A washhouse and heating stove, with beam-load experiments
Plans for a laundry and a meat-curing stove, and experiments on how an inclined beam carries its load
The sheet joins domestic installations to a small study in statics. One design lays out a washhouse (bucatiera) with a well, a place for lye, a place for the cloths and a copper for boiling water and ash, drained by channels; a second design heats the laundry with a stove fed from the kitchen chimney and fitted with many smoke-conduits opening on four faces for curing salted meat, tongues and sausages. At the lower right, two diagrams of a beam leaning against a wall work out, by experiment, how the load divides between the beam's foot and its point of support.
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Layout of a washhouse (bucatiera)
The plan marks d as the well, a where the lye stands, b where the cloths are, and c where water and ash are boiled. A channel at the foot of the tubs drains the water to keep the tub-stand clean, and another channel runs from the well up to above the tubs.
Stove heating the laundry, with smoke conduits for curing meat
Stove c draws heat from the kitchen chimney through a copper tabernacle two braccia high; a stone laid over it lets it be used in summer. A door a admits salted meat into the chimney, whose top carries many smoke-conduits opening on four faces so the north wind cannot block the draught, curing meat, tongues and sausages.
How an inclined beam sheds its load onto a wall
By experiment, the timber c d gives less of its weight at point d in proportion to half the base a b of triangle a d c. For a pole 6 braccia long weighing 6 pounds with half-base a b of one braccio, 5 pounds bear at d and one pound passes as force into the support at c.
A more steeply inclined beam
A second, more steeply raised beam is labelled a r, with the note that it will weigh as much at a as at r.