Sanitary Questions
By WM. PAUL GERHARD, C. E.
In selecting a site, a loose, porous soil is, for obvious reasons, preferable to ground liable to be damp or wet. Pure, dry sand, and gravel, make excellent sites for building purposes. Next to these, rocky soils may be chosen, and are usually quite healthy. Clay soils, which are more or less impervious to water, and therefore always damp and chilly, and alluvial lands, must not be chosen as a site for dwellings. But, above all, avoid made land. Although this refers more particularly to city lots, it is not uncommon, even in the suburbs of large cities, to find low ground filled with garbage, rubbish, and decaying vegetable and animal debris, which are prime causes of impure air in dwellings. Ground which has not before been built upon is, undoubtedly, preferable to sites of old, torn-down buildings. If the latter must be taken, a detailed and thorough examination should be made with respect to the purity of the soil. Some lots are literally honey-combed with cesspools, privy-holes, or have a net-work of broken drains full of accumulated filth, and the soil is at times found to be contaminated from liquid house refuse, or by soakage from barn-yards, stables, etc. A well should never be sunk through such formerly occupied ground. It is quite important to ascertain by preliminary borings, the level of the ground water, for a high water level means continuous dampness, and must be abated by thorough under-drainage.
By underdrainage of a site, we effect a permanent lowering of the ground water, and thus secure to the proposed dwelling, dry foundation walls, and absence of dampness from the house interior. To remove such subsoil water, small porous, round tile-drains, 1¼ inches in diameter, should be laid with open joints at least two feet below the level of the cellar floor. The general arrangement of the lines may vary somewhat in each case, but ordinarily the branch drains can be laid in parallel lines, their distance varying from ten to twenty-five feet, according to the amount of water to be removed. Wherever springs are found, special lines may be required. The trenches should be refilled with broken stones or coarse gravel. All branch pipes should be collected in one main pipe, for which a 2 inch tile pipe will answer in most cases. This main drain should be continued with proper fall to a ditch, ravine or water course. There must never be any connection between such subsoil drains and any foul-water drain, sewer, or with a cesspool or sewage tank.
If the dwelling stands on a hill-side, exposed to subsoil water flowing over an impervious stratum, the foundation walls of the house nearest to the hill are very apt to be wet, often even so much as to have the subsoil water percolate through the cellar walls. In this case, the subterranean water vein should be cut off by a blind drain, i.e. a trench dug above the house sufficiently deep and carried with proper fall diagonally across the lot. The trench to be filled with broken stones and to be carried down the hill to some outlet, either an open ditch or a brook.
Some attention should be paid to the proper removal of surface water. In the case of suburban cottages the rain falling upon the roof is almost always collected and stored for use in underground cisterns. Occasionally a public water supply is available, the cistern is omitted, and the roof water is allowed to run away on the surface, and partly soak into the ground, thereby tending to keep the foundation walls damp and unhealthy. To avoid this evil, the grounds surrounding the house must be properly graded, in order to shed the water off from the walls. At a good distance from the house the surface water may sometimes be permitted to soak away into the ground, the vegetation helping to absorb a part of it. In other cases, however, surface channels or gutters must be arranged, especially with clay soils.
Besides water, the upper layers of the soil always contain ground air, which has a tendency to rise into the dwelling, especially in winter when our heated dwellings act as huge chimneys, drawing up large quantities of air from the ground beneath them. Such exhalations, which consist in the case of a pure soil of carbonic acid and watery vapor, and which in the case of a contaminated soil are largely mixed with gases of decomposing organic matter, should be rigidly excluded from the interior of houses. For this reason, dwellings without a cellar should never be placed immediately on the ground, but must be raised on piers, arches or posts sufficiently to allow of a large air space and perfect circulation between the surface and the floor beams. This will, at the same time, prevent the quick rotting of the joists and floor-boards. To prevent the rapid cooling of the basement floor this should be laid double with an intermediate space, filled with a non-conducting material, such as mineral wool.
It is more expensive, but always preferable, to excavate for a cellar and to build the house on strong, well made foundation walls. The floor of the cellar must be made perfectly tight against ground water and ground air. There are different ways of doing this. One of the best methods is the following: cover the surface of the cellar, which has previously been levelled, with a layer of concrete, at least four inches, better six inches deep. Next put on a thin layer (about ¼ inch) of hot, pure asphaltum, and on top of this a finish of Portland cement.
