WARMING AND VENTILATION



XXXVI.

WARMING AND VENTILATION


There is no department of science, as applied to practical matters,
which has so often baffled experimenters as the healthful mode of
warming and ventilating houses. The British nation spent over a million
on the House of Parliament for this end, and failed. Our own government
has spent half a million on the Capitol, with worse failure; and now
it is proposed to spend a million more. The reason is, that the old
open fireplace has been supplanted by less expensive modes of heating,
destructive to health; and science has but just begun experiments to
secure a remedy for the evil.

The open fire warms the person, the walls, the floors and the furniture
by radiation, and these, together with the fire, warm the air by
convection. For the air resting on the heated surfaces is warmed by
convection, rises and gives place to cooler particles, causing a
constant heating of its particles by movement. Thus in a room with an
open fire, the person is warmed in part by radiation from the fire and
the surrounding walls and furniture, and in part by the warm air
surrounding the body.

In regard to the warmth of air, the thermometer is not an exact index
of its temperature. For all bodies are constantly radiating their heat
to cooler adjacent surfaces until all come to the same temperature.
This being so, the thermometer is radiating its heat to walls and
surrounding objects, in addition to what is subtracted by the air that
surrounds it, and thus the air is really several degrees warmer than
the thermometer indicates. A room at 70 degrees by the thermometer is
usually filled with air five or more degrees warmer than this.

Now, the cold air is denser than warm, and therefore contains more
oxygen. Consequently, the cooler the air inspired, the larger the
supply of oxygen and of the vitality and vigor which it imparts. Thus,
the great problem for economy of health is to warm the person as much
as possible by radiated heat, and supply the lungs with cool air. For
when we breathe air at from 16 to 20 degrees, we take double the amount
of oxygen that we do when we inhale it at 80 to 90 degrees, and
consequently can do double the amount of muscle and brain work.

Warming by an open fire is nearest to the natural mode of the Creator,
who heats the earth and its furniture by the great central fire of
heaven, and sends cool breezes for our lungs. But open fires involve
great destruction of fuel and expenditure of money, and in consequence
economic methods have been introduced to the great destruction of
health and life.

Of these methods, the most popular is that by which radiated heat is
banished, and all warmth is gained by introducing heated air. This is
the method employed in our national Capitol, where both warming and
ventilation are attempted by means of _fans_ worked by steam, which
force in the heated air. This is an expensive mode, used only for large
establishments, and its entire failure at our capitol will probably
prevent in future any very extensive use of it.

But the most common mode of warming is by heated air introduced from
a furnace. The chief objection to this is the loss of all radiated
heat, and the consequent necessity of breathing air which is
debilitating both from its heat and also from being usually deprived
of the requisite moisture provided by the Creator in all out-door air.
Another objection is the fact that it is important to health to preserve
an equal circulation of the blood, and the greatest impediment to this
is a mode of heating which keeps the head in warmer air than the feet.
This is especially deleterious in an age and country where active
brains are constantly drawing blood from the extremities to the head.
All furnace-heated rooms have coldest air at the feet, and warmest
around the head. It is also rarely the case that furnace-heated houses
have proper arrangements for carrying off the vitiated air.

There are some recent scientific discoveries that relate to impure air
which may properly be introduced here. It is shown by the microscope
that _fermentation_ is a process which generates extremely minute
plants, that gradually increase till the whole mass is pervaded by
this vegetation. The microscope also has revealed the fact that, in
certain diseases, these microscopic plants are generated in the blood
and other fluids of the body, in a mode similar to the ordinary process
of fermentation.

And, what is very curious, each of these peculiar diseases generates
diverse kinds of plants. Thus in the typhoid fever, the microscope
reveals in the fluids of the patient a plant that resembles in form
some kinds of seaweed. In chills and fever, the microscopic plant has
another form, and in small-pox still another. A work has recently been
published in Europe, in which representations of these various
microscopic plants generated in the fluids of the diseased persons are
exhibited, enlarged several hundred times by the microscope. All
diseases that exhibit these microscopic plants are classed together,
and are called _Zymotic_, from a Greek word signifying _to ferment_.

