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Front Page Titles (by Subject) SECTION XIX.: MATERIALS. Arched Work—Much Iron—Plaster Floors. - The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 4
SECTION XIX.: MATERIALS. Arched Work—Much Iron—Plaster Floors. - 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.
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- A View of the Hard-labour Bill; Being an Abstract of a Pamphlet, Intituled, “draught of a Bill, to Punish By Imprisonment and Hard Labour, Certain Offenders; and to Establish Proper Places For Their Reception:” Interspersed With Observations Relative T
- Panopticon; Or, the Inspection-house: Containing the Idea of a New Principle of Construction Applicable to Any Sort of Establishment, In Which Persons of Any Description Are to Be Kept Under Inspection; and In Particular to Penitentiary-houses,
- Preface.
- Letter I.: Idea of the Inspection Principle.
- Letter II.: Plan For a Penitentiary Inspection-house.
- Letter III.: Extent For a Single Building.
- Letter IV.: The Principle Extended to Uncovered Areas.
- Letter V.: Essential Points of the Plan.
- Letter VI.: Advantages of the Plan.
- Letter VII.: Penitentiary-houses—safe Custody.
- Letter VIII.: Uses—penitentiary-houses—reformation.
- Letter IX.: Penitentiary-houses—economy—contract—plan.
- Letter X.: Choice of Trades Should Be Free.
- Letter XI.: Multiplication of Trades Is Not Necessary.
- Letter XII.: Contractor’s Checks.
- Letter XIII.: Means of Extracting Labour.
- Letter XIV.: Provision For Liberated Persons.
- Letter XV.: Prospect of Saving From This Plan.
- Letter XVI.: Houses of Correction.
- Letter XVII.: Prisons For Safe Custody Merely.
- Letter XVIII.: Manufactories.
- Letter XIX.: Mad-houses.
- Letter XX.: Hospitals.
- Letter XXI.: Schools.
- Postscript, Part I. Containing Further Particulars and Alterations Relative to the Plan of Construction Originally Proposed; Principally Adapted to the Purpose of a Panopticon Penitentiary-house. *
- Section I.: Principal Particulars. Principal Particulars Either Settled Or Altered, Since the First Hasty Design, As Described In Letter II. And Imperfectly Represented In Plate I. See Plate II. †
- 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.
- Section III.: Annular Well. Annular Well, Instead of Stories of Intermediate Annular Area.
- Section IV.: Protracted Partitions Omitted. Protracted Partitions Omitted; Or Rather, Taken Into the Cells.
- Section V.: Cells, Double Instead of Single.
- Section VI.: Dead-part.
- Section VII.: Chapel. Chapel Introduced. *
- Section VIII.: Inspection-galleries and Lodge.
- Section IX.: Of the Communications In General.
- Section X.: Communications. Prisoners’ Staircases.
- Section XI.: Communications—inspectors Staircases.
- Section XII.: Staircase For Chapel Visitors, and For the Officers’ Apartments.
- Section XIII.: Cell-galleries.
- Section XIV.: Doors.
- Section XV.: Diametrical Passage.
- Section XVI.: Communications—exit Into the Yards.
- Section XVII.: Exterior Annular Well. ‡
- Section XVIII.: Windows Reaching Low, and Glazed; Instead of High Up, and Open.
- Section XIX.: Materials. Arched Work—much Iron—plaster Floors.
- Section XX.: Outlets, Including Airing-yards.
- Section XXI.: Approach and Fences.
- Section XXII.: Means of Supplying Water.
- Section XXIII.: Of the Mode of Warming the Building.
- Section XXIV.: Of the Economy Observed In the Construction.
- Postscript—part II. Principles and Plan of Management.
- Section I.: Leading Positions.
- Section II.: Management—in What Hands, and On What Terms.
- Section III.: Of Separation As Between the Sexes.
- Section IV.: Of Separation Into Companies and Classes.
- Section V.: Employment.
- Section VI.: Diet.
- Section VII.: Clothing.
- Section VIII.: Bedding.
- Section IX.: Health and Cleanliness.
- Section X.: Of Airing and Exercise.
- Section XI.: Schooling and Sunday Employment.