The cellar walls must always be made impervious to dampness. As usually built, they are extremely porous, and moisture rises in them by contact with the adjoining ground and by capillary attraction. The best plan to prevent dampness of walls is to have a complete cut-off between the foundation walls and the ground, by an open area, carried completely round the building, and well drained and ventilated. This, however, is expensive, and a similar isolation may be accomplished by building double or hollow walls, the space between inner and outer walls being well aired. The foundation walls should be placed upon a bed of concrete, and must be covered on their outside with a layer of asphaltum to a point somewhat above the level of the ground. It is very important to provide, at this height in the wall, a horizontal isolating or damp proof course, which may consist of a thick layer of asphaltum, or of slate, bedded in cement, or of layers of tarred roofing paper, or else of hollow tiles. The sill and the floor joists must, of course, be kept above the damp proof course. The surface water may be kept away from the outer walls by filling the space next to the wall, to a depth well below the foundation walls, with broken stones or gravel. Sometimes a tile drain is placed below the foot course to carry off any accumulation of percolating storm water. This trench may be covered at the top with a stone slab to shed off surface water.
Most so-called “practical” builders will probably sneer at these suggestions. I can assure those of my readers who care to build a healthy home, that the money paid for such preventive measures will be spent for an excellent purpose. The proper construction of healthy foundation walls, and of a cellar, dry and cheerful at all times, is the basis of sanitation in cottage-building. This much accomplished, all remaining requirements are not so difficult to fulfill.
Next to dryness, the most desirable features of a good cellar are, that it is well lighted and perfectly ventilated. Good light in a cellar helps much toward its being kept in a proper condition. As regards the necessity of cellar ventilation, remember that your floors will necessarily have some crevices or shrinkage holes, and through these the cellar air will rise and mingle with the atmosphere of your living and sleeping rooms. Above all other things, do not allow your cellar to be made a sort of gigantic poke-hole for rags, cast-off clothing, old shoes, tin-cans, rotten vegetables, garbage, swill or other offensive matters. See that it is kept at all times free from rats and vermin. Do not tolerate any opening in the cellar floor for the removal of surplus water into foul water drains. Such opening, even if trapped, will be sure to act at times as an inlet for unwelcome sewer air.
The water supply of cottages is derived either from wells, cisterns or springs. Rarely do we find in the case of scattered houses a public supply, delivering water under pressure.
A common sight in the country is a well located close to or adjoining a leaching cesspool or a privy. Such wells are usually sunk to but a limited depth, and the liquid sewage from cesspools soaks through the porous subsoil down to the subterranean water stratum. The danger to health from drinking impure water is now universally acknowledged. Polluted well water is rendered more dangerous by the fact that it often has a bright, sparkling and clear appearance and has, in summer time, a low temperature, making it particularly agreeable to drink. Nothing but a chemical analysis or the microscope reveals its unwholesome condition. It is extremely difficult to fix a limit of minimum distance between a well and a cesspool, or privy, as so many different factors have to be taken into consideration. In rocky ground, especially, there may exist hidden fissures carrying the contents of cesspools a much greater distance than is generally expected.
If there is no leaching cesspool, no privy, nor other cause of soil contamination, in the neighborhood, a well may safely be used. If cesspools must be kept on or near your, or the neighbor’s, lot, or if the ground has previously been saturated with filth, do not sink a well.
A properly built well should have walls made tight and impervious from the level of the ground-water up to the surface, in order to prevent any filtration from the soil surrounding the well. The surface of the ground should be raised somewhat at the well, and graded so as to pitch in all directions away from the well. This will prevent the entrance of surface-washings. The opening of the well must be thoroughly well covered, in order to prevent the falling into the well of vermin and smaller animals, or the washing in of decaying vegetable or organic matter. The following mode of building a well has many advantages over the ordinary way: Excavate down to the water-level, then arch the well over with stones, and place the suction-pipe into the well. Next refill with loose stones, on top of these place coarse gravel, sand, and finally clean earth. Carry the pipe above ground to the suction-pump. A thus built well is very safe against introduction of foreign matter.
