South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-04-21
Open Doors.

MOST of our houses-or at least large
proportion of them-are heated by fur
mace, even if all the warmth is not derived
| from one. Open fireplaces, it seems to us,
are becoming rarer and more rare, and
with them disappears most efficient
means of ventilation. We will not stop
here to lament this as great loss to US in
a social point of view, this depriving the
family of the focus to which its various
members may come-the hearthstone, so
dear to all who have a real one-though
we believe it to be a great loss; but we
will urge it as a reason for throwing open
more freely the doors of communication
between entries and rooms. Since fur
naces have been so generally introduced,
entries and passages can be, and are, kept
much warmer than was possible before
quite warm enough, if not indeed too
warm, for health-and there need no
longer be the risk of unduly lowering the
temperature of the rooms in which we
live, by leaving the door open behind us.
Besides, windows shut closer, and as
towns increase in size, the outer cold has
less effect upon indoor temperature and,
what is of far greater moment, ventilation,
in too many modern houses, must be Sc
cured through the entries, or not at all.
Fresh air, it is true, is poured into the
rooms from the furnace, but egress for
that which is vitiated is not provided, and
it must pour through cracks or remain
OF course, if we could wait, it would pour
out. Fresh hot air coming in would grad
ually completely purify the room, which
would attain temperature of over 1OO' F.
But we cannot stand it; so we shut the
register, and put an end to ventilation and
20, fNrfT tor
houses, however, have means for throw
ing as much hot air into their entries as
into their rooms, so that not only are the
latter filed with vitiated air, but actually,
in spite of all the modern improvements,
the entries grow cold; more coal is thrown
on the furnace, its upper door is shut, and
very little is effected.
Now, if we would only accustom our
selves to open doors, we would certainly
have better ventilation in the rooms, and
warmer entries, while both rooms and en-
tries might be kept at temperature of
6Se with much less trouble than is now
expended in bringing rooms up 10 To
Where there are children, it Is, we
think, of great importance that rooms and
entries should be of the same temperature,
for certainly a large proportion OF the
chest and bowel affections of the young
can be traced among certain classes tc an
exposure to change in temperature, es-
pecially where the little ones are IN the
habit of passing from over-warmed rooms
into somewhat under-warmed entries.
There is no need to dilate on the neces-
sity of ventilation to young and old; but
even where stoves are used, and certain
ventilation is thus afforded, our remarks
hold true, for there is no doubt that all
ordinary modes of burning anthracite coal
pour into our rooms so much Of the in
odorous, tasteless, poisonous carbonic OK
ide, that we can hardly have too much air
with which to dilute it.
So we put in plea that instruction be
given to our Young folks somewhat differ
ent from that which their forefathers re-
ceived. Teach them by all means to be
obedient and docile, but forgive them II
doors be left ajar; nay, more-teach them
to leave them open.-NedicI Times.