St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-03-03
A BOARD BY The EARS
School Inspectors Have the
Reddest Hot Meeting Of
the Season.
The Ruttan Ventilation Sys-
TEN Fiereely and Fully
Overhauled.
A Newspaper Effort to Inhu-
enee the Report Made by
DR.. Hoyt.
Some Raey Reading in Which
Many a Motive Is Made
Apparent.

| The meeting of the board of education
last evening was by far the longest and
most important of the past six months,
the members being in session till nearly
midnight, and disposing of some very
important matters which have been
under consideration for some months.
Those present were Inspectors Groom
quist, Foley, Giesen, Keogh, Kuhles,
Nettleton. Rodger, Schetfer, Wright
and President Haas.
After few minor matters had been
| called up, the lOng-debated question of
| the Ruttan system of heating and venti-
| lating made its appearance, and for two
! hours kept the board busy. DIR. Hoyt,
the health officer, and State Chemist
! Eberman were present, and both were
called upon to defend the report they
had made of the system of ventilating
| now used in the schools, which has been
| published in the GLOBE.
The Ventilating Fight.
In connection with the question two
communications were read, the first
| being from the Association OF Master
Steam Filters and Master Plumbers of
| st. Paul, consisting Of the results OF
| their investigation of the sanitary con-
ditions of the city schools. The report
stated that at the Sibiey school very
bad state of affairs was found, the air in
the school being poisoned by fearful
stencil from the sewer cOnnec-
tons and closets. AT the Van
Buren, school an offensive odor
was noticed on approaching the
building. The closets and receiving
vaults were in filthy condition, and
the principal Of the school stated that
he had often been obliged to close
school on account of foul odOrs. The
worst state of affairs was found at the
humboldt school, the closets not having
been cleaned for two months. The
same was found at the Garfield, Harri-
son and Hawthorne schools, the details
OF the report being unfit for publicd-
ton. The report was referred to the
real estate committee.
This was followed by a letter of de-
Tense from the Ruttan Warming and
entiiating company, which sent long
communication to the board in answer
to the report made by the master
| plumbers association, 4 copy OF which
report they had received in Chicago last
week. The Ruttan company accuses
| the plumbers of furnishing misleading
report, as they are anxious to have the
| present dry closet system abandoned
tan company denied the truth of the
statements made by the plumbers that
| offensive OdOrS existed in the schools
visited, the only place where any odor
| exists being in the closet vault In
answer TO the statement that there is
! danger of q possible reverse current in
! the system, the Ruttan company states
that if this occurred it would be noticed
al once and the current changed in less
than five minutes. But with water
closets instead of dry earth closets.
sewer gas does get into buildings and
is not discovered until an epidemic has
broken out. The company stated that
| there are no disease germs in the odOr of
Smead closets, it being d harmless, dis
| agreeable odor which can be removed
III few minutes without danger to
health. The company gave an account
| OF the dipUte Mt. Smead had in Cleve-
| land. and made a proposition to go to
| Cleveland with committee and pay the
expenses of the trip if their account of
| the dispute be found untrue, out if
! found true, the plumbers association
| to pay the eXpenset. In concluding
their letter the company stated that the
| Smead closets are in use in over :, 800
schools in the United States, which
they consider the best proof of their
/
investigated by thirty-iye different
committees. who had highly praised it..
The company insist that the system in
st. Paul is all right and will stand any
/ fair investigation. At this point In
spector Wright moved that the report
OF DIR. Hoyt and Mr.. Eberman be ac-
cepted and placed on file. This
brought Inspector Rodger to lis
feet and it was apparent to all
that he was in fighting mood.
He was furnished with copy of the
GLOBE which contained a long com
municatlon from Prof. Bailey, of the
Ruttan company, and also copy of an
evening paper which some weeks agO
Published a letter from a Mr.. Klein
upon the subject of ventilation. After
reading extracts from the two papers,
! Mr.. ROdger was called to order by the
chair for diverging from his subject,
and then addressed the board as follows
Inspector Rodgers Roast.
have no doubt every member of this board
| has read the analysis of Dr. Hoyt's and Prof
| Eberman' report, made i'll an evening paper
lome weeks ago, and while may not be able
! to add much to what was there said, | wish
| 10 call your attention to some points which,
in my estimation, need explanation
| DR.. HOyt tells us in his report that the pll-
pits do not suffer for fresh air. that six
! is perfect ventilation" and that the aver
| age i'll our schools is 6T1 that nowhere
| i'll the rooms was there to be found
| trace of ammonia, ana, consequently. no
/ dangerous gases penetrate the rooms from
| the closets and urinalS. In short. he SAYS the
| schools are all right. Let us now look at his
| report. He says the air is changed ~ times
an hour, on an average. or once in fourteen
minutes. which all venlilating engineers
! know is the standard requirement. But this
| statement is contradiction of DR. Hovt's
| own figures. which show the air changes
| twice as often. and in the case of the Tildeu
| school. twenty-three times an hour
There is no doubt i'll my own mind why the
| report was changed TO read this way. but
aside from this. it is interesting 10 examine
| DR.. Hoyts manipulation OF figures. done i'll
| ignorance or to mislead this board. From
| his own figures. we find the air changes 4
times per hour, but by proper calculation
| from his own fgufes ii changes more than
| nine times per hour This point is only i'm
| portant i'll showing how this report was
made and how much reliance the board is to
! place III it.
DR.. Hoyt makes his estimate upon the total
| amount of fresh air supplied. dividing this.
OF course, by the total cubic feet of space in
! all rooms.
Is it not sell evident to every member OF
this board that the amount of air supplied
! each pupil is derived from the total amount
| removed from the room when in excess of
| the amount supplied. or from the amount ad-
| mitted when i'll excess of the amount eX.
! hadsted. If 100000 cubic feet of air be taken
! from the room in an hour end only 90 900 be
admitted through the regular channels
then the other 10000 must come through
| windows. doors and cracks. Certainly one
| 10000 cubic feet have entered. and il
there are forty pupils, each has
%I,EACORS SAVY