Everywhere, in railroad cars, streets, shops, public halls and dwelling houses, there is foul air—air that is loaded with exhalations from the lungs, emanations from the body, and is often vitiated by tobacco and alcohol. Architects, builders and occupants pay but little attention to ventilation. The most important purpose of a building is evidently to keep the heat in during the winter, and keep it out in the summer.
With every breath a person exhales quite a large proportion of carbonic gas, which is a deadly poison, and at the same time inhales the life-giving oxygen, constantly exhausting the supply. Yet the great fear of drafts, as well as need of economizing heat, causes most persons to breathe the same air over and over again. Gases that are inimical to health and life are constantly inhaled. If one breathed deeply and only pure air it would atone for violation of many other physiological laws. The proof of this is seen in the effects of a hunter’s or a pioneer’s life.
The following from the Lancet gives some practical ideas upon the ventilation of bedrooms:
“If a man were deliberately to shut himself for some six or eight hours daily in a stuffy room, with closed doors and windows (the doors not being open even to change the air during the period of incarceration) and were then to complain of headache and debility, he would justly be told that his own want of intelligent foresight was the cause of his suffering. Nevertheless, the great mass of people do this every night of their lives, with no thought of their imprudence.
“There are few bedrooms in which it is perfectly safe to pass the night without something more than ordinary precautions to secure an inflow of fresh air. Every sleeping apartment should, of course, have a fireplace with an open chimney, and in cold weather it is well if the grate contains a small fire, at least enough to create an upward current to carry off the vitiated air of the room. In all such cases, however, when a fire is used, it is necessary to see that the air drawn into the room comes from the outside of the house.
“Summer and winter, with or without the use of fires, it is well to have a free ingress for pure air. This should be the ventilator’s first concern. Foul air will find an exit if pure air is admitted in sufficient quantity, but it is not certain that pure air will not also be drawn away. So far as sleeping rooms are concerned it is wise to let in the air from without. The aim must be to accomplish the object without causing a great fall of temperature. The windows may be drawn down an inch or two at the top with advantage, and a fold of muslin will form a ‘ventilator’ to take off the feeling of draft. This with an open fireplace will generally suffice, and produce no unpleasant consequences, even when the weather is cold.”
While the open fireplace, ’tis true, gives splendid ventilation, at the present price of fuel it is a luxury within the reach of few. Yet, taking into consideration how effectually it “slams the door on the doctor’s nose,” it is an economical investment.
Recently there have been open stoves constructed on a new principle, that are very desirable. They are cheerful and decorative in appearance, equal to other stoves for cleanliness, economical of heat, and what is so needful in every dwelling, furnish a constant change of air—are in themselves ventilators.
One building a new house can easily have ventilation by making a dry well of good dimensions in the yard and filling it with coarse charcoal. There should be an air-shaft leading to it and one from it into the house. The air from it must go directly to the furnace. It should be so constructed that water will drip slowly through the charcoal. In this way the moisture and charcoal purify the outside air, freeing it from dust and smoke, while the pit cools it in the summer, and modifies the temperature in the winter. Better air is obtained than if let in by windows and doors.
The house should have flues for the escape of impure gases. Common grates will answer the purpose. An abundance of pure air constantly supplied.