{ "system": "GoGuides Verified Text", "api_version": "verified-text-v1", "status": "ok", "response_type": "verified_text_record", "source_key": "britannica_1926", "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1926)", "license_code": "public_domain", "attribution": null, "license_url": null, "chunk_id": "1926:barracks:e642e2e8e81c", "title": "BARRACKS", "section": null, "hash_alg": "sha256", "hash_sha256": "7e34178d78e2572f075c0afa1ceb9b9a12881940ef89715f71176aae3612d573", "normalizer": { "name": "ggnorm", "version": "1.0" }, "verified_text": "this article deals only with the building of barracks by the british govt., as that is the only au- thority that is continually building them in various parts of the world. other countries have built large, solid barracks in military centres and these barracks stand for long periods, whereas the british authorities are constantly reorganising and changing, so that new barracks necessarily follow. as regards the united states, the subject is dealt with under the heading training camps (q.2.). in great britain barrack construction has been in the hands of the royal engineers since 1918, as it was before 1904. during the intervening period (1904-18) an architectural branch under civil control existed at the war office to deal with new barracks barracks and hospitals at home stations, while services of a minor nature at home and all services abroad remained with the royal engi- neers. lighter barracks.—about 1906-7 proposals were made to the army council to introduce a lighter form of barrack construc- tion. previously it had been considered economical to build as solidly as possible, on the ground that the cost of repairs was less than that of a temporary building, while the life of the building was longer. it was pointed out, however, that this was a fal- lacious argument to apply to buildings which were required for a service that was subject both to frequent changes of policy and to changes of standard imposed by progress in science, and that, moreover, constructional science had reached a point where it was possible to construct buildings which, while suitable to military needs, were less expensive in cost, more rapidly erected, more easily altered, and very little more costly to maintain than the more substantial type hitherto adopted. just then an opportunity occurred of making the experiment on a fairly wide scale. an earthquake at kingston, jamaica, had destroyed completely the military barracks and all the adminis- aap a a urinals 333 floor above is similar. on each floor are two barrack-rooms, each for 15 men, with an ablution-room and sanitary annex in close proximity and with a room for one n.c.o. between the two barrack-rooms. the walls are built between steel stanchions, of brick 44 in. thick rendered with ordinary plaster inside and rough-cast outside, the steel stanchions carrying the weight of the roof, floors, etc. the same type of construction has been applied with great success to other buildings. hutting during the war—when the accommodation for the new armies came to be considered in the first few days of the world war, it was decided to adopt a cheap design of hut which could be readily erected, and casily adapted to any form of tem- porary material and to any reasonably level site. in addition the following points were settled :— (a) huts to hold one sergeant and 24 men should be constructed giving 48 sq. ft. of floor area per man. (6) there should be two principal spans of hut, 20 ft. and 28 {t., and, as far as possible, all the various buildings should be planned to fit one or the other of these. (c) there should be a battalion cook-house, with cooking range and boilers for 1,000 men and having on either side of it dining-rooms for 500 men each. between the cook-house and the dining-rooms there wo.cit we cy wie.ch metai lockers n.c.0., ee eee aaa — 46 ft -+- ee hen eae ous : pet sie ice, in z 46 ft~ oo —{ i] “ ; : : ; 2 cupboards , — ! | oupboars | on a mee ~ me ig a = : t t ! | zim ! 3 seq] | : : - -- ; aoe 2 ' i col cupboard a ’ « ~ * ¢ fic. 1.—ground floor plan of a small modern double-storeyed barrack. trative offices and staff quarters and urgent representations were made for their immediate replacement. neither labour nor material being available locally, it was decided to build the new barracks with a skeleton steel framework, vertical steel stan- chions, braced below by steel horizontal joists, and, above, by a composite steel and wooden truss. the stanchions were bolted to a flat steel plate, set in a concrete block in the ground, and they were calculated to carry the whole weight of floors, walls, roof and other contingent parts, such as windows, doors, shelves, etc. the walls, which carried no weight but were merely screens from the weather, were composed of a double panelling of metal lathing fastened to the steel stanchions and plastered over, the space between the two sets of panels acting as a non-conductor of temperature. the material was prepared in england and erected on arrival in jamaica by a company of the royal engineers. the barracks were quickly erected and proved a great improvement, both in comfort and convenience, over the old ones, while there was a very considerable saving in the cost. encouraged by the success of the experiment in jamaica, a similar form of construction was tried in england at bordon, near aldershot, where a barrack with some accessory buildings was urgently required for a field company of royal engineers. a _ figure 1 shows the ground-floor plan of a modern double- storeyed