- Section XII.: Of Ventilation, Shading, and Cooling.
- Section XIII.: Distribution of Time.
- Section XIV.: Of Punishments.
- Section XV.: Mode of Guarding On the Outside.
- Section XVI.: Provision For Liberated Prisoners.
- The Following Note Respecting This Work Was Given By Bentham to Dr. Bowring, 24 Th January 1821.
- Panopticon Versus New South Wales: Or, the Panopticon Penitentiary System, and the Penal Colonization System, Compared.
- A Plea For the Constitution: Shewing the Enormities Committed, to the Oppression of British Subjects, Innocent As Well As Guilty;
- Preface.
- Section I.: Subject Matter—object—plan.
- Section II.: Power of Legislation—its Necessity In New South Wales.
- Section III: Legislation—how Far Lawful In New South Wales.
- Section IV.: American, &c. Legislation No Precedent For New South Wales.
- Section V.: Even In America, the Crown Had No Right to Legislate Without Parliament.
- Section VI.: Nullity of Legislation In New South Wales, For Want of an Assembly to Consent.
- Section VII.: Nullity of Governor’s Ordinances. For Want of a Court to Try Offences Against Them.
- Section VIII.: King’s Law-servants Not Infallible.
- Section IX.: Nullity of New South Wales Legislation, Proved By the Granada Case.
- Section X.: Governor’s Illegal Ordinances Exemplified.
- Section XI.: Governor’s Illegal Ordinances Exemplified.
- Section XII.: Expirees Forcibly Detained.
- Section XIII.: Expirees, During Detention, Kept In a State of Bondage.
- Section XIV.: Statutes Transgressed By the Legislation and Government of New South Wales.
- Draught of a Code For the Organization of the Judicial Establishment In France: With Critical Observations On the Draught Proposed By the National Assembly Committee, In the Form of a Perpetual Commentary.
- Bentham’s Draught For the Organization of Judicial Establishments, Compared With That of the National Assembly, With a Commentary On the Same.
- Emancipate Your Colonies! Addressed to the National Convention of France, Anno 1793.
- Jeremy Bentham to His Fellow-citizens of France, On Houses of Peers and Senates.
- Papers Relative to Codification and Public Instruction: Including Correspondence With the Russian Emperor, and Divers Constituted Authorities In the American United States.
- Part I.—: On Codification.
- No. I.: To the President of the United States of America.
- No. II.: James Madison, Then President of the Congress of the American United States, to Jeremy Bentham, London.
- No. III.: Albert Gallatin, Minister Plenipotentiary From the American United States to the Court of London, to Simon Snyder, Governor of Pennsylvania, Introducing a Letter From Jeremy Bentham to the Said Governor.
- No. IV.: Jeremy Bentham, London, to Simon Snyder, Governor of Pennsylvania.
- No. V.: Simon Snyder, Governor of Pennsylvania, to David Meade Randolph, Esq. Williamsburgh, Virginia, On the Subject of the Above Letter of Jeremy Bentham.
- No. VI.: Extract From a Printed Paper, Signed Simon Snyder, Dated Harrisburg, December 5 Th 1816, James Peacock, Printer, Intituled “ Governor’s Message to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, ” Containing Seve
- No. VII.: Circular. — to the Governor of the State of
- No. VIII.: Jeremy Bentham, an Englishman, to the Citizens of the Several American United States.
- No. IX.: Jeremy Bentham to James Madison, Late President of the American United States.
- No. X.: Jeremy Bentham to the Emperor of All the Russias.
- No. XI.: Alexander I. Emperor of All the Russias, to Jeremy Bentham, London—written With His Imperial Majesty’s Own Hand, In Answer to the Above, [no. X.]
- No. XII.: Jeremy Bentham to the Emperor of All the Russias.
- No. XIII.: Prince Adam Czartoriski, of Poland, to Jeremy Bentham, London. *
- No. XIV.: Jeremy Bentham, London, to Prince Adam Czartoriski of Poland.
- Part II.: Public Instruction.
