The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1864-02-27
ventilation of school Rooms.

ornament to the place. It speaks well for
the interest of our people in the cause of
education. presume that most that have
visited its well crowded rooms have ex-
perisnced Sensations of dullness, and per-
haps severe headache. The same feel
ings are experienced both by teacher
and pupils. You notice many are quite
pale, others are we'll nigh sick. What is
the trouble You look around-the room
is almost air tight. In the general hurry
to get the rooms 10 readiness for use, the
weights by which the windows were to
be suspended were not put in, and the win
dows, for the time, were nailed to their
places, so that not breath of air could get
in or out. 1t is gratifying TO know that
this matter has now been attended to-
This fact suggests the importance of the
subject of ventilation to school-rooms in
general, and I propose throwing out few
thoughts in regard to the matter:
Heretofore we have had little reason to
complain Of the want of fresh air in most
of our dwellings and school houses
when there was any stirring, and
generally there is enough in motion. In
fact, most of US think We have got enough
of the good thing. But now the rude open
cabins and unpIas tered houses are fast Civ
/ ing place to closer and more comfortable
structures, which indicate the taste, thrift
and prosperity.of the community. Within
the radius of few miles, several school
houses have been erected during The past
season, and several more are under contract.
One of the first things to be thought of in
building a school house is a plenty of
breathing groom.
Consider the following fact
The air taken into the lungs undergoes an
important change. 1t is composed of two
elements-oxygen and nitrogen The OK
ygen, or the life sustaining element, is alb
sorbed by the blood, which it purifes,
chan ing the dark, impure, venous blood
into the bright red of the arterial. The
principal impurity which is thus thrown
off in breathing. is called carbonic
acid. Now mark-with every breath you
abstract portion of the real life of the air,
(nitrogen will not sustain life, } and more,
you add to this already vitiated portion of
air quantity of deadly poison. This car
bonic acid is what, among miners, is called
fire damps," or "choke damps," the same
that is sometimes found in old wells, which
renders it SO dangerous to clean them out.
You remember that during the late Law
renee massacre, several sought safety in a
well, butperished. Many perish annually
from this substance, produced by burning
coal in sleeping rooms.
Now take these facts in relation to a
crowded hall or school room. Each indi-
vidual inhales from ten to fifteen cubic feet
of air per hour. From this amount he
takes portion of the vital part, expeling
the balance, with the addition of a quantity
of carbonic acid. You very readily per
ceive that it would not require very long
period before all the air in crowded school
room or hall would all have been breathed. !
If the room is warmed by stove, the mat
ter is made much worse, for fire cannot be
supported without the acid of oxygen-so
we may with propriety say, that the stove
burns the air necessary for life, and in
close room the effects are very soon ap-
parent.
Another fact should be remembered
carbonic acid acts more injuriously upon
the system, in proportion as the natural
amount of oxygen is diminished in the at
mOsphere. DR.. Snow, preferred to by Car
penter, in his Physiology, p. 5l3, con-
cludes from his experiments upon lower an
imals, that from FIVE to six per cent
Of carbonic acid cannot exist in an atmos-
phere respired by man, without danger to
life, and that less than half thiS amount a0izI
soon be fatal when it is formed at the ex-
pense of the oxygen of air. "It u.s. says |
Carpenter, ''of great practical Importance
to determine the quantity of air which
ought to be allowed for consumption by in
dividuals confined in prisons, work houses,
schools, DC, and for this, experience seems
to have fixed upon 800 cubic feet, as the
minimum, that can safely be assigned, ex-
cept where extraordinary provisions are in
operation for its constant removal by ven
tilation. That dizziness, oppression and
headache is the beginning of what in a few
hours would terminate in death % This
statement, startling as it may seem, is
based upon the highest authority. Parents
and all inter ested in the welfare of youth,