It is not to be supposed that these efforts have been confined to London. Liverpool took precedence in date, and has since worthily maintained her interest in the matter. Manchester. Oldham, Hull, Bristol, Birmingham, Preston, Bath. 'Wolverhampton, Coventry, Plymouth, Chester. Sunderland. Bolton, Macclesfield, Oxford, :Maidstone, Exeter, Rotherham, Colchester, South Shields, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Dundee. Aberdeen, and other towns, have since adopted a similar course; and it may safely be predicted that borough and parochial B. and W. will increase in number year by year; for if they do not actually pay their full expenses at the low tariff charge, the deficiency will be so small as to be practically unfelt by ratepayers.
When the legislature took up the subject, the purpose of the committee appointed in 1844 was in great part answered; but that committee continned to exist until 1855; and the exertions of its members were attended with very beneficial results, in drawing the attention of influential persons in various countries to the advantages of public B. and W. The French government voted 600,000 francs to assist the promotion of such institutions in Prance, after the plan of the model establishment; and a scheme was set on foot for erecting fourteen establishments in Paris, for which 2,000.000 francs would be required. The municipality of Venice marked out an expenditure of .-.C33.000 in the erection of B. on the same plan. The Norwegian government applied to the commit tee for the plans, etc., of their wash-house at Goulston square, as a guide for the erec tion of one at Christiania; and a subscription was made for the erection of B. and W. at Copenhagen. The Belgian government, and the authorities at Hamburg, Turin, Munich, Amsterdam, Lisbon. New York, and other places, were in like manner furnished with information on the subject.
In nearly all the London establishments, which may also be taken as types of those iu the country, the characteristic features are as follows. The B. for males and females are on opposite sides of the building. The separate 13., in large well-lighted and well ventilated rooms, are shut in by walls, generally of slate; and the B. themselves, supplied with 30 or 60 gallons of water for each bather, are either of zinc or enameled iron. There are two. three, or four classes of B., charged differently according to the amount of accomtnodation afforded. At the St. Martin's establislunent, where there are only two classes of 13., it has been found that the second-class bathers are thrice as numerous as the first. Arrangentnts, slightly varying in different establishments, afford means for conveying hot and cold water to every bath. In some instances. there are tepid as well as cold swimming or plunging 13.; while two or three of them afford facilities for shower and vapor baths. The washing•rooms, in most of these establishments, are provided with numerous small compartments, doorless and rootlesn, each for one person. Each compartment contains a boiler and a washing-tub, with taps for hot water. cold water, waste water, and steam: all unlimited in quantity, willful waste of course being guarded against. An American washing-board assists the operations; and a rack-work stand protects the feet. The steam from all the compartments is carried upwards to one great ventilating shaft. The " wringin,q" of the wet washed linen is effected by putting the articles into a sort of perforated cylinder, which is then rotated with great velocity; the centrifugal force drives out the water through the perforations and interstices, leaving the linen, though damp, much drier than it can be made by the familiar laundry process. The clothes are then taken to the drying-rootn, where they are jumg on frames or " horses" in small chambers heated with hot air to about 200' or 210'. 10,000 articles of washed
clothing can now be dried with about .:E1 worth of fuel, or much less in the towns of the north. In some of the improved establishments, there is a drying compartment belonging to each washing compartment. effecting a manifest saving of time to the washers; in some of them, too, there is an ironing-board to each compartment; but the general plan is to have a large ironing-room, well provided with irons, ironing-blankets and hoards, and heating arrangements. The charge is from ltl. to 24d. per hour, according to the class and thc accommodation.
One particular establishment at Manchester may usefully be described more in detail, as a type of the general class of B. and W. There is a men's swimming-bath, 70 ft. by 25, with a pavement of polished "fork stone on a foundation of concrete and cement; the sides are of porcelain tiles laid in cement. There are 32 inclosed dressing-closets. Over these, on iron pillars, are 17 men's warm baths, each 8 ft. by 7. Separated from this gallery by an open passage arc 5 extra first-class baths, larger in size, and having shower-baths. There is a second-class swimming-bath nearly like that for the first class; with its gallery of small baths over. The women's baths, in a different part of the building, comprise 4 first and 7 second class. The laundry is at one end of the building. The washing-room is 64 ft. by 38; it comprises 6 first-class and 30 second-class contort ments, each of the former provided with three tubs, and each of the latter with two. There is provision for drying any amount of clothes in 20 minutes after the washing and wringing are completed. All the women have access to two patent wringing-machines. There is an ironing-room adjoining, fitted up with stoves. The water-tank has a capacity of 3000 gallons; the baths, if all full, would hold 50,000 gallons.
Since the taking np of this subject by the municipal authorities of various towns, there have been few reliable statistics obtainable relating to the extent to which these valuable establishments are used; but it is known that the B. and W. established by the several parishes either pay their working expenses wholly, or approach so near to it as to encroach very little on the parish rates.
One satisfactory feature connected with the system is, that when the local authorities are slow to establish B. and W., wealthy manufacturers or townsmen often take up the matter at their own expense, and then leave the ratepayers nothing more to do than to provide the small balance of annual working accounts. As an example of free baths for men and boys (without wash-houses), may be cited the establishment opened at Derby in June, 1873, and presented to the corporation by Mr. Ball, m.r. for the borough. It com prises two swimming-baths, one for men and one for boys, each 100 ft. long by 50 in width. There are 37 half-closed dressing-boxes around the men's bath, and 72 open boxes around the boys'. The two baths together hold 260,000 gallons of water, which is renewed once a week.
The least satisfactory part of the system in its practical operation, is that which relates to the wash-houses. Laundresses, boarding and lodging house keepers, and families in the middle ranks of life, use these W. rather than really poor families; they do so because the expense is very low, not because they are unable to pay higher. It is sometimes believed that those for whose benefit the system was established are ashamed 10 bring their scanty, coarse, and much-worn apparel to a place where it may meet the eyes of others: if this be so, surely a remedy might be applied