chambers. The walls of the hall will, ere long, receive decorative
paintings.--_L'Illustration._

* * * * *




MANUFACTURE OF ROLL TAR PAPER.


Roofing paper was first used in Scandinavia early as the last century,
the invention being accredited to Faxa, an official of the Swedish
Admiralty. The first tar and gravel roofs in Sweden were very
defective. The impregnation of the paper with a water-proofing liquid
had not been thought of, and the roofs were constructed by laying over
the rafters a boarding, upon which the unsaturated paper, the sides of
which lapped over the other, was fastened with short tacks. The
surface of the paper was next coated with heated pine tar to make it
waterproof. The thin layer of tar was soon destroyed by the weather,
so that the paper, swelled by the absorption of rain water, lost its
cohesiveness and was soon destroyed by the elements. This imperfect
method of roof covering found no great favor and was but seldom
employed.

In Germany the architect Gilly was first to become interested in tar
paper roofing, and recommended it in his architecture for the country.
Nevertheless the new style of roof covering was but little employed,
and was finally abandoned during the first year of the 19th century.
It was revived again in 1840, when people began to take a renewed