Final Report to the Hon. Commissioners of Public Works

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Excerpt from Final Report to the Hon. Commissioners of Public Works: On the Completion of the Improvements in the North-East Wing of the Common Gaol at Montreal, Forwarded to the Secretary of That Department, on 21st Sept. 1854It would convey a very erroneous idea of the work in question, were I to Speak ofit merely as an im provement of one of the wings of this unskilfully con structed prison. It is an improvement containing in its design principles entirely new in this Province, and I may add in America, in so far as public buildings are concerned, ifi except a prison in Boston which I believe is in course of erection, modified in form, but containing five tiers of cells. For introducing those principles in the present undertaking, I have been very severely censured by theorists, both in reports to Her Majesty's Provincial Government and in the columns of the public press, and it is worthy of remark that my friends who so freely commented upon this feature of the work, never saw the design, nor knew aught of the peculiar principles of construction whereby perfect ventilation may be as certainly secured to every cell in a building of twenty tiers, as in a building of one or two tiers.Besides being very insecure, the evils chie¿y com plained of in the construction of the wards of the Montreal Gaol which the present improvement was designed to remedy, consisted in the following - The cells were m'ade to abut against the outside walls, which being entirely of stone, were, during a great portion of the year, considerably affected by damp, caused bywhat is commonly. Called sweating Of the stones. The mode teating, or rather I should say, the absence of any mode of supplying heat, was another constant source Of complaint. T he stove which gave an unequal and very inadequate heat to the wards was placed in a central corridor, which divided the ward equally, having a range of cells on each side such means Of heating could never be felt in the cells, where in very cold weather the damp was speedily converted into ice upon the walls. The prisoners, who pressed round and even quarrelled to get near the stove during the day, were shut up between very cold or damp walls at night. Bad ventilation was another complaint - the provision for which was, if possible, still more defective and pernicious, consisting Of a small window Of not more than ten inches square, placed eight feet from the ¿oor, and one large window at the end Of the centre corridor opposite to the ward door. These Openings for the admission of pure air, and the escape Offoul - and they are the only ones - are closed during the five coldest months Of the year, with the exception of the ward door, which is frequently opened during the day time. It is therefore no exaggeration to say, that any thing deserving the name Of heat or ventilation was - and in the unimproved wards Of the Montreal Gaol, still is - wholly unknown.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.