These zymotic diseases sometimes have a _local_ origin, as in the case
of ague caused by miasma of swamps; and then they are named _endemic_.
In other cases, they are caused by personal contact with the diseased
body or its clothing, as the itch or small-pox; or else by effluvia from
the sick, as in measles. Such are called _contagious_ or _infectious_.
In other cases, diseases result from some unknown cause in the
atmosphere, and affect numbers of people at the same time, as in
influenza or scarlet fever, and these are called _epidemics_.

It is now regarded as probable that most of these diseases are generated
by the microscopic plants which float in an impure or miasmatic
atmosphere, and are taken into the blood by breathing.

Recent scientific investigations in Great Britain and other countries
prove that the _power of resisting_ these diseases depends upon the
purity of the air which has been _habitually_ inspired. The human body
gradually accommodates itself to unhealthful circumstances, so that
people can live a long time in bad air. But the "reserve power" of the
body, that is, the power of resisting disease, is under such
circumstances gradually destroyed, and then an epidemic easily sweeps
away those thus enfeebled. The plague of London, that destroyed
thousands every day, came immediately after a long period of damp,
warm days, when there was no wind to carry off the miasma thus
generated; while the people, by long breathing of bad air, were all
prepared, from having sunk into a low vitality, to fall before the
pestilence.

Multitudes of public documents show that the fatality of epidemics is
always proportioned to the degree in which impure air has previously
been respired. Sickness and death are therefore regulated by the degree
in which air is kept pure, especially in case of diseases in which
medical treatment is most uncertain, as in cholera and malignant fevers.

Investigations made by governmental authority, and by boards of health
in this country and in Great Britain, prove that zymotic diseases
ordinarily result from impure air generated by vegetable or animal
decay, and that in almost all cases they can be prevented by keeping
the air pure. The decayed animal matter sent off from the skin and
lungs in a close, unventilated bedroom is one thing that generates
these zymotic diseases. The decay of animal and vegetable matter in
cellars, sinks, drains, and marshy districts is another cause; and the
decayed vegetable matter thrown up by plowing up of decayed vegetable
matter in the rich soil in new countries is another.

In the investigations made in certain parts of Great Britain, it
appeared that in districts where the air is pure the deaths average
11 in 1000 each year; while in localities most exposed to impure miasma,
the mortality was 45 in every thousand. At this rate, thirty-four
persons in every thousand died from poisoned air, who would have
preserved health and life by well-ventilated homes in a pure atmosphere.
And, out of all who died, the proportion who owed their deaths to foul
air was more than three fourths. Similar facts have been obtained by
boards of health in our own country.

Mr. Leeds gives statistics showing, that in Philadelphia, by improved
modes of ventilation and other sanitary methods, there was a saving
of 3237 lives in two years; and a saving of three fourths of a million
of dollars, which would pay the whole expense of the public schools.
Philadelphia being previously an unusually cleanly and well-ventilated
city, what would be the saving of life, health, and wealth were such
a city as New-York perfectly cleansed and ventilated?

Here it is proper to state again that conflicting opinions are found
in many writers on ventilation, in regard to the position of ventilating
registers to carry off vitiated air. Most writers state that the impure
air is heavier, and falls to the bottom of a room. After consulting
scientific men extensively on this point, the writer finds the true
result to be as follows: Carbonic acid is heavier than common air,
and, unmixed, falls to the floor. But by the principle of _diffusion
of gases_, the air thrown from the lungs, though at first it sinks
a little, is gradually diffused, and in a heated room, in the majority
of cases, it is found more abundantly at the top than at the bottom
of the room, though in certain circumstances it is more at the bottom.
For this reason, registers to carry off impure air should be placed
at both the top and bottom of a room.

In arranging for pure air in dwellings, it is needful to proportion
the air admitted and discharged to the number of persons. As a guide
to this, we have the following calculation: On an average, every adult
vitiates about half a pint of air at each inspiration, and inspires
twenty times a minute. This would amount to one hogshead of air vitiated
every hour by every grown person. To keep the air pure, this amount
should enter and be carried out every hour for each person. If, then,
ten persons assemble in a dining-room, ten hogsheads of air should
enter and ten be discharged each hour. By the same rule, a gathering
of five hundred persons demands the entrance and discharge of five
hundred hogsheads of air every hour, and a thousand persons require
a thousand hogsheads of air every hour.

