ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a reconstruction of David Boswell Reid’s experimental system and its operation, and examines how feedback about its day-to-day performance was gathered and utilised. Reid’s idea was to transform the temporary debating chambers into a hermetically-sealed and climatically-controlled environment. The trial was initially postponed after concerns about it were raised by Robert Smirke, architect of the temporary Houses of Parliament. He was assisted by former members of the Select Committee on Ventilation, including Benjamin Smith and Benjamin Hawes, and by Lord Sudeley. Over the course of several years, Reid’s experimental ventilation system was gradually extended to form part of a much larger network. Three years after Reid had installed his system in the temporary House of Commons, he was commissioned to make alterations to the ventilation system in the temporary House of Lords. Reid also used the House of Lords to test a different approach to climate control than that used in the House of Commons.