barrack to accommodate two platoons of infantry. the should be sculleries. (¢@) there should be in each battalion a bath- house with a central heating boiler and hot and cold water laid on to the showers, which should be in the proportion of 5 to every 100 men. (e) there should be a regimental institute of three rooms, namely supper-room, games-room and corporals’ room; the bar and beer cellar to be between the supper-room and corporals’ room so that central serving could be arranged. there was also provided a kitchen and scullery in an annex. (f) there should be officers’ and sergeants’ messes planned to accommodate 30 officers and 50 sergeants re- spectively, and consisting of a mess-room and an ante-room in one block, joined by a short passage with a kitchen block. (g) four drying-rooms, fitted with stoves and bars, should be provided, in which wet clothing could be hung. (hf) the latrines should be on the dry-earth system and the ablution-rooms and urinals should either lead into soak pits or into sewage filters. (2) the lighting should be done by electric lamps. considering the urgency of the matter, it would not have been surprising if extensive changes had proved necessary after the camps, so built, came into use. changes, however, were few, al- though several details were amended. thus some of the acces- sories were afterwards omitted, such as the dining-rooms, on the ground that the men could dine in their sleeping huts if necessary. as regards material, some of the earlier huts were founded on brick piers. this was a mistake and it would have been better to have had a stout pile of creosoted wood. the brick piers in- volved bricklayers and bricks and mortar and the provision of these often meant delay. the framework of walls, roofs and floors was mainly red fir of market scantlings. a light steel frame- 334 work was used in some cases, with expanded metal plastered on one side, and sheet iron painted in the interior of the room, but this was costly compared to timber. for lining, match boarding and 3-ply wood were used. asbestos shects were tried at first, but were found very brittle unless the backing of timbers was fairly close, and s.x. boarding and other fibrous matter were also employed but were not found suitable. the floors were, in most cases, of planking. hospital huts—on the outbreak of war in 1914, the whole question of hospital design came, necessarily, into great prom- inence and the following types of hospital huts were standardised: (2) a ward hut, 140 ft. long by 20 ft. wide, comprising a 24-bed ward for ordinary cases and a separate small ward for one special case, a nursing sisters’ duty-room, a scullery, a linen cupboard, and ablution and bath-rooms; () a hut, 160 ft. by 28 ft. for the admin- istrative offices, consisting of an out-patient department with a con- sulting-room, waiting-room and dispensary, the offices of the principal medical officer, his clerks and registrars, the matron’s office, a nursing sisters’ duty-room, a clinical laboratory, the orderly medical officers’ room and the medical board-room; (c) an operation hut, 51 ft. by 36 ft., containing the operation-room, x-ray-room, anaesthetic-room, sterilising-rooms, preparation-room, store anc photographic developing-room; (d) a mortuary hut, 30 ft. by 14 ft. 8 in., containing a post-mortem-room, a body chamber and a view- ing-room; and (¢) a disinfecting hut, into which all foul clothing, bedding, etc., is brought, passed through a disinfector and, after treatment, re-issued. other hospital buildings, with certain modifications to meet the varied requirements of a hospital, followed the usual lines for ordinary barrack huts, quarters, etc. portable huts.—there were many types of portable light huts mad2 of wooden framework and canvas, but they were not found satisfactory for prolonged use, affording no better pro- tection against cold and heat than tents, while the edges of the framework caused the parts of the canvas in contact with them to wear rapidly. portable huts of corrugated steel bent to a cir- cular form, were, however, most useful. their great advantage was that the materials could be packed up together so as to take up little space; and the one disadvantage was that, at a time when steel was much required for other services, it was difficult to get supplies of these huts in large numbers. training camps.—the first military training camps in the united kingdom were built respectively at aldershot, england, and at the curragh, ireland, now replaced by the training camp at catterick, yorkshire, between 1855 and 1859. when the world war broke out in 1914, a demand arose once more for training centres, and the problem of hutments had again to be dealt with. the types of huts adopted have already been described; it is here proposed to deal very briefly with (a) the principles on which sites were selected; (5) the system of group- ing the typical designs so as to form suitable unit hutments and the grouping together of these unit hutments; (¢c) the accessory services incidental to such groups of hutments. selection of site.