ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the early phase of David Boswell Reid’s work with Charles Barry’s project team from 1840 to 1842. The first conversations about applying Reid’s system to the new Palace of Westminster were in the autumn of 1839. Barry voiced some reservations about involving Reid as the ‘ventilator’, a term that Barry had used to describe the role of the building services engineer. The appointment of Reid as ‘ventilator' marked the end of the phase of isolated experimentation and the beginning of a new phase in which the findings of his earlier experiments could be directly applied to the design of the new Palace of Westminster. Reid began to develop an outline for his proposed ventilation system in the new Palace in April 1840 using copies of Barry’s original architectural drawings. Early drawings, produced in Barry’s office before the adoption of Reid’s scheme, provide an indication of the architectural qualities of his original plans replete with individual chimneys.
