St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-12-21
STATEMENT OF FACTS
President Bailey, Of the Rut-
tan Warming and Venti-
lating Company,
Has Something to Say Of
Interest on an Interest
ing Topic,
Pertaining to School House
Heating, Board Of Educa-
ton Controversy, Etc.
A Warming and Ventilating
A Warming and Ventilating
System Fulfilling Its
Every Claim.

System of warming and ventilation and
SmeGd's Dry Closets in the st. Paul schools, L
deem il best to give to the public and tax
payers of st. Paul brief history of the intro
duclion of the Ruttan and Snead Systems
into the several school buildings of st. Pau,
and Il statement of facts regarding its cost,
CITE, believing that after reading this state
ment they will come TO the conclusion that
there are always two sides to every case.
On March l, 1886, 1 first met Mr.. E. T.
Williams, who was then chairman of the
Real Estate Committee of the st. Paul Board
of Education. Mr.. Williams requested me to
go to the Van Buren, school building, then
containing twelve rooms, and look it over,
and see if we could not put into it the Rut-
tan System of Warming and Fentila-
ton and Smeads Dry Closets (and
let me say right here that at this
time we did not have our system of warming.
ventilation or dry closets in any school build
ing in st. Paul.. went to the Van Buren,
school, and was accompanied by Mr.. A. r.
Gauger, who was then architect for the
Board of Education. We found the Van
Buren, building heated with ordinary fur
naces, and no ventilation that amounted to
anything. l looked the building over care
fully and went TO see Mr.. Williams. He asked
me 10 give him my proposition so he could
present it to the meeting of the board to be
held that evening. did so, and was given an
opportunity 10 address the board. My prop
osition to the board was that we would fur
nish six of our Ruttan furnaces weighing
$4,000 pounds and all registers for warm
air and ventilation, all valves and regulators
for supplying warm ana cold air and contin-
uous ventilation, all smoke and warm air
pipes and stack heater for ventilating fiue
and dry closet work, and furnish all brick
and carpenter work, painting ana plasterlng
of every kind to complete the work ready Tor
use.
1t should be remembered that this building
had been built several yebrs, and we had to
build into the building large warm air fiues
OF brick for each of the twelve rooms. and
ventilating fue about six feet square from
basement floor up through and above the
roof We also had TO build new ventilating
duets to all of the twelve rooms: build new
staircase leading to the Dase ment; build in,
complete, the Smead dry closet svste m con-
tanning about thirty seats, and build new
fresh air duets much larger than was i'll the
building NV proposition read that we would
take the building as II was then, ana " 'uid
furnish ali materials of every kind to do all
the work to finish everything compete ready
for use, and for the sum of S4.753: We guar
anteed to warm the building to
temperature Of 20 degrees dur dur,
good ventilation In all rooms warmed; and
we also guaranteed that the dry closets
should work satisfactorily. As we were anX-
inus to introduce our system OF warming
and ventilating apparatus and dry closets Ill
the school buildings of st. Paul, we made
price less than the work cost US, and we let
the Board of Education try it from Sept l.
1886, to the middle of March, 1897, without
the Board of Education paying us one cent.
The guarantee was such that if the work was
not satisfactory. after trying it one whole
winter we were to remove the apparatus
from the building, leaving the building IN as
good condition as we fOundlt when work was
commenced. If. after using the apparatus
satisfactory, then the board was TO pay us
our contract price. After the PROPOSE
ton was read it was thought best to
appoint a special committee to go to La
Crosse Wis, TO inspect the syytem i'll oper-
alton in some of the La Crosse school build
ings committee was appointed, consist
ing of DR.. r. Schiffmann. John j. Ellis,
Henry Norman and Ii. Ii. Athey. On March
Norman in La Crosse Or. Schiffmann being
unable to go ON that date. The above
named gentlemen, together with some mem
bers of the La Crosse Board, made very
critical examination of the whole system.
They were so well pleased with what they
saw in the La Crosse school buildings that.
when they made their report to the st; Paul
Board, they not only recommended 1t for the
Van Buren, building, but for the Hendricks
building, then being built. Their reason for
wanting to put it in the Hendricks school
was that they wanted to test its merits in
new building (the Van Buren, being an old
building).
Educa ion was held March 18th, 1886, and
the Board, by unanimous vote. accepted
the report of The Investigating Committee,
and voted to put the system in the Van Blu
rem and Hendricks school buildings. The
system was put into the Two schools during
the summer of 1886 and was given thor.
ough trial during the long, severe winter OF
1886 and 1887. Several members OF the
Board and the Real Estate Committee visited
the two buildings frequently during the win
ter. and were so well pleased with the work
ing of the system that the Board at its regu-
lar meeting, in March or April, 1887, paid US
our contract price in full, and the Board of
Education awarded us contracts Tor several
other school buildings. which were built
during the summer and fall OF 1897. 1t WAS
the opinion of the different members OF the
several boards of education since the spring
of 1886 until the fall of Is $50, that the Rut-
tan system of warming and ventilation and
Smead's dry closets in use in the several
school buildings of St. Paul were as near
perfect as they could be made. The only
member of the board who has been proml-
nent in finding fault with the SYSTEM in 1892
is one who is prejudiced against our COM
pany because we have done most OF the
work of this character in the ST. Paul schools
since 1886. and he is O. competitor OF ours.
The Master Steamitters' and Master Plumo-
ers associations are very actively trying to
work up a feeling against the Ruttan SYSTEM,
Their committee has visited several ST. Paul
schools and, inasmuch as they are competi-
tors of ours, it is only natural that tney
should be against us.
great deal has been said about the con-
tracts being awarded us without competition.
In explanation of this will say that there is
no otner furnace made like the ''Ruttan'
furnace. They are much larger than any
others made in this country. The furnaces
placed into an eight-room school building in
St. Paul weigh ), 400 pounds each, and there
are four of them in each elght-room building.
The largest furnace made by any other man
ufacturer weighs not to exceed 100
pounds. The Ruttan furnace is made very
heavy TO make it durable. They are made
large to give them great radiating surface, as
the Ruttan system furnishes large volumes
of warm air, and not small quantity of hot
air as in other furnaces, and as the ventila-
ton of rooms depends on large volumes OF
air, that is why the Ruttan system has
always stood at the front as a ventllator.
The furnaces, valves and dry closets are pat
ented. No one else does or has any right to
manufacture them. There is no other system
of dry closets worthy of the name, and as
the apparatus adopted by the Board was not
for sale by any one else, nothing could be
gained by advertising (See section 81 OF
the bylaws of the ST. Paul Board Of Educa-
tion.)
AS our furnaces. valves and Smead's dry
closets are patented, the Board had perfect
right 10 award us the contracts without ad-
vertising Whenever we have submitted a
proposition to the Board. there have been
more than two-thirds of the members elect
present, and we have always secured a
unanimous vote with one exception, which
was at meeting held during the spring of
1883, when one member of the Board voted
against us. This member said his reasons
for voting against us was that he was not in
favor of the location of the building.
Much has been said in the papers about the
cost of our apparatus in the st. Paul school
buildings. 1t will be noticed that in the re-
port of the Committee on Retrenchment that
they say that it must not be forgotten that
the figures giving cost of our system in the
various schools does not show the real cost of
introducing the Ruttan system. as the Board
of Education is invariably asked to do the re-
pairing for the introduction Of the Ruttan
system. This statement is true Of new
buildings. but it is not true in the Old school
buildings. In all Of the school buildings
that were already built where we placed our
system, we furnish our apparatus and all
mason and carpenter work and everything
complete at our original contract price, and
in executing this work we put into these old
school buildings over 100000 brick, be-