The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1882-01-14
Warming and ventilating.

udfuly any SUBJECT Is so mucn worth
considering at this season of the wear as
how to warm and ventilate our homes
in the cold and clustering days of win
ter. We may not refer to furnaces, be-
cause houses in rural districts are rarely
warmed by them. We wish to limit our
words to small dwellings. A century
ago blazing fire composed of logs -four
feet long or more, was the common way
OF generating heat for making families
comfortable. 1t had much to recon-
mend it. Even now that SO many wears
have passed, no other way of generating
heat is so social and delightful as a fire.
place containing blazing wood. 1t is
not only beautiful and cheering but
healthy. Some of our readers may have
often seen upon our prairies log cabins,
having an open fire on one side and the
only door upon the other. This only
door was generous in size and was SO
large and loose that the outer air could
easily rush into the humble dwelling,
feed the flames and purify the air with
in. This way of warming houses had
this chilling disadvantage, namely, that it
could only warm one side at time of
the sliElest persons. The other side al
ways reminded the slimest person, if not
the stoutest, that the room in which they
lived was not alright, but ventilated in
the most efficient manner.
Incur recent conflict it was observed
that sick soldiers and wounded men re-
covered more rapidly in tents than in
barracks-and in barracks more rapidly
than in hospitals, showing the value of
pure air. And so log cabins were freely
ventilated and healthy, unless filthy hog
pens, cattle sheds and siop puddles were
near the door. The air the inmates
breathed was nearly always pure, espec-
tally in cool and cold seasons of the year.
In this way of generating and radiating
heat, a vast amount of health and COM
fort was conferred upon the early settlers
of our prairie lands. They soon learned
to protect themselves from the chilling
blasts and winters cold, that entered at
the generous door by placing a few feet
in front Of the burning wood "a settle"
or long seat with high back and sides
high enough to protect their bodies
against the cold. This "settle" was a
proper resting place for the T" Settlers
of former and later times.
A uniform temperature is what health
demands. The vicissitudes of any eli
mate are the great cause of many fatal
maladies. The difference, then, between
the inner and outer air should be as small
as possible. Excessive heat of dwellings
has tendency to induce inflammation
of the lungs and severe disease of
the throat. Catching cold depends
not upon any moderate tempera-
ture but upon the change of tenn
perature to which we may be exposed.
Going from hot room, as kitchen or
n sitting room, 20 cool one for any
length of time is sure way of catching
cold, unless the amount of clothing is
much increased. Our experience is that
at home a temperature of sixty-six de-
grees Fahrenheit is high enough for
health and comfort. If sixty-six degrees
is not high enough for health and COM
fort, it is wiser to wear warmer clothing
than to raise the temperature of the in
ner AIR. The sick usually need tenn
upon the disease under which they are
suffering.
In many school rooms warmed by
stoves, gases may escape and fill the
room. Carbon gases are the ones that
exude from imperfectly constructed
stoves or leaky tunnels. These gases
are heavier than common air, and so
gradually fall as they cool We may
often see that the little children sitting
on the lowest seats may look dull and.
heavy-and soon will nod and fall upon
fbo floor Tho 1ul1naSS ond naIl,,,r, nf
these little, or larger ones is sure in
dication that they need fresh air. On
entering some dwellings in cold seasons
the inmates may complain of headache,
dullness and discomfort. The earliest
indication That the carbon gases have es-
capped from stoves or furnaces Is sleepi-
ness.
The alright coal stoves are conven-
lent and economical. But they render
impure the air that surrounds them, and
SO demand large amount of water on
their surface for evaporation and large
amount of fresh air, that they may not
impair health and induce disease. They
are slightly more permeable by gas than
wrought or sheet iron. At nearly red
heat small amount of the carbon gases
is destructive to human life. How can
the air of log cabins and cottages be
kept pure and sweet when close stoves
are used? Open stoves are equal in
ventilating homes to the open fire-places
of former days.
Persons of limited means and con
fined to two or three rooms, can well af.
ford to have two flues in their kitchen
chimneys-one to conduct the smoke
away and the other TO ventilafe the
kitchen. Hot air and odors usually rise
and occupy the upper part of the room.
Openings, then, into the ventilating flue
should be near the ceiling, and openings
for fresh air near the floor, where fine
gauze may be placed to check the full
draught of the outer air. Any man,
however poor, and yet able to build 8
cabin or cottage, is able to have its
kitchen fully ventilated. Few men re-
alize how much cheaper it is to properly
yentilate their sleepiup rooms and cham.