Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-05-16
Ventilation.

The time OF year mas now cohe
when it is no longer necessary to
keep closed doors on account OF the
cold. Everybody who wants To
breathe pure air can have it, even
without the asking. No house is tit
for human beings to live in without
ample provision has been made for
the complete ventilation OF every
room it contains. The upper sash
of each window should be so ar
ranged that it can be easily and
quickly dropped, at least twelve
inches. There is very little use or
safety in raising the lower sash to
yentilate room that is constantly
occupied. In sleeping-rooms, a space
twelve or fifteen inches in the clear
should be maintained at the top OF
the windows, the year round, except
ing times of extreme cold weather,
driving storms, or when such apart
ments are converted into sick-rooms.
The whole principle OF ventilation
is stated in a single injunction:
Aside from difference in tempera-
ture, the dir of our houses should
be made to approach as near that
out-of-doors as is possible under
the best circumstances of archi-
tectual design. Nobody would think
of drinking out of an unrinsed glass
known to have last been used in
compromising deadly poison. But
such a thing would be no more fool
hardy nor liable to be followed by
mischievous results than would be
the practice of occupying a sleeping
room, night after night, without
cleansing it, each day, OF its quota
of night air, by thorough ventilation.
The necessity of thorough means for
supplying sleeping-rooms with pure
air, may be CLEANED from the fact
that an adult requires about ten
cubic feet of air per minute for
breathing purposes, and that guam
tity of air having once passed through
the lungs, is rendered unfit to be
breathed over again, since much OF
its oxygen has been distracted, leav-
ing an undue percentage of carbonic
acid. Now sleeping-room twelve
feet square by seven feet high, con
tains one thousand and eight cubic
feet af air. It will be seen, then,
that if the room were occupied by
two persons of adult growth, the en-
tire quantity of air in the room will
have been breathed once, in frac-
ton over fifty minutes. Now sup
pose such room be tightly closed
for seven hours, say from ten o'clock
in the evening till FIVE o'clock in the
morning, all the air it contained
would be used eight times over, by
the two persons sleeping in it. But
1t is sanitary principle that when
pure air has been once utilized by
the lungs, it is not fit to be breathed
sssver again without thorough admix-
ture with the great ocean Of air that
surrounds the earth. ; Ittakes money
to fit up fine residences with gas-and
water fixtures, but it costs nothing
to leave plenty of air holes for
the ingress and egress of that
element Of our physical ssustenence
which Is no less vital to our existence
then the food and drink we take into
the stomach. The best ply sicians
regard the matter of breathing pure
air as OF much more consequence to
the general health Of the system
than the stated additions of the
body. SO persistently maintained by
many persons, while they utterly ig-
more and neglect the proper ventila-
ton of their houses. The princi-
pies we have touched upon, are plain
and simple, and easily enough ,un-
dsrstood to be practically applied in
every. household. Then let nobody
be afraid of breathing too much OF
the free. pure air of heaven. venti-
late your houses. y 81,
NIyE millions of dollars have al
ready been expended on the New
York State House. at ALBANY. r.