The best wells are probably what are called “driven wells” or “Abyssinian” wells. They are constructed as follows: A wrought-iron tube, 1½ to 2 inches diameter, having at its end a steel point perforated with numerous holes, is driven into the ground, which must, of course, be free from stones or boulders, until the ground water is reached. If necessary, several lengths of tubing are screwed together by means of couplings. The upper end of the tube is attached to the pump, and continued suction will soon wash away the sand at the lower end of the pipe, and furnish a stream of clear water.
Wherever a well cannot be sunk, cottages should be supplied with rain water collected from the roof and stored either in tanks placed in the garret, or else in underground cisterns. The latter keep the temperature of the water moderately low throughout the year. Most people, unaccustomed to drink rain water, object to it on account of its flat taste, but if it is carefully collected, properly stored, boiled before use, filtered, cooled with ice and well aerated, it makes an exceedingly wholesome and agreeable drink.
To determine the amount of rain water available from a certain roof, ascertain the amount of surface of its horizontal projection, and multiply this by the annual rainfall in feet and decimals of a foot. The total amount in cubic feet must be divided by two, to allow for unavoidable loss through evaporation and for wasted, impure roof washings. It is easy to arrive at a proper size for the cistern, if the available amount of water is known.
In collecting roof water, it is important to allow the first washings from the roof, which always contain more or less filth in the shape of dust, horse dung from the street, excrements of birds, leaves from trees, etc., to run off on the surface. This may readily be accomplished by cut-offs on the rain water pipes, to be worked by hand or arranged to act automatically. The best roofing surface for collecting rain water is slate, and next to this shingles. Underground cisterns are usually built circular in shape, of hard-burnt brick, laid in hydraulic cement. The walls of the cistern must be made perfectly watertight, not only to prevent leakage from it to the outside, but also to prevent the entrance into it of ground water. If an overflow pipe is provided, it should under no circumstances whatever communicate with any drain or sewer, or discharge into a cesspool. As soon as delivered into the cistern, the water must be kept scrupulously clean, and any possible source of pollution should be removed. It is a good plan to build into the cistern a filtering chamber to remove the coarser impurities in the water. Cisterns should be frequently inspected, emptied and cleaned; the opening at the top must be closed by a solid cover, to prevent the falling in of vermin, mice, rats, etc., and to guard against contamination by surface-washings.
Occasionally a dwelling-house is supplied from a distant spring, by a gravitation supply in case the spring is near a hill-top, or by means of a hydraulic ram if the spring is situated at a lower level than the house.
If the dwelling draws its supply from a well or a cistern, the water is usually lifted by means of suction-pumps, generally located, for convenience’s sake, inside the house, at the kitchen sink. If the cottage has any plumbing fixtures on the upper floor, it becomes necessary to force water by a lift and force-pump to a small reservoir or tank under the roof, from which it is distributed to the fixtures under a constant head of pressure. Such water tanks should be made of cast iron well painted, or of wrought iron well protected against rust. Slate tanks are also very good. Cheaper than either of these are wooden tanks. Wooden tanks are often lined with tinned copper; lead, zinc or galvanized iron linings are undesirable. Care must be taken not to run the overflow of a tank into any soil or drain pipe. The simplest way of disposing of it is to run it into the gutter of the roof. If this is not feasible run it down to the kitchen sink, and make it serve as a tell-tale for use with the force-pump at the kitchen sink.
Pipes for conveying water to the plumbing fixtures may be of drawn lead, or tin-lined lead, or of block tin. Wrought iron is used extensively, either plain or galvanized or enamelled; rubber-coated, glass-lined and tin-lined wrought-iron pipes are also made, but are too expensive for ordinary use.
Drawn lead pipe is a material possessing many merits, and hence it is used extensively. It should be remembered, however, that soft water attacks lead, and a sufficient amount of lead is occasionally dissolved to cause dangerous poisoning of persons drinking water from such pipes. It is a good precaution in the case of new pipes to allow the water to run for a while, especially if it has been standing in the pipes over night. Tin-lined pipes, although more expensive, are much safer for use, but great care must be taken in making joints in such pipe, lest the tin be removed at the joints. Tin-lined as well as block tin pipes should always be used as suction-pipes in wells and cisterns in preference to ordinary lead pipes.
