Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow SECTION II.: GENERAL VIEW OF THE WHOLE EDIFICE. In a General View of the whole Building, according to its present form, three very different, though connected masses, may be distinguished. - The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 4

Return to Title Page for The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 4

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Law

SECTION II.: GENERAL VIEW OF THE WHOLE EDIFICE. In a General View of the whole Building, according to its present form, three very different, though connected masses, may be distinguished. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 4 [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 4.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


SECTION II.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE WHOLE EDIFICE.

In a General View of the whole Building, according to its present form, three very different, though connected masses, may be distinguished.

1. Theprojecting front, a rectangular mass, which, being designed to go towards furnishing habitation for the officers of the establishment, has little to distinguish it from a common dwelling-house.

2. The cellular part, including, as well that part of the circuit which is actually disposed of in cells, as the dead part, which, for the sake of stability, it is thought necessary to lay out in the cellular form, although, for want of light, as being covered by the front, it would not be conveniently applicable to the same use.

3. The inspection-tower, comprehending on one story the lowermost inspection-gallery, with the inclosed inspector’s lodge; in another, the middlemost inspection-gallery, in which is inclosed the lowermost chapel-gallery, and within that again the area of the chapel;* on a third, the uppermost chapel-gallery.

The cellular mass, together with the inspection-tower inclosed within it, compose the characteristic part of the building; the projecting front forms an accidental and inessential appendage.

The whole of the characteristic part may be conceived as composed of two towers, one within the other, with the annular well between them.

A particularity that will require to be constantly kept in mind is, that in the two polygono-cylindrical masses, the circumscribing and the inscribed, not only the numbers of the stories do not agree, the latter having but half the number of the former, but that no one story in the interior part coincides in point of level with any one story of the exterior that surrounds it. This want of coincidence is not an accidental, but a characteristic, and almost essential circumstance: since it is by being placed about midway between the floor and the ceiling of the lower-most of each pair of cells, that one floor in each story of the inspection-tower affords a perfect view of two stories in the cellular part.

Principal Dimensions of the Polygonal Part, comprehending the Cellular Part, with the included Inspection-Tower, being the whole of what is represented in Plate II.
WIDTHS.
In some of the impressions of the draught, by mistake 13 feet only. Of the four additional feet thus given to the intermediate well, one was at the expense of the cells, the three others at the expense of the chapel-galleries. It is now, however, proposed to allow it one foot, at the expense of those galleries, making at the diameter eight feet instead of seven: exclusive of the four, which, to the purpose of ventilation, may be considered as little different from so much void space, being so imperfectly occupied by the cell-galleries, constructed of open work like balconies.
§ In some of the impressions of the draught, by mistake 11 feet.
In some of the impressions of the draught, the lowermost of these galleries has 3 feet of addition given to it, at the expense of the included lodge: this addition it is now proposed to take away, for the reasons given in Sect. 8.
In some of the impressions of the draught, by mistake 9 feet only.
Semidiameter of the area of the chapel, including the central aperture,15
Width of a chapel-gallery,12
Width of an inspection-gallery,5
Width of the annular area in the same story, and well over it,7§
Width of the grated annular passage, encompassing the annular area on the sunk story, being the same width as that of the cell-galleries above,4
Depth of a cell within-side,14
Thickness of the wall,5
Total,62
Add the other semidiameter,62
Total diameter,124
Under the Floor of the Chapel.
Semidiameter of the inspector’s lodge, thickness of the wall included,27
Brought over,27
Width of the inspection-gallery,5
32
Add the other semidiameter,32
Diameter of the building at the outer circumference of the inspector’s gallery in that story,64
Which is the same as in the other stories.
Cellular Part alone.
HEIGHTS.
From the floor of the sunk story to the floor of the lowest cell level with the ground, including the thickness of the floor,76
From the floor to the crown of the arch in each cell,80
Thickness of the arch at the crown,10
Height of the first floor of cells from the ground, including the thickness of the floor above,90
— of the second floor,180
— of the third floor,270
— of the fourth floor,360
— of the fifth floor,450
— of the sixth floor,540
From the crown of the arch on the outside to the lowest part of the slanting roof within the walls,30
From thence to the level of that part of the roof where the annular sky-light begins,50
From thence to the level at which the sky-light terminates,56
Thickness of the roof in that part,10
146
Total depth of the annular well,760760
Height of the building from the ground in the cellular part,696
Inspection Tower alone.
HEIGHTS.
From the intermediate area to a level with the floor of the lowermost story of cells,76
Thence to the floor of the inspection-gallery,40
From the floor of the inspection-gallery to the roof of ditto, including the thickness of the floor and roof,80
Void space between the lowermost and the middlemost inspection-galleries,103
Height of the middlemost inspection gallery, including the thickness of the floor and roof,76
Void space between the middlemost
Brought over,373
inspection-gallery and the uppermost,103
Height of the uppermost inspection-gallery in front, including the thickness of the floor and roof,76
Void space between the uppermost inspection-gallery and the uppermost part of the roof where the annular sky-light terminates, exclusive of the thickness of the roof,200
Thickness of the roof,10
Height from the floor of the sunk story and annular well as before,760
Inspector’s Lodge alone.
WIDTHS.
In some of the impressions of the draught but 21: the difference, 6 feet, being owing, half of it, to the three feet of addition given by mistake to the annular well, at the expense of the included inspection-tower; the other half, to the addition (now proposed to be taken back) given within that tower to the inspection-gallery in this story, at the expense of the included lodge.
* The diameter here given to these apertures is the same as that given to the opening sky-light over them: but they admit of extension, as the demand for light or any other consideration may require.
From the centre to the circumference of the central apertures in the floor and the ceiling,*6
Of the annular space between that and the partition dividing the lodge from the surrounding gallery, being the space underneath a chapel gallery, added to that underneath the chapel area,21
Total semidiameter of the inspector’s lodge,27
Add the other semidiameter,27
Total diameter,54

[* ]The area of the chapel cannot, perhaps, in strictness be said to form part of the same story with the lowermost chapel-gallery. The floor being several feet below the level of that of the gallery, may be looked upon as forming in that part a story by itself. But this want of exact coincidence is no more than what occurs frequently in common houses.

[]By analogy, the inspection-tower might be termed the medullary part: the cellular part, the cortical.