Hessle Road Wash House

Baths and Bath Engineering The Official Journal of the National Association of Baths Superintendents Editor: Jenkyn Griffiths, B.Sc., P.A.Inst.W.E. No. 47 January 1938  Vol. 5 p2

A Wash-house at Hull

In some notes on “The Present Municipal Work at Hull,” prepared by the city engineer’s staff under the direction of Mr. William Morris, Assoc. AT.Inst.C.E., F.S.I., city engineer, for a meeting of the Yorkshire district of the Institution of Municipal and County Engineers at Hull, the following details of the Hessle-road Wash-house are given:­

This wash-house serves a densely populated area in the vicinity of the docks, in which facilities for washing and drying clothes at home are very limited.

The accommodation originally consisted of 27 washing stalls; three rotary washing machines, capacity about 9.5 cu. ft. ; five hydro extractors, 22 in. diameter ; 47 drying horses, 7 ft by 1 ft. by 6 ft. high; one soap and soda dissolver, 40 gal. capacity ; two starch kettles. 18 in. by 12 in. by 18 in. ; and four electric irons, 4/5 lb. weight.

Within 12 months of opening, this accommodation was found to be insufficient and a further three rotary washing machines were installed, three washing stalls being removed.

The sequence of operations from the entrance to the exit, combined with direct supervision by the office staff, is incorporated in the lay-out, while ample accommodation for prams has been pro­vided.

The heating unit consists of a. ” Wollaston ” patent producer gas furnace with a ” Halifax ” boiler, normal rating 3,750 lb, from and at per hour.

Excessive internal corrosion caused the failure of the steel chimney, which has been replaced by one protected by a non-corrosive lining.

Two natural base exchange water softeners, each capable of reducing 4,000 gal. of town’s water between regenerations to 3 deg. of hardness, have been installed to supply the hot and cold water to the wash-house and for the make-up water for the boiler feed ; the soft water is stored in a 20 ft. by 11 ft. by 4 ft. deep tank fixed in the roof over the calorifier room.

The building is faced internally to a height of 6 ft. 6 in. with salt-glazed bricks and above this height with second “Nori” Accrington engineering bricks.

The total cost of the wash-house was £8,198.

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