St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-03-06

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the holes in the bottom efectually. At
the other end of this receiving pit, and
Immediately over the fan placed in the
exhaust shaft, was another receiver for
the reception of urine from the other
end of the urinal above. This is gal
vaniZed iron box feet inches long by
8 feet and II inches deep, and is placed
on coil of steam pipe. What the OBJ
jeet of having steam coil under this is
we are not prepared to say. The box
contained about eight inches OF the
most fOul-Smelling urine. We were in
formed that this box, as well as the
other, had not been cleaned, or their con-
tents removed. for over two months. Our
further investigation of this buildingwas
suddenly brought to close by the ILL
ness of two of our party. The Garfield
school was next visited. The deposits
in this school were found soft, and, as in
the case of the other places visited, at
the end which was most used CON-
bination of fOul-smelling stuff was de-
posted on the cement and mortar floor.
The closets here are dark, foul-smelling
and poorly ventilated. The janitOr stated
that it was impossible to keep the rooms
smelling Sweet" and he, for one, did
not propose to put in all his time living
in privy vault. He found it necessary
TO flush the urinalS with Sprinkllng
can. but that did not seem to do much
good. This is comparatively new
building. but already the whole interior
of the structure seems to be impregnated
with divers and different smells. The
location is decidedly favorable for good
ventilation, vet the ventilation seems to
be lacking.
The Hawthorne school was next
visited. The closet and urinal system
in this building are what might be called
combination system, for the reason
that the Smead drying" plan, as in the
other cases, is applied to the closets, but
the urinai is connected with the sewer.
There is an ingenious hood for ventilat-
ing the room in the immediate vicinity
of the urinal, but it does not seem to be
effective at ali times. The janltor
tiuSheS the urinal by means of a hose
there being no stationary supply of
water over the urinal-when he thinks
the water has been evapOrated from the
trap in connection with the sewer. 1t
will be seen that great deal of con-
fidence is reposed in the statements of
parties interested that ventilation does
ventilate.
This school was evidently built to give
the system" fair show. The closets
are light, and the lighting of the base
ment where they are placed is very
good.
The Harrison school was the next.
This is also pew school building. In
the deposit room of the closets Oh both
the boys and girls sides we found the
eXcreta soft, foul, and. with the excep-
ton of a flew sample lOts' at the eu-
trance, ill-smelling. The urine from
the boys side we found collected in a
brick box about eighteen inches square.
TO this box was connected sewer trap,
which had evidently been recently
plugged up with cement. The urine
collected and gradually soaked away
into the sand. A similar cOntrivance
was found in the girls closets, but there
was no urine collected about the box.
We were unable TO determine whether
this school was connected to the sewers
or to ceSSpOol. In either event. the
connections, if used. would be most
detrimental and in direct opposition to
the building ordinan e of the city.
In conclusion we wish to state that.
with the exception of the two last-men-
toned schools, the water closets are
dark, dingy and unfit for children to Oc-
I eupy. 1t is not necessary for US in this
report to go into detail as to why
closet for children should be clean,
| roomy, light and well ventilated, but we
dohOpe that some OF our progressive ply
SicianS who take an interest in public
matters will look this matter up. 1t Is,
to our minds. worthy OF a committee of
investigation from that time-honnred
cOuservator of the public interests of ST.
Paul, the Chamber of Commerce.
Yours respectfully,
w. j. FREANEY,
THOMAS DAVIS,
j. p. ADAMSoN,
S. a. DILLON,
w. }. HAWKINS,
g. III. MANTON,
Committee.
On motion of Inspector Rodger, the
communication was ordered incorpo-
rated i'll the proceedings and referred to
Committee OH Real Estate.
From the Ruttan Warming and Venti-
lating Co.
CHICAGO, Feb. %, 1891.
To the honorable Board of Education OF
the City of st. Paul.
GENTLEMEN: We have an extract of
the report Of the Master Plumbers As
ISOLATION, which has been read this
evening. This extract bears date of
Feb. Il. 1891, and is signed by J. p.
Adamson, president of the Master
Plumbers Association, and wish to say
that their report is very misleading, and
is gotten up for the purpose of having
your Board abandon the dry closet SyS-
will notice that the plumbers associa-
ton and the plumbers signing this re-
port are competitors OF ours, which
should be a sufficient answer for their
presenting their report. 1t cannot be
said that they have made fair investi-
CATION, for they started out very much
prejudiced against the system. They
visited the Humboldt. Hawthorne, Van
Buren, and five other school buildings.
fh1.t. fhax- tllaa.- u
not work as 1t is claimed. They say
that the eXcreta does not dry through
and through. and the urine was in no
case dried up. They say they went
right to the "innermoSt recesseS" of
their drying chambers and took observa-
tions of what they saw, and what any
other person could see for themselves.
They admit that they had to take stick
and push it into the little piles of ex-
creta to find whether it dried through
and through. The inference from this
part of their report is that it was dry
enough for all practical purposes.
They speak of system OF pans at the
Humboldt school. They also say that
the urinal at the Hawthorne school is
connected with the sewer and is regu-
larry flushed by the janitOr; that in the
Van Buren, school the basement brick
walls and ground underneath the vaults
seem permeated to such an extent that
the air is thick and offensive, and
that the chief danger of The system
is a liability of reverse currents,
from whence an epidemic is liable
to occur at any time.
Now, what are the facts? In the
Humboldt school there is a system of
pans i'll the vault to keep the urine
away from the belts. shatting and pull
leys used for mechanical ventilation.
and hold it while it is being evaporated.
None of this has or ever Will get outside
the vault, and it cannot sa.urate the
walls or ground underneath the vaults,
as the bottoms of all vaults, where the
Smead dry closets are used. are cemented
and vaults so constructed that the urine
drains to the bottom of the ventilating
tiues. The ventilating fues are con-
structed on solid stone foundations sew
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