In calculating the size of registers and conductors, then, we must
have reference to the number of persons who are to abide in a dwelling;
while for rooms or halls intended for large gatherings, a far greater
allowance must be made.

The most successful mode before the public, both for warming and
ventilation, is that of Lewis Leeds, who was employed by government
to ventilate the military hospitals and also the treasury building at
Washington. This method has been adopted in various school-houses, and
also by A. T. Stewart in his hotel for women in New-York City. The
Leeds plan embraces the mode of heating both by radiation and
convection, very much resembling the open fireplace in operation, and
yet securing great economy. It is modeled strictly after the mode
adopted by the Creator in warming and ventilating the earth, the home
of his great earthly family. It aims to have a passage of pure air
through, every room, as the breezes pass over the hills, and to have
a method of warming chiefly by radiation, as the earth is warmed by
the sun. In addition to this, the air is to be provided with moisture,
as it is supplied out-doors by exhalations from the earth, and its
trees and plants.

The mode of accomplishing this is by placing coils of steam, or hot
water pipes, under windows, which warm the parlor walls and furniture,
partly by radiation, and partly by the air warmed on the heated surfaces
of the coils. At the same time, by regulating registers, or by simply
opening the lower part of the window, the pure air, guarded from
immediate entrance into the room, is admitted directly upon the coils,
so that it is partially warmed before it reaches the person: and thus
cold drafts are prevented. Then the vitiated air is drawn off through
registers both at the top and bottom of the room, opening into a heated
exhausting flue, through which the constantly ascending current of
warm air carries it off. These heated coils are often used for warming
houses without any arrangement for carrying off the vitiated air, when,
of course, their peculiar usefulness is gone.

The moisture may be supplied by a broad vessel placed on or close to
the heated coils, giving a large surface for evaporation. When rooms
are warmed chiefly by radiated heat, the air can be borne much cooler
than in rooms warmed by hot-air furnaces, just as a person in the
radiating sun can bear much cooler air than in the shade. A time will
come when walls and floors will be contrived to radiate heat instead
of absorbing it from the occupants of houses, as is generally the case
at the present time, and then all can breathe pure and cool air.

We are now prepared to examine more in detail the modes of warming and
ventilation employed in the dwellings planned for this work.

In doing this, it should be remembered that the aim is not to give
plans of houses to suit the architectural taste or the domestic
convenience of persons who intend to keep several servants, and care
little whether they breathe pure or bad air, nor of persons who do not
wish to educate their children to manual industry or to habits of close
economy.

On the contrary, the aim is, first, to secure a house in which every
room shall be perfectly ventilated both day and night, and that too
without the watchful care and constant attention and intelligence
needful in houses not provided with a proper and successful mode of
ventilation.

The next aim is, to arrange the conveniences of domestic labor so as
to save time, and also to render such work less repulsive than it is
made by common methods, so that children can be trained to love
house-work. And lastly, economy of expense in house-building is sought.
These things should be borne in mind in examining the plans of this
work.

In the Cottage plan, (Chap II. Fig. 1,) the pure air for rooms on the
ground floor is to be introduced by a wooden conductor one foot square,
running under the floor from the front door to the stove-room; with
cross branches to the two large rooms. The pure air passes through
this, protected outside by wire netting, and delivered inside through
registers in each room, as indicated in Fig. 1.

In case open Franklin stoves are used in the large rooms, the pure air
from the conductor should enter behind them, and thus be partially
warmed. The vitiated air is carried off at the bottom of the room
through the open stoves, and also at the top by a register opening
into a conductor to the exhausting warm-air shaft, which, it will be
remembered, is the square chimney, containing the iron pipe which
receives the kitchen stove-pipe. The stove-room receives pure air from
the conductor, and sends off impure air and the smells of cooking by
a register opening directly into the exhausting shaft; while its hot
air and smoke, passing through the iron pipe, heat the air of the
shaft, and produce the exhausting current. The construction of the
exhausting or warm-air shaft is described on page 63.

The large chambers on the second floor (Fig. 12) have pure air conducted
from the stove-room through registers that can be closed if the heat
or smells of cooking are unpleasant. The air in the stove-room will
always be moist from the water of the stove boiler,

The small chambers have pure air admitted from windows sunk at top
half an inch; and the warm, vitiated air is conducted by a register
in the ceiling which opens into a conductor to the exhausting warm-air
shaft at the centre of the house, as shown in Fig. 17.

