New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-12-29
nEEENCE OF hot AIR.


On no subject is there greater difference
between people than as to the air they are
willing TO breathe. In all public enclosures,
from q church to a street car, there Is per-
netual disagreement on the subject. a heated
apartment of any sort is always too hot Tor
some neople and too cold for others. One man.
half stiGed. throws open the windows; the
next conner takes pains to close them with Il
slam. Theoretically, all the civilized world
believes in ventilation; practically at Ieast
half of our fellow -cOuntrymen oppose 1t. AS
to the hot dry air of artilicially heated rooms,
almost everybody admits its unwholcsome
ness. and vet nineteen out of twenty citizens
of responsibility spend their indoor lives IN an
arid atmosphere between TO- and So Fair.
Now comes Mr. Robert Briggs, civil engi-
neer. and in learned essay before the Ameri-
can Institute of Architects, proceeds to prove
that after all, hot, dry air is the wholesome
thing for us in our houses. Brave but hereti-
cal Mr.. Briggs! He comes with scientific
logic in one hand and abundant facts for Illus
tration in the other He admits that he Is not
in accord with most of other writers and
speakers on the subject But though he makes
strong argument, it will fall on the ears
of sanitary TefOrmers with as unwelcome
a sound as would an address to prove the
benefits of habitual intoxicatiOn. The essay at
tacks the current theories of heat and ventla-
ton as beng largely deduced from foreign,
and especially English, experience, not appli-
cable in this country. A temperature OF 56'
is comfortable and G2o is warm in a dwelling
IN England zoe is cool and 76o is not too
warm for most Americans in their houses. The
difference in sensation is due, BIZ. Briggs ar
cues, to the moisture of one climate and the
dryness of the other. Then, by an elaborate
analysis, he shows the relation which the
amount of moisture in the air bears
to the heat given off by the human
body at different temperatures. The statistics
of heat and moisture are cited for different lOcali
ties. The argument is in part mathematical,
and much too elaborate to be reproduced here.
Some of its conclusions must suffice. Mr..
Briggs shows that we cannot, five would, sat-
urate the warm air of an ordinary American
house with moisture in Winter, SO that it shall
be like an English climate. If, however, we
should reconstruct our dwellings so as to carry
out such q plan for securing moisture, we
would make them unwholesOme. The moisture
supplied by the pan of water on the furnace, is
an insignificant fraction of what is needed to
make damp, Englsh-like air. To evaporate
the needful quantity of water might require
twice as much fuel. But if the moist air were
provided, persons passing from such summary
rooms out into the dry cold air of an Amer
lean Winter would find the change unendur-
able. In fact, the whole argument goes to
prove that changes in the amount of moisture
are far more serious matters to humanity than
differences of heat; and that hot air is only in
furious when it is very moist.
The popular theory on these subjects has al
ready undergone many alterations. For a
while there was notion that radiatcd heat
from an open fire had wholesomeness which
did not appertain to the product of any heat
ing apparatus. There was talk about the hot
air from furnaces being "burned,n "devital-
lied" and the like, though chemistry did not
sustain the notion. The ozone hypothesis had
its day; the electricity theory tickled some
fancies; but the hot air of our houses was
eventually shown to have normal quantities both
of ozone and OF electrical tension. Then came
the rumor about furnace gas passing through
cast iron; but the instances where that
can happen have been proved to be ex-
there was the current belief that carbonic acid
from human lungs, from furnaces, and from gas
burners was the prime destroyer of American
health. just at present, the carbonic acid
theory is under a cloud. "M0ist air laden
:" with organic impuriticsn has taken its place.
The germ theory of disease is in fashion. OF
course the germs grow quickest and are most
deadly in moist hot air. where they may ma
ture in few hours, while in dry hot air they
are comparatively innocuous
Appropriately enough. Mr.. Briggs's heresy
was first promulgated in Boston, where, by
means OF ingenious and air-tght contrivances,
people get the maximum of warmth out of
the minimum of anthracite. Mr.. Briggs SAYS
that there is no great difference in the cost of
heating n house, whether by steam, hot water
or hot air. 1t seems a great pity to shove
aside all the pretty plans that have been in
vented for letting out the carbOnic acid from
the lower parts OF rooms, to which it ought to
fall by reason of its gravity, but the facts are
against the plans. If Mr.. Briggs's arguments
are correct, 1t will be equally useless to
struggle against the household furnace and the
hot dry air. But we take hope from an adj
mission which he makes, that heated air cur
rents are apt to be offensive" He says it is
very difficult to find any hypothesis which
will account for the need of small supply of