Several Members of Parliament and other persons attended in the
House of Commons yesterday, to try the effect of certain alterations in the interior, made under the superintendence of Dr. REID of Edinburgh, for the purpose of improving the ventilation, and facilitating the distinct conveyance of spoken language to the ear. A detachment of 420 Grenadier Guards occupied the back seats in the body of the House, and in the Members' Galleries, in order to produce the effect of a full House : altogether, 578 persons were present. A skylight has been made a short distance below the base of the upper windows, composed of panes of glass of a great variety of shapes. The Reporters' Gallery is brought forward into the House, and lowered so as to be nearly on a level with the back of the Speaker's chair; the high top of which has been cut down. The Strangers' Gallery has also been lowered. In the floor of the House and of all the galleries, an immense number of boles (said to be about 380,000) of a third of an inch diameter, have been bored : by an apparatus of flues and furnaces, air of the right de- gree of heat is let through these holes ; it ascends into the House, and escapes by a ventilator. The effect was to produce an ex- tremely agreeable temperature, the same in every part of the House. The alterations made with a view to improve the transmis- sion of sound produced the desired effect. The soldiers were ordered to talk ; which they did so as to make nearly as much noise as there is usually in a full House,—that is to say, a great deal : but still Dr. REID, speaking in a conversational tone, was distinctly heard in every part, except when he stood under the galleries, when persons sitting on the back seats in the galleries could not bear him distinctly. The Doctor said, he always objected to galleries in buildings used for pub- lic speaking. Mr. HARVEY and Sir GEORGE CLERK read extracts from debates, and were distinctly heard from and in all parts of the House. On the whole, the parties present were highly pleased with the results of the experiment.
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