SKETCH OF THE BROADWAY CHURCH, NORWICH, CT., WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO VENTILATION. BY REV. JOHN P. GULLIVER, THE PASTOR. THE edifice erected for the use of the Broadway (formerly Main St.) Congregational Society in Norwich, Ct., a front view of which is on the opposite page, is built of freestone and bricks, of 94 feet in length by 64 feet in breadth. The spire is 201 feet high from the main floor, entirely of brick. It is upon the slope of a steep hill, the audience-room being nearly on a level with the street in front, while the basement, which is 15 feet high in the clear, is two feet above the surface of the ground in the rear, there being beneath all, a dry and airy cellar, seven feet high in the clear. The audience-room is designed to seat 1,000 persons; the larger lecture-room, 450; the smaller, 125. The peculiar situation of the church determined the style of the front, it being necessary to give elevation by the use of both a tower and a steeple. It is hoped that, from the following description, some useful hints may be obtained in regard to the interior arrangement of our churches for purposes of comfort and convenience, and especially upon the subject of the VENTILATION OF CHURCHES.1 1 The description of the ventilating apparatus used in this edifice is somewhat extended for publication in the Congregational Quarterly in order to meet numerous inquiries. The author will request his correspondents to accept this article as a reply to the many letters on the subject which he has found himself unable to answer with satisfactory minute ness. CELLAR.-1, An inclosed space for the supply of cold air for the Lecture Room B, and for the pulpit in the Audience Room; the air is received from a window in the rear.-2, 3 and 4, cold air tubes to supply fresh air to the Sabbath School Room A, and to the Audience Room A A.-e e, furnaces.bbbb, brick piers. cc cc, coal bins.-a, coal slide.hhhh, windows with areas.-f, cellar stairs. BASEMENT.-A. Sabbath School Room.-B, Lecture Room partitioned from the Sabbath School Room by sliding baize doors, so that the two rooms can be thrown into one.- -C, Pastor's Study. EE. Entries.-F, Passage-way. -D, Ladies' Room. G, Infant School Room. H, Sabbath School Library Room. 1 I, Movable settees, described below.- -a a a a, Stairways.-bb, Pulpit platforms.cc c, Closets.ee e e, Hot-air flues to audience room.- -fffffff, Hot-air registers.- -g g, Outside steps.h h, Pulpits.iiii, Iron columns.-rrrr, Ventilating registers for winter use opening into a ventilating chimney, through which the furnace smoke-pipe passes.-1. Cold-air flue leading from 1 on cellar plan, and emptying below the floor of pulpit in Audience Room.- -3 3, Cold-air flues leading from 3 on cellar plan, and emptying into the platform upon which the pews stand, from which it is drawn into the room through small perforations in the risers.-4 4, Cold-air flues passing and emptying in a manner similar to 3 3. Stairs. AUDIENCE ROOM.-B B B, Vestibule.-C, Raised platform in front of Pulpit.D, Pulpit.-a a a, -bbb b, Hot-air registers.-1 1, Cold-air registers for Pulpit opening from 1 on vestry and cellar -4, A register for taking the cold air from the room down to the furnace, for the purpose of heating more quickly, to be closed when the audience assemble-TTTT, Four registers for winter ventilation. plans. THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE BASEMENT.-The object here kept in view, was to secure a ready expansion and contraction of the accommodations to meet the demands of various occasions. Accordingly, two lecture-rooms were provided, separated by sliding baize doors. Should the larger room become crowded, the smaller can readily be added to it by slid ing the doors. The settees in the smaller room are made with swivel backs, so that they can be turned towards either end of the room. The study and ladies room can, in like manner, be united with the small lecture-room. As these three rooms are handsomely carpeted and furnished, a suite of parlors is thus obtained for social purposes. A stair-case communicates from the small lecture-room to a room in the rear of the pulpit above. The pulpits in the lecture-rooms are lighted from the ceiling by means of a circular gas-pipe, punctured on the inside for small jets. This light is under the control of a stopcock, which is within reach of the speaker. A library-room and infant school-room are provided for in connection with the larger lecture-room. As this room is also used as a Sabbath School room, the settees have been arranged with special reference to the accommodation of classes. They are, for this purpose, divided into sets of three each. The first has a swivel back, so that it can be turned to face the third, which has a stationary back. The second, which has also a stationary back, is divided in the center, as seen in the engraving. These parts are placed across the space between the first and third, thus forming a hollow square. This arrangement allows of numerous variations, according to the size of the class and the taste of the teacher. The seats on each side of the pulpit can be arranged in squares sufficient to accommodate Bible classes of thirty to forty members. The legs of the settees are set in shallow iron rings fastened to the floor. Uniformity of position is thus secured. ARRANGEMENT OF THe AudiencE ROOM. This can be seen at a glance by reference to the engraving. The floor has a rise of fifteen inches from the pulpit to the front. The pulpit consists of a rich balustrade of rose-wood, twenty-one inches high, which encircles the platform between the stairs. In the center is a light desk, the size of the Bible, which rises and falls by weights. Doors from the pulpit open into a space in the rear, from which a speaking tube communicates with the orchestra. A telegraphic apparatus is arranged below the reading desk, within easy reach of the speaker, which communicates with the sexton's pew. It consists of a series of slides, which communicate with similar slides in the sexton's seat, by means of wires which pass under the floor. Beneath these slides are placed printers' cards, which are uncovered by drawing corresponding slides in the pulpit. As this can easily be done without attracting the notice of the audience, much confusion is avoided. A magnificent organ is placed in the orchestra, built by the Messrs. Hook, of Boston, the gift of Gov. W. A. Buckingham, an officer of the Church. VENTILATION. The apparatus consists of two entirely distinct parts, one for winter ventilation, the other for summer ventilation. Winter Ventilation.-The Winter ventilation is secured by means of four ventiducts, marked r, r, upon the plans, surrounding the smoke flue, by the heat of which a steady upward current is established. Registers near the floors of the rooms open into these ventiducts. The smoke flue in this case is of brick and is circular. A much better plan is to use a cast iron smoke flue, which will heat the column of air in the chimney much more quickly and surely. It should terminate six or eight feet from the top of the chimney, when it will pour out its column of smoke and heated air into the column ascending the chimney, thus adding to the upward force. The chimney is thus made a ventiduct, but a small space being used |