The Hickman courier., 1877-06-08

| lmdgludlI Cast, Li0 LllIlSoS pOoolOiO haAC
of snow has pulled the trigger, as it were,
and made the gun go ofE---has changed
completely the whole arrangement that
might have gone on for some time lon
ger as it was, had it not been for the ad-
| vent of the flake George les.
Water ira the WaIIs OF Neio Houses.
need not call to your mind the first
steps in a building operation, and how
soon a connection is made with some
abundant source of water, and that a
great deal of water is required for max
ing the mortar, etc. Let us now try to
come to an estimate of this quantity Of
water.
! Suppose that 100, 600 bricks were used
ior building, each weighing ten pounds.
A good brick can suck up more than ten
! per cent. of its weight in water, but we
wiz put down at five per cont, what
sets.into it by the manipulations of the
bricklayer We will assume that the
same amount of water is contained in
the mortar, a quantity certainly much
understated, although the mortar forms
only about one fifth of the walls; we
have thus 100000 pounds of water,
equal TO 10000 gallens, which mast
have left the walls of the house before it
became habitable.
The two principal ways in which wet
or damp walls are injurious are: ]. by
impeding ventilation and diffusion of
gases, through their pores being closed
up or nrrrowed by water; ,. By dis
tributing the heat-economy of our bodies.
Damp walls act as bodies abstracting
heat in one direction they absorb heat
by their evaporation, and act like rooms
which have not been warmed thoroughly;
they are better conductors of heat than
dry walls, just like wet garments, and
considerably raise our heat losses by
one-sided and increased radiation. Dis
eases which are known to be often caused
by cold are particularly frequent in
damp dwellings, rheumatism, catarrh,
chronic Bright's disease, etc.
What can we do to get nd of that i'm !
meme quantity, of these 10000 gallons |
of water, before we remove into the new
house? All this water-we can not /
make il run of, we can not squeeze it
out, we can not boil it away-it must
take its leave in one way, very safe /
but rather long one, that of spontaneous
evaporation into and by the air.
The capacity of the air for receiving |
water depends on the different tension
of the vapor at different temperatures,
ON the quantity of water already con-
tanned in the air flowing over a moist
body, and finally on the velocity of that
air. For the first two moments let US
assume the average temperature of the
year to be 500 Fahr., and the average
hygrometic condition of the air to be
seventy-five per cert. of its full satura-
ti0p. Under these conditions, cubic
footof air can take up four grains of
watei in the shape of vapor, but as it
contains already seventy-five per cent.
of these four grains, which amounts to
three grains, it can only take up one
additional grain. As often, then, as one
grain is contained in the 10000 gallons
of water mentioned above, as many
cubc feet of air must come in contact
witt the new walls, and become sat
urated with the water contained in them
or about 700, 900, 600 cubic feet of air are
required to dry the building in question.
-Dr. Pettenkofer. !