The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1889-04-03

AT meeting of the Board of Ed
ucation of the independent School
District of Point Pleasant, held SAT-
urday. March 30. 1889. the following
report was read and received;
To the Board of Education:
The undersigned COMMITTEES. APP
pointed by your Board 70 visit the
city of Wheeling and investigate
the system of heating and venti-
hitting school buildings, known as
the Smead System, and including
also the Dry Closet System, beg
leave to state that they have per-
formed that duty and submit the
following report:
AS to difference of temperature in
points iii each of the several rooms,
that is under the entire control of
the teacher, by means of the valve
registers or regulators, so that the
temperature may be raised or low
cred in each and every room on
each floor and be retained ut any
desired degree of heat, as shown by
the thermometers in each room, so
that one or more rooms on first floor
may be 60o or 65o, while the room
above on second floor would show a
temperature of roo or more, or vice
versa, the lower rooms being
warmer and the upper cooler.
The day we examined the work
ings of this system March %, 1880
was very mild one, the thermom-
eter registering go or go out of
doors, but Notwithstanding this and
the fact of the fires being very low
in the furnaces, the thermometer
was easily raised from 70 to 80 in
10 minutes.
One admirable point about the
heating by this system consists in
the uniformity with which the tenn
perature may be raised or lowered,
the variation in six thermometers
placed in as many different places
in the largest room, ranging from
one-h half to two degrees, never ex-
cecding tho latter; average of the
six being one and a half degrees.
To illustrate the ventilation, the
anemometer showed that the air in
room containing upwards of 5000
cubic feet of air was changed every
II to minutes; and to show the
rapidity with which the air circu-
lates, an ounce of essence of pepper
mint was sprinkled on the window
sill outside the grating where the
air from the street enters building,
passing through furnace, and
through rooms on first and second
floors above, thence down again
through outlet vents or grating at
base of same to basement and into
foul air chambers at entrance to
closet, thence out at stack, the odor
of which was detected on upper
floor in 30 seconds, and in foul air
chambers in basement in As seconds,
showing that it had circulated
through entire building in that
length of time
Now as to the dry closets: the
stream of warmed air which is con-
tinually passing through the rooms
and into the vaults, SO completely
dessicatcs the accumulations that
there is no odor observable, and the
only thing necessary TO remove
them entirely is simply the addition
of a very small quantity of coal oil
and ignition by match, the excreta
being entirely consumed, leaving
only, as Il rcsiduum, mere handful
of ashes. This consumption by
burning is made absolutely safe
from the fact that the vaults are
built of brick, with false brick
floor, and are iron-covcrcd. The
ventilation in the water closet was
so excellent that not the slightest
disagrecable odor could be detected,
the ancmometcr in all showing Il
powerful downward draft.
In conclusion, your committee de-
sire to state that one of the prin-
ciplcs of ventilation and heating by
this system depends upon the fact
that as the fresh air from the out
side warmed by passing through
the furnaces rises TO the ceiling, so
the Initiated air being cooler and
dcnscr dcsccnds TO the floor whence
it escapes through the outlet vents
as before mentioned, just as the foul
air in well is not at the top of the
well, but settled down as far as it
can go, and floating just above the
surface of the water, where, as is
well known to all well-diggers, the
dangerous point lies.
If, as is cIaimed for them, the ex-
pense of fuel and attention, repairs,