Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1872-01-11
Stoves and Ventilation.

Stoves and Ventilation.
A WRITER in the New York Ereasao
-hoa makes some very practical surges-
stions about ventilation in general, and
particularly in regard to rooms where
stoves are used. He saws, very truly. the
most frequent means of warming for in
dlvidual rooms is the cast-iron stove.
lhls apparatus, as commonly employed,
merits all the denunciation that Charles
Dickens and other writers, domestic and
foreign, have heaped upon it. In too
many houses it is "red- hot, sutfocating
demon" We propose to show how this
same demon of stove may be converted
into beneficial servant,
! To manage the stove rightly, two things
of equal importance must be done-frst
to procure a proper supply of moisture
| in the air. The urn that surmounts our
stoves is entirely inadequate to vaporize
enough water for this purpose. Its slen-
/ der pedestal conducts so little heat to the
water that it contains, that as much as a
pint of it will seldom be vaporized in the
course of twenty-four hours. This is not
fourth part of what is required for even
single room of moderate size. Place,
| instead, upon the neck of the stove pipe.
| close to the stove, or hung from it by
means of a wire, tin container, holding
at least quart of water. This, heated
nearly or quite to the boiling point, will
give off enough moisture to make the air
healthy and comfortable or it NAV be
| necessary to remove the urn from the top
of the stove and to supply its place with
an earthen or iron vessel placed directly
over the fire. The air thus moistened
resembles that of summer, and acts bene-
ficially not only upon the lungs, but upon
furniture, preventing it from cracking and
warping piano will last much longer
in aparlor of which the air is thus kept
in "a respirable condition.
But, second, we have to provide for the
ventilation of the room that we have thus
warmed The fault with ventilation in
winter time commonly is that it is left to
chance-to doors ajar or the crack of the
windows, and that the fresh air coming
thus directly from without strikes I'M
warmed upon the sitter, producing dis
comfort, cold and disease. The local
draught of air is the most trying and
dangerous thing for the lady at her sew
ing or the student at his desk. But we
can remedy all this trouble by the follow
ing simple device: Through the side of
the house, or through the upper pane Of
a window, introduce tin tube for fresh
air leading it along the ceiling to point
nearly over the stove Have no damper
in it of any sort The draught of air
passing through the stove and stove pipe
will then draw in the cold pure irthrough
this tin tube, which should be three inches
in diameter for IA sitting-room of ordinary
size Falling upon the stove, it will re-
ceive its heat and spread laterally toward
the sides of the room, not reaching the
sitter until it is thoroughly warmed and
moistened The windows may be kept
perfectly tight, If desired without danger
to health, and we have abundance of pure,
moist and warm air indoors.
But how, after breathing this air, are
we to dismiss it from the house before it
becomes noxious? Make an outlet, or
register communicating with the chimney
at the level of the floor; to this the warmed
air, now impure, will be forced down
from the incoming current from above.
1t will make our feet warm and comfort
able as a final service, and then, its duty
being finished, it will pass ont through
the register and escape into the open air.
In the ordinary unscientitic arrangement
of stOve-heatcd rooms, the impure air
rises to the level of our faces, and is
breathed over and over again, while our
feet are chilled by a stratum of cold air
which leaks in below.
To recapitulate the points of the better
method that we have described: ID, the
pure, cold air is brought from without.
through an air-tube, to the center OF the
room; (2), it is heated by the stove; (3),
charged with a sufficient quantity of
watery vapor; ~, it does not reach the
occupant of the room until it has thus
been properly warmed and moistened; 'o),
after being respired it is pressed down to
the level of the floor to warm the feet OF
the sitter; and (6), it is dismissed into the
open air when it is no longer wanted:
Thus we have simple, rational and
healthy system of heating and ventila-
ton: and for those who will try it as we
have described, we can predict consider
able gain in comfort, if not in length