily wet, and the change room should be essentially
dry. On this account, advantages both in construction
and maintenance may be realised if they are separated.
If ceiling hooks are used for drying out the clothes, it
is particularly desirable to have the isteam and moisture
from the shower fixtures kept away from the clothes.
The enclosed passageway connecting the two buildings
should be 8 or 10 ft. long, and should have self-closing
doors on each end.

The separation of the wash house from the change
house can be accomplished without much additional
expense; in fact, there appear to be certain points of
economy to it. The walls of the wash room need not
be built as high as those of the change room which has
the clothes suspended from the ceiling. If economy
must be exercised, the small wash building might be built
of masonry, so as to withstand water, moisture, and
steam, whereas the change room building might be con-
structed of less expensive material.

Shower Baths v. Bath Tubs.

Shower baths should be installed and not bath tubs.
A. shower bath, with hot and cold water on tap, is more
hygienic, and has certain physiological advantages that
the bath tub does not possess. It is more hygienic
because one is washing with clean water all the time.
The desirable physiological effects are due to the
mechanical action of the spray against the skin and the
stimulating- effect on the circulation by changing from
hot to cold water. There is a danger of injudicious use
of hot and cold water, which may cause bad results.
Perhaps this danger is more imaginary than real, but
one company adopted a compromise; it installed shower
baths, but instead of having hot and cold water in each
booth, water of one temperature (120 degs. Fahr.) was
furnished.

Water Mixers and Heaters.

If hot and cold water is on tap at each booth, some
mixing device should be installed. Some installations
utilise, as a mixer, the pipe leading up to the shower
head. The hot and cold water pipes should be con-
nected to this nisei by a long-sweep double-branch elbow,
as this fitting will cause a better mingling of hot and
cold water than a standard right-angle tee. The main
supply pipes for the showers should be amply large, so
that there is plenty of water for all fixtures when they
are all in use at the same time. Some patented mixing
devices have a marked dial and indicators so that cold
water or hot water may be drawn immediately by setting
the indicator at the correct point. This arrangement
guards against scalding accidents, and prevents unneces-
sary waste of water, as it does away with experimenta-
tion by the user. Certain mixtures permit steam instead
of hot water to be carried directly to the mixer. If a
central heater is installed to furnish hot water, the
higher the temperature maintained in the heater the
less the amount of water required to bring the mixture
at the spray to the desired temperature.

Shower Booths.

It is difficult to state how many men one shower
should serve. Statistics collected on this point showed
wide variations,. Local conditions have a decided influ-
ence. The hours during which the men work, the
character of the mine—whether surface, slope, or shaft—*
and the method of conveying the men to the surface,
each has its influence. As a workable rule, however, if
one shower is installed for every 20 lockers, with one
man to a locker, reasonably satisfactory service will
be rendered.

There should be a separate booth or cabinet, about 5 ft.
wide and 4 ft. deep, for each shower, to insure privacy
and to prevent water from one bather splashing on to his
neighbour. The partitions of these booths should not
reach to the floor, as such construction would offer col-
lecting places for slime and dirt. The partitions should
be marble, slate, pressed steel, or metal sheets. If
either of the latter two is used, it should be covered
with an enamel paint and frequently touched up by the
attendant to prevent corrosion. The controlling valve
should be on the side, and not on the rear wall of the
booth. In this way the bather can easily reach the
operating handle from outside the booth, and adjust the
water temperature without having. the discomfort of
being under the shower subject to an extreme of either
cold or hot water. The shower head should be about
7 ft. above the floor, and should be set at an angle, so
that the spray will strike the body diagonally instead of
vertically. The spray head should be about 4 in. in
diameter, made of cast bronze with fine perforations, and
should be removable, so that it can be cleaned in case
the fine holes become blocked. Soap trays and hooks for
towels are conveniences that cost little but are often
unintention ally omitted.

Swimming Pools.

Swimming pools have been installed in certain miners’
wash and change houses. In addition to the element of
health and cleanliness, the element of recreation is
thereby introduced. This recreative factor is obtained
however, at the risk of impairing the cleanliness of the
wash and change house. Careful regulation and super-
vision must be exercised in order to keep the pool
hygienic. All users of the pool should be required to
take a shower bath before entering the pool. Persons
with any skin diseases must keep out of the pool.
Spitting or committing other nuisances in the water
must be prevented. Frequent disinfection and renewal
of the water is necessary. Because of the trouble and
expense of enforcing such regulations, swimming pools
are not universally recommended for miners’ wash and
change houses.

Quality and Quantity of Water Required.

The water should be clean and soft and odourless.
Pressure water purification plants for. the purpose of
obtaining these requirements can be installed and
operated with little expense.

The quantity of water used varies considerably. Actual
meter measurements were made on a wash house in
Alabama where no special efforts were made toward
economising water. It was found that about 117 gals,
were used per bath. In a wash house in Indiana, 90
gals, per bath were used, but when certain precautions
were instituted, the quantity was immediately reduced
to 53 gals. The average daily consumption of water at
several bathing establishments in Westphalia amounts
to about 40 gals, per bath per man, including the water
used in cleaning the wash house. In England it is
estimated that about 8 gals, per bath per man would be
an adequate allowance. In Belgium, in many of the
wash houses, an average of 8 gals, per man per bath is
used. In many of these installations the flow of water
and the duration of the time under the shower are con-
trolled by the attendant, which perhaps explains why
such a small amount of water is consumed.