The Portland daily press., 1892-02-22

y The hest scheme. bllatl nave seen for
size and arrangement OF windows and
masonry or plaster, III the length of
given wall, is this: hrsb The plaster, four
feet, then four W.! WINDOWS v, each in the
opening four feet Wlae' .hen before the
eoab ono Foot wide, and at the other end
If 9TH tho w wail master three feet wide. This
lyo,,ld wake a wall, including windows
and ali twenty-six. Then for the side of
the room we ought to have, first, three
faet of mastering or wainscoting. then a
window ten feet high, then to the ceiling
one Foot making about fourteen feet in
ali Exclpding sashes we should then
have the' windows in glass surface
about 2 feet inches by 8 feet. of a
Iiftle over, The width of room SO ar
RANGED would be properly twenty-one
! feet and tbe window surface to the floor
area would be about to a. ANY school
room fins constructed with windows
finish t0 the outer walls and no buildings
near. would be scientifically and salts
factorily lighted, provided that the light
came anywhere from south of the east
and west compass lines.
Peryerse illumination OF school room
| is as bad as too little Illumination. By
this 1 mean if the windows open too
near the floor or too far down from the
ceiling. in such case shadows are likely
To he thrown on the work and the light
fails to nenetrate to the farther side of
| the room. 1t does not work well in such
eases to cover the lower sash with cur
tain for then the illumination as whole
| is defective.
| When a school house is only one story
high it would be good idea to have the
whole of the left wall in each room one
| large window. with the exception of two
| or three feet of plastered surface at each
end. or pillars OF beams not wider than
twelve inches in between each pair of win
dows, according to the length of the wall.
Light should always come from the left
if possible, and especially is this neces-
sitv where there is much drawing or
writing. If the light comes from behind
it not only throws on the work shadow
of the pupils body'and head, but it daz-
zles the teachers eye so that the faces
and expressions ofthe children are indis-
tinct. If a school room has been ar
ranged so that the windows are on the
right hand, then the desks should be at
once reversed, lestthe hand of the child
in drawing OF writing throw a shadow
on the very spot which is to be occupied
with mark from the pen or rencil.
This cannot be too much insisted upon.
If the light comes from in front, as it
does occasionally in some school rooms,
it must be either insufficient to illumi-
nate the whole room, or else so dazzling
as to do harm to the eyes of those who
face it, to say nothing of preventing any
one seeing what is written on the black
boards, which are often built between
the windows. / trust that none are so
arranged except as necessity. | would
here remark. also, that the blackboards,
even when well arranged as to light, are
generally built too far down towards the
floor. The result is a waste of space,
because the examples cannot be seen
owing to the interference of the scholars
bodies.
Although it is always best to have the
light come from the left, especially when
the children are writing or drawing, it
will not do it have it come solely from
that side or indeed from any other side,
if the room is too wide, that's, more than
the 21 feet which we previously agreed
to call a normal width with a glass sur
face about nine feet high. A room 30 to
40 feet wide cannot bessproperly lighted
by windows from one side only, unless
the windows are 16 feet or more high and
extend fully to the ceiling, while the
size of the wall would measure as much
as 20 or "a feet. Or a room 40 feet wide
with hight of - feet would have to be
nearly all glass on the left side, and eth
Ell additionally behind and in front to be
properly lighted. Where the room is
too wide to be well lighted from the left
side alone, we must have additional
light from the right side, and in order to
avoid cross lights which are ''perverse"
the windows on the right side must be
smaller and higher up in the wall than
those on the left side. They ought to be
one-half the size on the right side of
the left, and not less than six or seven
feet from the floor to the lowest sash.
Then a narrow blackboard could be
built in under them.
A glass roof would be the ideal, for
then there could be no place in the room
unilluminated. But this cannot be done
where snow is prevalent so many months
in the year, nor can we find sufficient
land in cities to indulge in such large
one-storied edifices as would be needed
to accommodate all. If at any time. me-
chanical schools are established in the
state, it would be interesting experiment
tally to try this method of Illuminating.
This has already been satisfactorily done
in many chemical and microscopical lab
oratolies.
The surroundings OF school houses are
of the greatest importance in studying
the question of the proper lighting of
school rooms. No matter how strictly
we follow the standards of proper height,
length and width of the room and proper
proportional size of the windows, the
light in school rooms will be insufficient
if in any way blockaded by trees or
neighboring buildings The most learn
ed French authority demands that the
distance between any school house and
the nearest building ought to be at least
twice the height of the school house itself.
If a school house is 40 feet high, no
buildings should be allowed within so
feet of the same unless the school has so
been arranged that the rooms are not on
that side which is nearer than the pre-
scribed distance to any other building.
If corridors only are on the side of a
school house within 10 or 20 or 30 feet of
the nearest building, no harm will result
from insufficient lighting.
The deleterious effect of the propin-
guilty of high buildings to school houses
has been scientifically demonstrated by
the discovery of a greater degree of
short sightedness in schools in narrow