Plain wrought-iron pipes rust quickly, especially if not constantly kept full of water; water conveyed through them is apt to make iron stains in the washing. A further disadvantage is the frequent choking up of the smaller sizes through rust. Pipes coated with some kind of enamel are better and safer, provided care is taken in making the joints properly. Plain wrought-iron pipes, made rustless by the Bower-Barff process, have lately been used and promise to show good results. Wrought-iron pipes are largely used, protected with a coating of zinc, and such “galvanized” pipes may be safely used, for, although water dissolves and is often found to contain salts of zinc, which are poisonous in large amounts, dilution makes them practically harmless. A more serious objection to galvanized pipes may be the fact that the zinc coating, unless applied with great care, soon wears off and ceases to protect the pipe against rust. Copper tubes, lined with tin, are occasionally used, but are expensive and troublesome to put up. In some of the Eastern States drawn seamless brass tubes are used for hot-water pipes. Their only advantage over lead would seem to be their neater appearance and less liability to sag, although changes of temperature affect brass pipes by expansion and contraction, causing leaky joints. Brass pipes, if used for drinking-water, should be tinned on the inside.
It is important to arrange all water-pipes so that they can be completely drained or emptied, when the supply is shut off. Pipes running on outside walls should be suitably protected against frost. It is recommended, even in the case of the smallest buildings, to have a plan, showing the exact size, material and location of all water pipes, stop-cocks, faucets, cisterns, etc. All pipes should be kept accessible, and, wherever possible, in sight.
The supply for drinking purposes is often purified by means of domestic filtration. This is especially desirable with cistern water. Domestic filters should act not only as strainers by removing suspended impurities, but they ought also to act chemically by oxidizing a part or all of the dissolved organic matter. Various materials are used for domestic filters, amongst them being sand, sponge, flannel, cotton, animal charcoal and spongy iron. Nothing is more erroneous than the supposition that a filter, once started, will continue to act, without further attention, forever. Whatever the filtering material may be, it should be frequently cleaned and aerated, and renewed from time to time. It must, therefore, always be easily accessible. Most small filters, to be screwed to faucets on the supply pipe, are made reversible, and if this operation is regularly performed, they work quite well, although their action is of necessity largely mechanical. Larger filters are connected by means of a hose or a pipe with the pressure supply, and these, too, answer well, provided they have an arrangement for periodical reversing of the direction of the filtering current. Other filters are portable vessels to be filled by hand. Filters are also placed in cisterns, or at the end of the suction pipe in wells or cisterns. A good plan is to build into the cistern a partition wall, establishing a small chamber, in which the suction pipe is placed. The dividing wall is built with courses of brick, some of which, being laid dry, act as strainers. This arrangement, it need hardly be said, wants periodical cleaning as much as any of the household filters.
A serious and all-important matter is the question of removal and disposal of the household wastes. We will assume, as is the case in ninety-nine out of every hundred isolated country dwellings, that there are no sewers in the streets, and that a discharge into a large creek or stream, or into the sea, is not feasible.
The common practice is to build a leaching cesspool, if the soil is at all porous. All the liquid wastes from the household are carried by a drain to this cesspool, and allowed to soak away into the soil, while the cesspool, and the spaces between its wall-stones, are gradually filling up with the more solid matter, the grease, etc., which undergo a slow process of decomposition, creating a noxious and disagreeable accumulation of gases. The cesspool is usually unventilated, and the only exit for gases is through the drain pipe, up the house pipes, and through defective joints and equally defective traps into the house.
Occasionally two cesspools are used, one for the kitchen sink waste, the other for soil and bath-room waste water. The conditions of these cesspools after some use will not differ materially from each other, and such an arrangement is, if anything, more of a nuisance than the one first-mentioned.
The smaller the house lot, the greater is the danger from a cesspool. No leaching cesspool should ever be placed nearer to a dwelling than one hundred feet. To locate such a cesspool close to the well, or even a cistern, is a practice which should be forbidden by law.
A cesspool or sewage tank, if required, should be built thoroughly tight, tighter even, if this were possible, than a cistern. It should be of moderate dimensions, preferably circular in shape, built with hard-burnt brick, laid in hydraulic cement, and the tank must be well rendered inside and outside with pure Portland cement. The tank should be arched over and covered with an iron cover. It must be emptied, cleaned and disinfected at frequent intervals, and it should be at all times well ventilated, by a pipe, carried up to a good height above ground. If possible, the cesspool should not be located in a direction from the house of the prevailing winds.