The basement or cellar is ventilated by an opening into the exhausting
air shaft, to remove impure air, and a small opening over each glazed
door to admit pure air. The doors open out into a "well," or recess,
excavated in the earth before the cellar, for the admission of light
and air, neatly bricked up and whitewashed. The doors are to be made
entirely of strong, thick glass sashes, and this will give light enough
for laundry work; the tubs and ironing-table being placed close to the
glazed door. The floor must be plastered with water-lime, and the walls
and ceiling be whitewashed, which will add reflected light to the room.
There will thus be no need of other windows, and the house need not
be raised above the ground. Several cottages have been built thus, so
that the ground floors and conservatories are nearly on the same level;
and all agree that they are pleasanter than when raised higher.

When a window in any room is sunk at the top, it should have a narrow
shelf in front inclined to the opening, so as to keep out the rain.
In small chambers for one person, an inch opening is sufficient, and
in larger rooms for two persons, a two-inch opening is needed. The
openings into the exhausting air flue should vary from eight inches
to twelve inches square, or more, according to the number of persons
who are to sleep in the room.

The time when ventilation is most difficult is the medium weather in
spring and fall, when the air, though damp, is similar in temperature
outside and in. Then the warm-air flue is indispensable to proper
ventilation. This is especially needed in a room used for school or
church purposes.

Every room used for large numbers should have its air regulated not
only as to its warmth and purity, but also as to its supply of moisture;
and for this purpose will be found very convenient the instrument
called the Hygrodeik, [Footnote: It is manufactured by N. M. Lowe,
Boston, and sold by him: and J. Queen & Co., Philadelphia.] which shows
at once the temperature and the moisture. A work by Dr. Derby on
Anthracite Coal, scientific men say has done much mischief by an
_unproved_ theory that the discomfort of furnace heat is caused by the
passage of carbonic _oxide_ through the iron of the furnace heaters, and
_not_ by want of moisture. God made the air right, and taking out its
moisture _must_ be wrong.

The preceding remarks illustrate the advantages of the cottage plan
in respect to ventilation. The economy of the mode of warming next
demands attention. In the first place, it should be noted that the
chimney being at the centre of the house, no heat is lost by its
radiation through outside walls into open air, as is the case with all
fireplaces and grates that have their backs and flues joined to an
outside wall.

In this plan, all the radiated heat from the stove serves to warm the
walls of adjacent rooms in cold weather; while in the warm season, the
non-conducting summer casings of the stove send all the heat not used
in cooking either into the exhausting warm-air shaft or into the central
cast-iron pipe. In addition to this, the sliding doors of the stove-room
(which should be only six feet high, meeting the partition coming from
the ceiling) can be opened in cool days, and then the heat from the
stove would temper the rooms each side of the kitchen. In hot weather,
they could be kept closed except when the stove is used, and then
opened only for a short time. The Franklin stoves in the large room
would give the radiating warmth and cheerful blaze of an open fire,
while radiating heat also from all their surfaces. In cold weather,
the air of the larger chambers could be tempered by registers admitting
warm air from the stove-room, which would always be sufficiently
moistened by evaporation from the stationary boiler. The conservatories
in winter, protected from frost by double sashes, would contribute
agreeable moisture to the larger rooms. In case the size of a family
required more rooms, another story could be ventilated and warmed by
the same mode, with little additional expense.

We will next notice the economy of time, labor, and expense secured
by this cottage plan. The laundry work being done in the basement, all
the cooking, dish-washing, etc., can be done in the kitchen and
stove-room on the ground floor. But in case a larger kitchen is needed,
the lounges can be put in the front part of the large room, and the
movable screen placed so as to give a work-room adjacent to the
kitchen, and the front side of the same be used for the eating-room.
Where the movable screen is used, the floor should be oiled wood. A
square piece of carpet can be put in the centre of the front part of
the room, to keep the feet warm when sitting around the table, and
small rugs can be placed before the lounges or other sitting-places,
for the same purpose.

Most cottages are so divided by entries, stairs, closets, etc., that
there can be no large rooms. But in this plan, by the use of the movable
screen, two fine large rooms can be secured whenever the family work
is over, while the conveniences for work will very much lessen the
time required.