—the following principles governed the selection of sites: (1) it was essential that there should be open ground available at all times of the year for manoeuvring and field-works, and suitable positions for rifle ranges, for bombing practice, entrenchments and similar activities; (2) the soil should be, preferably, gravel or chalk; there should be good drainage, and generally healthy surroundings; the water supply should be ample, and either pure or capable of being purified; (3) there must be ample means of communication by rail, or water, or both, and while the site should not be on a main line of railway so as to impede other movements, it should not be far away from existing railways; (4) lastly, from the engineers’ point of view, besides traffic facilities, it is desirable that materials should be easily procured, water abundant, labour not unreasonably diffcult to obtain and supervise, and, if possible, an established local system of waterworks, drainage works and electrical power in which by agreement the camp might partake. systent of grouping.—the area required for a hutted camp for an infantry battalion is about 1,100 ft. by 500 ft., out of which the parade ground takes up a space about 430 ft. by 300 feet. facing one side of the parade ground is the officers’ mess with the living huts for officers on either side of it. on the opposite barrage—barres side are the barrack huts, which are grouped on either side of a central line of buildings comprising the sergeants’ mess, the shower baths, dining-rooms and cook-house, the drying-room and the regimental institute. flanking the parade ground are the guard house and offices, the horse shelters, saddle-and harness- rooms and forage stores, the vehicle shed and the mobilisation equipment store. hutted camps for other units are designed on generally similar lines. in grouping such unit hutments into a divisional camp or cantonment, it is desirable that sufch buildings as the hospital, post-office, power station, army ord- nance store sheds, supply depet, banks, etc., should be centrally situated. the main training ground should lie on one side of the camp and as near to it as possible. : accessory services.—it is only possible here briefly to enumer- ate the accessory services for a large cantonment. they com- prise (1) hospital, (2) roads and railways, (3) water supply, (4) lighting, (5) refuse disposal and sewage. in addition to hutted camps for brigades, divisions, etc., there were similar canton- ments for (1) remount depets, (2) ordnance stores and (3) aerodromes. the broad principles of lay-out and construction are similar. (r. g. p. h.) barrage: see artillery. barres, maurice (1862-1923), french writer and politician (see 3.434). maurice barres always considered himself a lor- rainer, charged with the interpretation and the vindication of his own people. his schooldays were spent at the lycee of nancy, and, immediately after, he made his iterary debut with some ironical pamphlets which successfully displayed his intellectual ““dandysme.” renan paid him the compliment of being annoyed by his hutt jours chez al. renan (1888). ife enhanced his reputation by the three volumes of the culte du mot, which appeared from 1888 to 1891. they provoked much ridicule in the press, but the humour, charm and “ pre- tiosite ’’ with which he developed his theme of the cultivation of the “‘ego,”’ and thus an harmonious inner life, was hailed with delight by the younger generation. many of the ideas which permeate his later works may be found in his second work un homme libre (1889), which exercised a considerable influence on his generation. the section dealing with lorraine was de- scribed by ernest lavisse as an admirable piece of historical psychology. his third book, le jardin de berenice (1891), a novel, showed great delicacy of feeling and subtlety of style, and was inspired by the author’s electoral campaign at nancy as boulangist candidate. he was only 26 when he was elected to the chamber, and from that time he led a life divided bet ween litera- ture and politics. intelligent, ardent, ambitious, modelling himself now on ben- jamin constant and now on disraeli, barres, during the period between the end of boulangism and the dreyfus case, hesitated as to the wisest course to pursue. he stood for one of the paris divisions as a socialist patriot, and was defeated. in 1892, he wrote a short novel, l’ennemi des lois, the subject of which was anarchy. he travelled in italy and in spain. he edited for about six months a paper called la cocarde. maurras was his colleague in this venture, and together they roughly blocked out the future doctrines of the french nationalist party. in 1897, he began the publication of his most important work, le roman de venergie nationale. the generation and milieu de- scribed are his own. [lis characters are types rather than living beings, but as a delineation of a period it may be ranked with le rouge et le noir and l’ education scntimentale. the second volume, l’appel au soldat, contains a vivid account of the bou- langist movement, and the third, leurs figures, a picture of parliamentary life at the time of the panama affair, bears comparison with the pages of saint-simon. the dreyfus case, in which he took an active interest, made him a vehement nationalist. he now assumed the position of spokesman for lorraine, and undertook the series entitled bas- tions del’ fst. au service de ? allemagne (1905) describes the year of military service under germany of a young alsatian, and colette baudoche (1909) tells the story of a young girl from metz. the war brought these books a rather artificial success as propa- barrie ganda. meanwhile, barres was writing admirable descriptions of travel in france—les amities frangaises (1903), in greece— le voyage de sparte (1906), in syain—greco (1912). they contain some of his best work, and some of the finest prose in the language. the war was the apotheosis of his doctrines. he redoubled his activities. his work as a journalist