The liquid contents of a sewage-tank may with advantage be used to sprinkle and irrigate a lawn, or a kitchen garden, or shrubbery, or a vine trellis, while the solids, removed at frequent intervals, may be dug as fertilizers into the ground. If this arrangement is adopted I usually advise having two chambers in the cesspool; the smaller one for retaining the solids, the larger one to receive the liquid wastes. The overflow delivering the latter from the retaining or settling chamber for solids, into the liquid-tank, must dip well below the water-line, so as to avoid carrying scum with the water. The liquid manure may be pumped by a small pump, set over the top of the liquid cesspool chamber.
The question is to some extent simplified if the cottage contains no water-closets. The liquid manure will be easier removed and taken care of. The usual and much to be condemned substitute for a water-closet is a privy, located close to or at a distance from the house. It rivals with the leaching cesspool in nastiness and danger to health. It pollutes the soil, taints the water in the well and contaminates the air of the neighborhood. A privy must always receive unqualified condemnation. There are cheap and cleanly substitutes for it, such as the various apparatus known as earth or ash closets. While I should hesitate to recommend placing an earth-closet inside a cottage, except for the use of invalids, it is very easy to arrange it so as to be quite near the rear part of the house, accessible from it by a not too conspicuous, well covered, shady, dry and sheltered walk.
The shed, in which the earth-closet is placed, should be well-built, strong and tight, and preferably plastered, so as not to be too cold in winter storms, but also sufficiently ventilated. A simple earth-closet is illustrated in the writer’s book, “Hints on the Drainage and Sewerage of Dwellings.” More expensive closets, with mechanical apparatus for throwing a fixed quantity of earth after use, are sold and generally give satisfaction if used intelligently, although plain earth-closets answer well in the case of inexpensive cottages.
With cottages, provided with earth-closets, the earth-manure can be advantageously used in the kitchen garden, or else it may be disposed of to neighboring farmers. The disposal of slop water (kitchen and chamber slops) may be effected where there are grounds about the house, sloping somewhat away from it, by sub-surface irrigation, consisting in placing a series of common 2-inch drain tiles in parallel lines, about 10 inches below the surface of the ground, and distributing the sewage water intermittently through such a network of pipes into the ground, where it is acted upon by the vegetation and purified by the earth, acting as a filter. The details of this system, which answers better than any other known method of disposal for isolated country dwellings, are given in the author’s book, quoted before. This system is also practical when water-closets are used inside the house, but in this case, the solids should be intercepted in a small receiving reservoir, which must be frequently cleaned, otherwise the distributing tiles will speedily choke, and create a nuisance by ceasing to work.
Cottages or suburban dwellings of moderate cost should have as few plumbing fixtures as possible, especially if water is scarce, and must be pumped to a distributing tank by hand labor. Where there is a system of service pipes, tanks and fixtures, there will be more or less outlay for annual repairs, besides the frequent annoyance of apparatus getting out of order, or refusing to work, or freezing up and bursting. It is certainly much cheaper to have a properly managed earth-closet and to confine the plumbing in the house to a kitchen sink, a force-pump, a tank and a kitchen boiler. Certain advantages, however, of an indoor water-closet, as regards comfort, convenience and health, must be conceded. A bath-room with a plain bath-tub is also a great convenience and an important aid to bodily cleanliness. It pays well to arrange for it, even where one must forego the luxury of a good water-closet. If means are not available for a system of hot and cold water pipes, the bath tub may be filled by pails. A small slop sink or slop hopper for removing chamber slops is also useful and facilitates the work of servants. Both sink and tub may be arranged in one room, which should have plenty of ventilation and direct light by large windows to the outer air. Even the smallest cottage must have a plain kitchen sink. Where the kitchen is large, a set of laundry tubs may be arranged close by the sink; in larger dwellings a special room is generally set aside for laundry purposes, next to the kitchen, or below the kitchen, in the basement, and hot water from the kitchen boiler is generally available. If a bath-room is wanted, with a water-closet and a bath-tub, and all necessary amount of hot and cold water pipes, waste and vent pipes, let the arrangement be as plain and as open—which does not necessarily mean unsightly—as possible. Keep all pipes outside of walls or partitions, have them where you can constantly see them and lay your hands on any stopcock or other plumbing detail, if necessary. Dispense with woodwork as much as possible. Arrange every fixture, especially the sink and the water-closet, open to inspection and accessible to the dust-brush and wiping cloth of the servants. It is important—for the sake of economy as well as on account of plain and straight arrangement of pipes—that the bath-room should be as nearly as possible directly over the kitchen, so that one waste pipe and one line of vent pipe may answer for both. A little skill and foresight in planning will usually accomplish this desirable feature.