In certain cases, where the closest economy is needful, two small
families can occupy the cottage, by having a movable screen in both
rooms, and using the kitchen in common, or divide it and have two
smaller stoves. Each kitchen will then have a window and as much room
as is given to the kitchen in great steamers that provide for several
hundred.

Whoever plans a house with a view to economy must arrange rooms around
a central chimney, and avoid all projecting appendages. Dormer windows
are far more expensive than common ones, and are less pleasant. Every
addition projecting from a main building greatly increases expense of
building, and still more of warming and ventilating.

It should be introduced, as one school exercise in every female
seminary, to plan houses with reference to economy of time, labor, and
expense, and also with reference to good architectural taste; and the
teacher should be qualified to point out faults and give the instruction
needed to prevent such mistakes in practical life. Every girl should
be trained to be "a wise woman" that "buildeth her house" aright.

There is but one mode of ventilation yet tried, that will, at all
seasons of the year and all hours of the day and night, secure pure
air without dangerous draughts, and that is by an exhausting warm-air
flue. This is always secured by an open fireplace, so long as its
chimney is kept warm by any fire. And in many cases, a fireplace with
a flue of a certain dimension and height will secure good ventilation
except when the air without and within are at the same temperature.

When no exhausting warm-air flue can be used, the opening of doors and
windows is the only resort. Every sleeping-room _without a fireplace
that draws smoke well_ should have a window raised at the bottom
or sunk at the top at least an inch, with an inclined shelf outside
or in, to keep out rain, and then it is properly ventilated. Or a door
should be kept opened into a hall with an open window. Let the
bed-clothing be increased, so as to keep warm in bed, and protect the
head also, and then the more air comes into a sleeping-room the better
for health.

In reference to the warming of rooms and houses already built, there
is no doubt that stoves are the most economical mode, as they radiate
heat and also warm by convection. The grand objection to their use is
the difficulty of securing proper ventilation. If a room is well warmed
by a stove and then a suitable opening made for the entrance of a good
supply of out-door air, and by a mode that will prevent dangerous
draughts, all is right as to pure air. But in this case, the feet are
always on cold floors, surrounded by the coldest air, while the head
is in air of much higher temperature.

There is a great difference as to healthfulness and economy in the
great variety of stoves with which the market is filled. The competition
in this manufacture is so stringent, and so many devices are employed
by agents, that there is constant and enormous imposition on the public
and an incredible outlay on poor stoves, that soon burn out or break,
while they devour fuel beyond calculation. If some benevolent and
scientific organization could be formed that would, from disinterested
motives, afford some reliable guidance to the public, it probably would
save both millions of money and much domestic discomfort.

The stove described in Chapter V. is protected by patents in its chief
advantages, but this has not restrained many of the trade from
incorporating some of its leading excellencies and claiming to have
added superior elements. Others will inform any who inquire for it,
that it is out of market, because later stoves have proved superior.
Should any who read this work wish to be sure of securing this stove,
and also of gaining minute directions for its use, they may apply to
the writer, Miss C. E. Beecher, 69 West 38th Street, New-York, inclosing
25 cents.

She will then forward the manufacturers' printed descriptive circulars,
and her own advice as to the best selection from the different sizes,
and directions for its use, based on her own personal experience and
that of many friends. Should any purchases be made through this medium,
the manufacturers have agreed to pay a certain percentage into the
treasury of the Benevolent Association mentioned at the close of this
volume.

There is no more dangerous mode of heating a room than by a gas-stove.
There is inevitably more or less leakage of the gas which it is
unhealthful to breathe. And proper ventilation is scarcely ever secured
by those who use such stoves. The same fatal elements of imperfect
ventilation with its attendant horrors of disease, extravagant
wastefulness of material, of fuel, of labor, of time, and of destruction
to the apparatus itself, seem concomitants of all ordinary stoves and
cooking arrangements of the present day, unless those who use them are
constant and unremitting in the exercise of intelligent watchfulness,
guarding against these evils. And in view of the almost inevitable
stupidity and carelessness of servants, who generally have charge of
such things, and the frequent thoughtlessness even of intelligent women
who manage their own kitchens, the writer believes she is doing a
public service by offering her own experience as a guide to simpler,
cheaper, and more wholesome means of living and preparing the family
food.