had always been re- markable in quality, it now became remarkable in quantity also. ile achieved the feat of writing an article for the leche de paris every day for four years. these, when they were re-issued in the long series, l’ame francaise etla guerre {1915—-q), did not retain their original popularity. after the war, barres carried on his rele as defender of the french eastern front by a mediocre work, le gemie du rhin (1921). he returned to pure literature with his novel un jardin sur l’oronte (1922), which derives its inspiration from his earlier travels in the east. these he described in une enguete aux pays du levant, which appeared in 1923 on the very day, dec. 5, of the author’s sudden death in paris from heart failure. he left much unpublished work, the materials for the autobiography, afemeoires, on which he was engaged, and a large correspondence, which will probably prove to be one of the most interesting of his generation. ife was, when he died, even more than anatole france, the most significant figure among contemporary french men of letters. ‘the influence of his political thought had worn itself out, but his literary authority still swayed the younger generation. he had the power to charm. the prejudices, the narrowness and the egotism, with which he had been reproached, gradually disappeared. the qualities of sympathy and reverence always commanded his esteem, and his epic of the countryside, la colline inspiree (1913), reveals the springs of his religious life. his old age would have been fruitful, and his death deprived us of recollections which might have rivalled les memoires d’outre- fombe. of all french writers he may best be compared with chateaubriand. like chateaubriand he created but one living figure, himself, but into that figure he breathed the soul of contemporary france, and thereby captured the heart of his generation. (a. tu.) barrie, sir james matthew (1860- ), british novelist and dramatist (see 3.435), from 1900 onwards wrote al- most exclusively for the theatre. peter and wendy was published in rg1r, and even this was only a kind of pendant or satellite to that shining star of the christmas theatre, peter pan. as for the plays written since that time, sir james became more expert, as he grew older, in keeping the balance between comedy and pathos, and more daring in preaching from the stage a very simple gospel, the gospel that is to be found in his famous rectorial address delivered at st. andrews university on the subject of courage. in that address (1922) he described his business in life as “‘ playing hide and seek with angels,” and in most of his later work will be found an underlying appeal to make life, as far as is possible, a game with angels, to become as little children, and to prefer a heavenly failure to a too-worldly success. he was attacked by a newspaper proprietor, at the time of this address, for preaching an “immoral gospel” virginibus puerisque, and for popularising a religion of failure; and, indeed, sir james frankly said in it: “‘ when you reach the evening of your days, you will, i think, see with, i hope, becoming cheerfulness—that we are all failures, at least all the best of us.” the theme of the vanity of success recurs, now comically, now mournfully, throughout his later work. it is the dominant theme in the will, a short and sentimental play produced in 1913, where we see the folly of success expounded in terms of commonplace life with- out the author’s usual fantastic elaborations. the twelve pound look, which belongs to about the same period, is a more comic treatment of the same theme. the hero, who is described in the stage directions, as “a pleasant rotundity with a thick, red neck ”’ is a successful city man about to be knighted. sir james barrie is, in the general opinion, more infallibly an artist in his comedy than in his pathos, and the twelve pound look is, perhaps, the most successful of all his one-act plays. panialoon and rosalind are two other one-act pieces which are 330 published in the same volume with the twelve pound look in the collected edition. they are both plays of mixed comedy and pathos, which take us behind the scenes in the theatre, and show us the puppets escaped out of the limelight into the joys and sorrows of ordinary life—especially perhaps the sorrows. rosa- lind was written, it is said, for miss ellen terry, and it is a charming dramatisation of the tribute which the author after- wards paid to miss terry at st. andrews: “ the loveliest of all young actresses, the dearest of all old ones; it seems only yesterday that all the men of imagination proposed to their beloved in some such frenzied words as these, ‘ as i can’t get miss terry, may i have you?’ ”’ another and longer play written during this period was the adored one, which was censured by a number of critics on the ground that it was a joke about murder. barric’s war plays are of no permanent importance. der tag, produced tn 1914, is merely a political argument in which, very properly, the kaiser gets the worst of it. the new word, written about the same time, is a comically moving little piece, about the pride of the elders of a family in the young second lieutenant they have given to the army. a kiss for cinderella (1916), though in some respects a comedy of the war, does not depend on the war for its chief appeal, but is the fullest expres- sion of the genius of barrie that playgoers had had since those marvellous years, 1903 and rg04, that produced quality street, the admirable crichton, little mary and peter pan.