Let the kitchen sink be of plain cast-iron, the laundry tubs of wood, or better, of slate; the bath-tub of wood, lined with 14 oz. copper, and select a good earthen-ware flushing rim hopper with supply-cistern. Of course, there is more expensive, more durable and handsomer plumbing apparatus sold, but the above fixtures, if well set, answer all practical requirements of a small home. The water-closet should be arranged with so little woodwork as only a seat resting on cleats; the closet itself standing on all sides free on the floor. This may be finished in hard wood or covered with oil-cloth, or with slate slabs. A closet thus arranged answers well for pouring out chamber slops and for use as a urinal. For further details on plumbing fixtures see the author’s books on the subject.
Here are a few approved rules on house sewerage, so far as they relate to plain cottages.
The main house sewer outside the building to be of strong well-burnt, and glazed vitrified pipe, circular in section, four inches in diameter, laid in straight lines, or with curves of large radius at changes of direction. Joints to be made with pure Portland cement. It is important that no cement remains on the inside of the joint. The bottom part of each pipe should be tightened with particular care. The drain to be firmly laid at the bottom of the trench, if necessary, on a bed of concrete. Grooves should be cut for the pipe-sockets. The depth of the drain should be about 3 feet. Junctions to be made with Y branches. Inclination to be, if possible, ½ inch to the foot. Wherever grades are very flat provide some simple and inexpensive flushing apparatus at the head of the house sewer.
All the pipes inside the house to be thoroughly gas and water-tight, and well flushed and ventilated. The house sewer inside the dwelling, to a point five feet outside of the house walls, to be of heavy iron pipe; of cast iron, if kept below the floor; of wrought iron or cast iron, if run along the cellar wall or ceiling. Provide a sufficient number of access-holes for inspection and for removing stoppages.
The soil pipe or waste pipe to be of heavy tarred cast iron with well caulked lead joints, or of asphalted wrought iron with steam-tight screw-joints. Pipes to run as straight as possible from the cellar to the roof, and to be continued full-size at least two feet above the roof. Mouth to be left wide open. Size of soil pipe 4 inches; of waste pipe 2 inches.
Provide a running trap on line of main house sewer, inside or outside of the house. Arrange a 4-inch fresh air pipe, at the house side of such trap, run preferably some distance away from the house and hidden from sight by shrubbery.
Branch waste pipes from fixtures to be of heavy lead pipe, 1½ inches diameter. Joints between lead and iron pipe to be made with brass ferrules or brass screw nipples.
Each fixture to be separately trapped near its outlet by a self-cleansing and secure trap. Overflow pipes to be dispensed with as much as possible; if used to join the waste pipe between the fixture and the trap. Traps to be either the siphon (S or running traps), in which case siphonage should be prevented by an air pipe, or else to be anti-siphoning or mechanical or mercury-seal traps.
The question of how to warm our cottage will depend, in the first place, upon the climate and locality of the proposed dwelling, and furthermore upon its exposure. Three methods of warming the air of halls and rooms must be considered, namely, warming by open fire-places, by stoves and by hot-air furnaces. Direct and indirect heating by steam and by hot-water apparatus are excluded on account of their cost for buildings, such as here shown.
Ordinary fire-places warm principally by radiation, the heat from the fire being imparted to surrounding objects or persons without much warming the surrounding air. The degree of heat varies with the square of the distance from the grate, and it thus happens that with a fire-place as the only means of heating a room of an exposed dwelling, a person near the fire may be nearly roasted, while at the opposite extreme end of the room the temperature may be almost down to the freezing point. A further disadvantage is the fact that it heats only the part of the body facing the fire. The greatest objection to the ordinary open grate fire lies in the fact that 85 per cent. and more of the fuel is wasted, the heat from it going straight up the chimney flue. A fire-place generally causes extremely cold drafts from window cracks, or from door spaces, especially in very cold weather. On the other hand, if such cracks are all carefully closed and stopped up, the chimney is apt to smoke. While, therefore, an open fire-place may be adequate in warm climates, it is entirely inadequate to warm, per se, cottages in our eastern, northern, and northwestern States.
