St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-06-13

4. A. CAMP,
JOHN M. KELLY,
WARREN III. HAYES,
GEORGE NJ. GOODWIN.
LETTER TO CHAIRMAN AUSTIN.
The committees open letter to Chairman
A. G. Austin of the building committee is
as follows:
Sir: Pretty much every detail of the city
school buildings recently erected or now be-
ing built is of your debating and sanctioning.
Every effort made within our knowledge
(save one) to change the existing order has
been finally referred to you and by you
tabled. We ask that you will not now refuse
the public a little much-needed light on the
points raised in this letter-pOintS commonly
regarded as things of prime and continuing
importance. We will waive all questions Of
good taste in building, and will consider only
your way of expanding the money OF the pub
lie and of furnishing the children of the
public with healthy school-rooms. Do
you allow an open, fair competition in fur
nishing any of the materials used in the
construction of these buildings? What pro-
portion of the hardware of the board is
bought of firm represented on your COM
mittee? What proportion of the lumber con-
sumed in these buildings is from the yards of a
firm represented on your committee?Why have
so many heating contracts been let without
competition 10 q nonresident concern? And
does not this concern use boilers which of all
heating apparatus on the market are farthest
from what experience has proven to be good
steam generators? You have used for your
eight-room buildings a ground plan resem-
bling an excellent and standard arrangement.
What course of study had your architect and
building superintendent pursued that should
especially fit him to adapt this plan to the
purposes of the public and to draw salary
of So, 900 year?
TOO HIGH AND UNSAFE.
People conversant with good school-build-
ing requirements have long since discarded
anything of more than two stories, except in
very large cities where land is OF immense
value; yet you propose to do the outskirts of
this city with three-story buildings at an out
lay of, say 100000, the present year. The
cOmmoneSt provisions against the spread OF
fire are not to be found in your new build
ingS. What rate Of insurance is paid on these
buildings? Was not an offer made to you the
last building season to introduce thoroughly
''sow-burning'' system of construction OF
these buildings at an added cost not to exceed
per cent-the estimates and efficiency of
the system to be properly verified Or no cost
charged to the board? The architects SUBJ
scribing to this will agree to furnish the board
with buildings accommodating an equal num-
Der that shall be in every way better adapted
to their purposes, for 10 per cent. less money
than you are spending on the same.
VENTILATION.
Did you not express the sentiment in the
tons of fresh air in school rooms were a
g. humbug'? You have certainly worked
on that principle. Let us take for example
the CLAY building, which has provision for
about $50 pupils and teachers. Flues take air
from the basement to supply the eight rooms.
The basement is partly fioored with wood, and
is unit as a source of air supply. 1t con-
tains O row of nine urinalS for boys in wooden
stalls, f1oored with wood, and about twenty
five privy seats stationary over water
troughs. The air from this source finds it's
way through the rooms very slowly and is at
last exhausted into vent shafts. The pre-
tense of ventilation to these privies and uri-
mails is a joke. The four recitation rooms
have no means of ventilation, except the win
dows. One of the school rooms is ventilated
back into the coal bin, and the rate of move
ment in the air is such that the air returning
to the coal bin must be chemically very closely
related to the coal.
IN THE HARRISON SCHOOL,
built on the same plan (but, thanks to the
absence of sewer, without plumbing in the
basement) the amount of air exhausted from
one room was 156 cubic feet per occupant per
hour. In all rooms tested the air exhausted
was far too little for good ventilation, except
one room of the second story in which the
exhaust was S96 cubic feet per occupant per
hour. The lower rooms ventilate into the
upper rooms through the halls, as shown by
the fact that in the room from which 500
cubic feet per occupant per hour were
exhausted, only $50 cubic feet per occupant
per hour were supplied by the air shaft.
Tests were carefully made by two of the sub
scribers on a cold still day. If you are fear
full of the cost of fresh air, Mr.. Austin, the
heating firm subscribing to this letter will |
agree to heat properly constructed building
of equal accommodations and give minimum
of T50 cubic feet of fresh warm air per oecu-
pant per hour, and with less cost in fuel than
the public is now paying.
THE WORST OF ALL
Of the buildings visited by us the Emerson
is far the worst. It is particularly well cal |
culated to burn rapidly if fire should once |
start in it. The sanitary (?) appliances con- |
sist of about the same number of urinals and |
privy seats as in the Clay building with |
more wooden floor and, say, eight set wash
basins. The whole are supposed to waste |
into cesspools; but these have several times |
overfowed on and under the basement floor, |
but little flushing of the fixtures |
can be INDUCED in. The emptying of the |
privy sinks is accompanied by an ominouS |
gurgling at the wastes of the basins, and it is |
probable that this emptying opens the water |
seals of ali basin wastes. the arrangements /
for fresh air being the same as in the Clay |
building the public will be able to judge |
what sort of treShening it gets. |
Let us have in substance scrap of CONVEX
sation that passed between an inquirer and |
teBcher of this school:
Inq.-Do you find the ventilation of the |
room good?
Teacher-The ventilation would be good |
were it not for the fresh air supply, which |
smells so bad that we have to keep it shut off, |
People coming in from the halls ard out of |
doors used to remark on the bad air of the |
room until shut it off.
We ask you in conclusion what there is !
about the people of this city that leads you |
to think they require the least skilled con-
struction in their school buildings of any city |
in the country?
The committee will. by tomorrow, have
a number of physicians certifi- |
Gates, substantiating the above.
st. Louis Hotel, Lake Minneton
This famous and popular summer resort
hotel will be opened informally on Monday,
June II, under the management of Mr.. I.
ID. Crawford. The many improvements of
the house andgrounds make the place more !
attractive than ever, and it is the intention
of the management to add new and enter
tanning features fora their guests. The IA
nous Lyndale spring waters will be served
exclusively throughout the house, making it
more health resort than ever.