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

which is termed the deposit chamber by
this Plumbers committee, but that is
where the Odors should be.
They say that the chief danger is a
possible reverse current. 1t is we'll
known fact that if by accident there
was a reversal of the currents it would
be detected in an instant, and immedi-
ately the remedy applied and a change
III the current made in five minutes or
less. But not so with water closets.
Sewer gas can and does get into build
ings and is not detected until an cpl
demlc of scarlet fever, typhoid fever or
dlphtheria has taken place.
There are no disease germs in the
odors of Smead'S closets. 1t is simply a
harmless, dIsagreeable odOr, which can
be removed in a few minutes without
danger to health.
One of the plumbers says his father,
mother and some other members of his
family died from sewer-gas poisoning;
yet he wants the Smead closets removed,
from which no one has vet been poi
S0ned or died, and water closets put in.
Why, we do not know. unless he is in
collision with some undertaken
One of the Ruttan company and Mr..
VIM. Rodger went into the 'innermost
recesses" Of the Smead closet vault and
deposit chamber of the Rice school on
Oct. -, 1890, but did not discover any
ground saturated or green deposits, and
although the urinal had just been in
use, all the urine we could find would
not fill pint cup; and there were no
OdorS Onlywhat would naturally be found
in closet vault. On the same day we
visited the Hawthorne, Rice, Cleveland,
German andJackSon schools, and in none
of these schools did we discover the least
trace of closet odor excepting in closet
vaults, where it belongs and where the
teachers and pupils do not have to go
to attend their classes and recitatiOnS.
There would be just as much sense in
our criticiSing the smell in the sewers
connecting the plumbers water closets
in your schools containing water closets
as there is in this plumbers committee
crltlclSlng the odors in Smead closet
vault.
One of the plumbers wrote a letter to
Col. Geo. E. Waring, of Newport, r. l.,
and has received an answer to be read
at this meeting in connection with their
report, in which he says he would not
recommend the dry closets where good
sewerage could be obtained. Now, let
us see who Col. Warning IS, so as to I'M
derstand his motive for recommending
the water closet and sewerage system.
Col. Waring is consulting engineer
for sanitary and agricultural drainage,
and on March IL, 1872, was granted a
patent on an earth cloSet-not a dry
closet as he says. His whole patent is
for deodorzing the deposits with earth,
and it is In no sense dry closet, and it
is doubtful whether he ever saw dry
closet. If he had he would not call his
earth closet dry closet, for there is
more difference in construction between
his earth closet and Smead's dry closets
than there is between Smead's closets
and plumbers water closets. AS he is
the patentee Of an earth closet, it makes
us competitor of his; consequently he
joins our other comprehensive steam
heaters and plumbers-in fighting us.
Some of our opponents say they will
have read at this meeting extracts from
Cleveland, o., papers, wherein the
Smead closets were condemned in that
city. We wish to say that these ex-
tracts are old trash, and relate to the
trouble Mr.. Smead had III Cleveland
in 1889. The facts. in brief, about
Smead's trouble in Cleveland are as fol
lows: Two years prior to 1889 Mr.
Smead placed his system of warming,
ventilation and dry closets in several
school buildings in that city, one of
which was the placing of the Smead
closets i'll the Cleveland high school,
which was and is heated with steam. The
closets worked we'll i'll all the buildings
in that city until some time in 1889,
when they had big wind storm, and
then they had trouble with the closets
in the high school only. Mr.. Smead's
attention was called to this matter, and
he sent one of his engineers to find ont
what the trouble was. He then found
that Smead had made an error in con-
Meeting with chimneys that were built
in the building when the building was
built. and were not high enough. Mr..
Smead at once built the chimneys
higher at his expense, and the trouble
was at an end, although the competitors
of Mr.. Smead used it against him. Since
that date the Cleveland Board built
large addition to this building, and, in
stead of putting in steam heating, the
same as they have in the old part of the
building where the trouble occurred,
they put in Smead's warming and ven
tilating apparatus.
We wish to say further regarding the
Cleveland matter that that Board of Ed
ucatiOn has contracted with Mr.. Smead
for his apparatus for all school build
ings built, and all old ones Overhauled,
since the fight was made against him in
1889, excepting one small building.
Smead'S contracts with the Cleveland
Board for the past year amounted to
about S43, 900, and he now has contracts
OH hand for more work to be done in
the Cleveland schools during the coming
summer.
We have copy of letter reading as
follows:
CLEVELAND Ohio, Sept. IS, 1889.
To Whom 1t May Concern: Il here
NV 4i,nf In ~
heating and ventilating is in operation
in six of the public school build
ings of this city, and that it
gives perfect satisfaction; that it
has been placed in the new Hough
avenue building now nearing compile
ton, and that about four weeks ago the
Board OF Education contracted for its
being placed in three buildings just con
tracted for"
[Signed] j. A. GILBERT.
President Board of Education.
Now, gentlemen, we make you this
proposition: Your Board to appoint a
committee to go with us to Cleveland,
o., to investigate. If this committee find
the above statements about Cleveland to
be untrue,w we will pay all expenses of the
trip. If the committee find that our
StdleHlCUt ID q true Oue, anu Also Hnu
that the article published in the Even
ing Dispatch some days ago about the
Cleveland, Ohio, school is not true since
Smead's troubles there in 1889 as above
related, then the Committee of Master
Plumbers to pay all expense of the trip.
You will see, gentlemen, that this
whole fight is made against us by our
competitors, and Their reports should go
where they properly belOng-in the
waste basket. Is it not unfair to us to be
investigated by our competitors, and do
you not think their report is unjust, I'M
fair and unworthy of notice? If not, why
have they kept 1t secret so long? They
have had 1t ready to present for more
than two months. We have made re-
peated investigations and examinations
of our system in your schools, and have
always found the closets and warming
and ventilating apparatus in excellent
condition; and this statement is borne
out by the report of the health depart
ment of your city. There are no better
closets in the known world than the