To say that a very large waste of fuel is incident to warming by fire-places, is not strictly correct, for the heat is not actually wasted. It forms a good aid to the ventilation of rooms, and we will see later that, as an accessory of other heating methods, the fire-place is eminently serviceable, and much to be recommended. Better, however, than ordinary fire-places, are the improved, so-called ventilating fire-places, which are provided with a large air chamber, and a sufficient air supply from outdoors. There are several excellent devices of this kind in the market, and these are, of course, much more economical as far as burning fuel is concerned, about 35 per cent. of the heat being utilized. They make splendid ventilators, and are generally superior and free from defects.
In this country stoves of cast iron and of wrought iron are the usual and most economical means of heating small cottages and suburban dwellings. It is also, unfortunately, true that, as ordinarily arranged, they make the worst possible devices for warming the air of our rooms. Heating should always be combined with ventilation, that is, there should be a continuous removal of the fouled air and introduction of plenty of pure air instead, but arranged so as not to cause inconvenient or unhealthy drafts. A room warmed by an air-tight stove must soon contain air entirely unfit to breathe, for a close stove removes practically none of the vitiated air, and there is usually an entire absence of any provision for introducing fresh air. Less fuel is consumed, and stove-heating is consequently economical, at least apparently so, while in reality it causes loss of strength, vigor and appetite, and general debility and extreme sensitiveness.
If a dwelling is to be heated by stoves, the following precautions must be observed. Select a good-sized, well-built stove, with tight joints, and lined on the inside with fire-brick to prevent the iron from getting red hot and to retain, as much as possible, the heat. A supply of fresh pure air from the outside must be arranged, carried to a jacket surrounding the stove, where the air is warmed by contact with the stove, and circulated in the room. The smoke pipe of the stove should be large, and must never have a damper to shut off the draft. A valve may be placed on the fresh-air inlet pipe to regulate the amount of ventilation at will. For the removal of foul air outlets must be arranged, near the ceiling of the room, and into the chimney, care being taken to prevent down-drafts or entrance of smoke, by arranging a self-closing flap valve at the outlet. It is much preferable, however, to have an extracting or ventilating flue, arranged in the chimney adjoining the smoke flue and warmed by the latter, with outlets from the room into such flue. The stove should have ample capacity to heat the room even in very cold weather without driving the fire to a red heat. It is a good plan to supply a moderate amount of moisture to the air by placing a water kettle or evaporating pan on the stove.
Heating suburban dwellings by hot-air furnaces has many advantages over stove heating. Furnace heating is, strictly speaking, stove heating, but with this difference, that there is only one large stove, centrally located in the basement or cellar, from which air pipes of sufficient size carry the warmed air into the rooms as desired. There is, consequently, less labor in carrying coal and making fires, less trouble in keeping up the fire, and less dirt and dust from removing ashes.
Furnace heating is disliked and has often been condemned by many as detrimental to health, and while such is true of improperly arranged furnace apparatus, it is, nevertheless, a mode of heating which can be made perfectly healthy and agreeable. It is impossible to heat a room well by furnace heat, unless arrangements are made, by an open fire-place or other outlet into a chimney flue, for withdrawal of the air once breathed and fouled by respiration. You cannot introduce pure, warmed air, unless you remove a like amount of fouled air. Another mistake, frequently made, is to take the air supply to the furnace air-chamber directly from the cellar. Thus, cellar air, ground air, or air from sewer pipes, is often sent up in a heated condition into the living and sleeping rooms.
If warming by a hot-air furnace is decided upon, care should be taken to select from the innumerable patterns in the market a good furnace. The furnace should be of the best quality of material of its kind—either cast iron, wrought iron or soap-stone,—and of a good size, for if the furnace is small, it will be overheated in extremely cold weather, which is very objectionable, as it renders the air less fit for breathing, and is liable to cause cracks in cast-iron, and loose joints in wrought-iron furnaces. The furnace must be well constructed, the pot must be lined with fire-brick to prevent the rapid burning out of the iron, the joints must be few in number and perfectly tight, and this must be made the subject of a special examination. The furnace should have one or two large cold air-ducts, leading to the outside of the house, located on opposite sides of the house if there are two. These air-ducts should take their supply preferably five or more feet above the surface of the ground. A slide-valve must be arranged in the cold-air box, to regulate the amount of incoming air, and where there is danger from impurities in the air, the air supply should be filtered through a loose cotton filter. At the mouth of the air box place a wire-netting to prevent rats or other animals from entering. The box should be constructed of well-dried, wooden plank, with closely fitted joints. Better, although more expensive, is a galvanized sheet iron air-duct. It is advisable to carry the cold-air box along the ceiling of the cellar, where it is in sight, and not below the ground, where it may and often is filled with ground water or pools of sewage from broken cellar drains. The size of the fresh-air inlet should be equal in area to the aggregate sum of all hot-air flues, leading from the air chamber into rooms. The fresh air should be kept tolerably moist by arranging an evaporating pan kept constantly full of water in the air chamber of the furnace.