- No. I.: ( Circular. )— Letter From His Excellency Wilson Cary Nicholas, Governor of Virginia, On the Subject of Public Instruction.—addressed (the Copy of Which This Is a Transcript) to His Excellency John Quincy Adams, Minister Plenipotentiary From the U
- No. II.: ( Circular. )— to the Governor of the State of
- No. III.
- No. IV. Notice Concerning Chrestomathia, By the Paris Lancasterian Instruction Society. Report of the British and Foreign School Society to the General Meeting, Dec. 12, 1816.—EXTRACT.
- Codification Proposal, Addressed By Jeremy Bentham to All Nations Professing Liberal Opinions; Or Idea of a Proposed All-comprehensive Body of Law, With an Accompaniment of Reasons, Applying All Along to the Several Proposed Arrangements:
- Advertisement.
- Part I.—ARGUMENTS.: Positions, With Reasons For Proofs.
- Section 1.: In Every Political State, the Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number Requires, That It Be Provided With an All-comprehensive Body of Law. All-comprehensiveness, Practicable, and Indispensable.
- Section 2.: The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number Requires, That Such Body of Law Be Throughout Accompanied By Its Rationale: an Indication of the Reasons On Which the Several Arrangements Contained In It Are Grounded. Rationale, Though Unex
- Section 3.: The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number Requires, That Those Reasons Be Such, Throughout, As Shall Show the Conduciveness of the Several Arrangements to the All-comprehensive and Only Defensible End Thus Expressed. Rationale, Indicat
- Section 4.: The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number Requires, That, of This Rationale, the Several Parts Be Placed In the Most Immediate Contact With the Several Arrangements to Which They Respectively Apply. Rationale, Interwoven, Not Detached.
- Section 5.: The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number Requires, That For the Function Exercised By the Drawing of the Original Draught of Such a Code, the Competitors He As Many As, Without Reward At the Public Expense, Can Be Obtained: and So, For T
- Section 6.: The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number Requires—that, For the Drawing of Any Such Draught, No Reward At the Public Expense Be Given. At Additional Expense, Reward None.
- Section 7.: The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number Requires—that Every Draught, So Given In, Be, From Beginning to End, If Possible, the Work of a Single Hand. Hands Not More Than One.
- Section 8.: The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number Requires—that Such Original Draught, Being the Work of a Single Hand, Be Known to Be So. Hand, Known to Be But One.
- Section 9.: The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number Requires, That the Work, Being the Work of a Single Hand, and Known to Be So, It Be Known Whose the Hand Is. Hand, Known Whose It Is.
- Section 10.: The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number Requires, That, For the Drawing of the Original Draught, All Foreigners Be Admitted Into the Competition: and That, In So Far As Applicable, Unless It Be In All Particulars Taken Together Decid
- Section 11.: On the Part of an Individual, Proposing Himself As Draughtsman For the Original Draught of a Code of Laws, Willingness Or Unwillingness to Interweave In His Draught a Rationale As Above, Is the Most Conclusive Preliminary Test, and That
- Section 12.: On the Part of a Ruler, Willingness Or Unwillingness to See Established an All-comprehensive Code, With Its Rationale As Above, and to Receive Original Draughts From All Hands, Are Among the Most Conclusive Tests of Appropriate Aptitude,
- Part II.—TESTIMONIALS.
- I. England
- II. Geneva
- III.: Spain.
- IV.: Portugal.
- V.: Italy.
- VI.: France.
- VII.: Anglo-american United States.
- VIII.: Greece.
- IX.: South America.
SECTION XIX.
MATERIALS.
Arched Work—Much Iron—Plaster Floors.
The peculiarities of the present plan are not confined to the head of construction: they extend in some degree to the materials. The abundant use made of iron will hardly fail to be observed.
In preferring brick or stone-work to wood, and in consequence arches to other partitions, it does no more than follow the plans already in vogue. Such a mode of construction is more particularly necessary in a Panopticon, than in a building of perhaps any other form. The circumstance that renders it so peculiarly favourable to ventilation, renders it of course equally exposed, if made of combustible materials, to accidents from fire. Were a fire to begin anywhere, especially towards the centre, it would spread all round—the wind would pour in from all quarters—the whole would be presently in a blaze—and the prisoners, being locked up in their cells, and even were their cells open, deprived of all exit except through one or two narrow passages, would be burnt or suffocated before any assistance could be applied.
This at least would be the case were it not for the care taken to keep accumulated a large fund of water in the cistern at the top of the building, ready to be poured in whenever and wherever there may be occasion for it. But notwithstanding this assistance, and the great security against all such accidents afforded by the circumstance of unremitted inspection, as a building of this sort is designed for duration, and the difference in point of expense need not be considerable, it seems best to be on the safe side.
The great use here proposed to be made of iron has been made on different occasions with a view to different advantages: sometimes to admit air, sometimes to save room, sometime for the sake of strengh. In all instances, it has the advantage of being peculiarly impregnable to putrid contagion—even plaster, brick, and stone, not being in this respect altogether above reproach. Hence the great stress laid on frequent white-washing, wherever any of the three latter materials are employed.
It is partly on account of the admission it gives to air, that I prefer it for both the prisoners’ staircases, and for all their galleries. In arched galleries of brick or stone, besides that they would take up room, the air might be apt to stagnate. Substituting open-work to such close materials, adds in effect so much in width to the annular well. The interstices between the bars, instead of forming an obstruction to a current of air, serve rather to accelerate it.
It was the consideration of the little room taken up by this material, that suggested it to me as peculiarly well adapted to the purpose of affording supports to the chapel. Brick pillars, of the thickness necessary to support so lofty a building, would afford a very material obstruction to the voice in its passage from the minister to the prisoners, when stationed in their cells, or in the galleries before their cells. It is on the same consideration, likewise, that I propose to make considerable use of it in the construction of the inspection-galleries. It is to obtain both these advantages, that I make use of no other material for one entire boundary (viz. the interior one opposite the windows) of every cell.
To obtain that sort of strength which consists in inflexibility, with less unwieldiness, and at a less expense of materials, it occurred to me to make the pillars hollow. Being of iron, they may thus be made not only to take up beyond comparison less room, but even to possess greater strength, even when hollowed to such a degree as not to exceed brick or stone in weight. It occurred to me, that iron was cast in large masses to serve for water-pipes. Upon inquiry at a great foundery where it is cast for such purposes, I learnt that in that manufactory it could be cast hollow for a length of 12 feet, but no more. Upon consulting with my professional adviser, I was informed that that length could be made to suffice; and it occurred to him, that of the eight supports which would be a sufficient number for such a building, some might be made to answer the purpose of water-pipes for conveying the water from the roof; and to me, that others of them might be made to serve for chimneys—articles for which it might otherwise be not altogether easy, in a building of so peculiar a construction, to find a convenient place.
In point of economy, I hope to find this useful material not more expensive, but rather less so, than the quantity of stone or brick-work that would be requisite to answer the same purpose; since cast-iron, and, in most instances, even that not of the finest quality, would answer as well as hammered, with half the expense.
It is at the recommendation of the same intelligent artist that I adopt those called stucco or plaster floors, in preference to any other; and this for a variety of reasons:—
1. They are incombustible. In this respect they have the advantage of wooden floors.
2. They take up very little room. The thickness of 1½ inch over the brick-work at the crown is sufficient. In this point they have the advantage over all other floors, and most of all over wood, which, besides boards, require joists to lay them on.
3. They are uniform, without crevices or interstices. In this respect they have also the advantage over all other floors: in the highest degree over brick, then over wood, and even over stone. The inconvenience of crevices and interstices, as is well remarked by Mr. Howard, is to harbour dirt, and occasionally putrescent matter, capable of fouling the air, and affording ill scents.
4. They are cheap: when thus thinly laid, much cheaper than wood, or stone, or even than any choice kind of brick, such as clinkers; and full as cheap as any tiling that would be proper for the purpose.
5. They are, it is true, liable to crack, especially on the first settling of the building. On the other hand, if a crack takes place, they are easily and effectually repaired.
Mr. Howard lays great stress on the unwholesomeness of such floors as, by their roughness, such as unplaned boards, or by numerous and wide interstices, are apt to harbour putrescent matter: but I know not that he anywhere recommends plaster floors, which are freer than any ordinary floors from that inconvenience.
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