The furnace must be arranged as centrally as possible, so as to make the horizontal hot-air flues short, for in these the velocity of the air current is reduced by friction, especially if the flues are small. The hot-air flues should, preferably, be kept on inside walls, and must be as direct as possible, and of ample capacity. The inlets or registers, for admitting warm air into the room, should not be in the floor, for it is unhealthy to stand over them, moreover they form receptacles of dirt and dust, and are unsightly in the floor. The inlets should be placed in a side wall. To avoid danger from charring woodwork no hot-air flues should come in direct contact with floor-joists, boards or partitions; all woodwork should be securely protected by some non-conducting material. The smoke-pipe must be large and run to a good-sized smooth flue, so as to insure a good steady draft, which will remove all gases of combustion. There should be no damper on the smoke pipe, and the fire should be regulated only by more or less admission of air under the fire grate. Overheating of the furnace must be avoided, for it unduly dries the air, and scorches the organic matter in the air coming in contact with the fire, thus causing a peculiar, disagreeable smell.
An open fire-place in the hall and all principal rooms makes, in connection with hot-air heating, the most comfortable and pleasant arrangement for withdrawing fouled air from the room. With the air of the room introduced at a warm temperature, the radiant heat from the fire-place is particularly invigorating and comforting. We all love to gather around a cheerful, glowing fire on the hearth of a cosy home, and exchange pleasant thoughts or dream away twilight hours in looking at the flickering light.
If fire-places are not available for ventilation, outlets must be provided into warm, ventilating flues, arranged parallel to smoke-flues in chimneys. Chimney flues should preferably not be built against outside walls, for they are not apt to draw well in such position, unless a special air space is arranged in the rear of the flue to prevent its too rapid cooling. Ventilating flues must be without sharp angles, smooth on the inside and preferably round in section. If they remove the air from a number of rooms, their cross-section must be proportionately increased. Bedrooms should never be heated by base burner stoves, but should have a fire-place acting at all times as an efficient foul-air flue. Halls must be moderately heated to avoid cold drafts through door-cracks, and to insure a more uniform heat throughout the dwelling. Bathrooms and kitchens must be ventilated with special care.
Ventilation or change of air in dwellings must go on at all seasons of the year. It aims at removing the vitiated air in a dwelling and introducing a sufficient amount of pure air, moderately heated in winter time, supplied with a proper amount of moisture, and thoroughly and uniformly diffusing it in the house interior in gentle currents, without causing undue drafts. Drafts are dangerous to health, because they rob the human body too suddenly of a part of its heat. In summer-time ventilation is happily and easily accomplished by opening doors or windows, and by occasional “air-flushing” by creating cross-currents through rooms. Fire-places should not be covered up in summer by fire-boards. In winter-time ventilation should always be combined with heating.
In the spring or fall of the year we often content ourselves with a small wood or coal fire on the hearth, and in such a case the easiest way to provide for incoming fresh air is by admitting air through the windows, directing the cold current to rise up to the ceiling. This may be done by lowering the upper sash and raising the lower one slightly, not enough to leave openings at top and bottom. A better way is, of course, to have a ventilating open fire-place, such as the “fire-on-the-hearth” stove, or other apparatus.
The so-called spontaneous or accidental ventilation by air penetrating walls cannot, practically, establish a sufficient change of air. Its effect is very much reduced by papering, painting, plastering on the inside, and by treating the outside walls by some water-proof process, as is frequently done, as a protection against driving rains.
For details on ventilation, amount of cubic space in rooms, amount of air-supply required, proper position of inlets and outlets, and other questions, we refer to larger hand-books on ventilation.
