The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-02-24

ter basin in order that it may not De
overheated and produce steam, winch
might impregnate the air with an OF
fensive odor. In the summer time TINS
air tunnel is niled with ice IN place ol
cast-iron radiators, and over this inc
heated air from the summer sky enter
ing the building is modified and cooled
in a delightful manner, so that
no matter what may be the altitude
of the thermometer beneath the sum
mer sun, it is cool and pleasant in any
part of the capitol building. OF course
it is more expensive than the proeluc-
ton of heat, but during the long ses-
sitons of congress, when our representa-
tive citizens are obliged to occupy their
places in the house and senate, it is abb
salutely necessary for the continuance
Of their lives and of their health
that they be supplied with pure
air. Were it not for this continuance,
SO signally appropriate and ably man
aged, the great wiBdowless legislative
halls would be covered constantly with
the gloom of the valley of the shadow
OF death, because the air within the
walls would be SO rank and impure that
human beings could not live there.
1t is estimated that the capacity OF
the house is such that sixteen hundred
individuals may occupy the floor and
the galleries. The quantity of air re-
CURED by each individual is thirty cubic
feet per minute, and double that
amount at other seasons Of the year.
There should be at least ventilation
of fifty thousand cubic feet per minute,
and in some seasons of the year not less
than hundred thousand cubic feet per
minute. The total openings for the adj
mittance of fresh air amount to about
three hundred square feet, while in
the gallery there are similar openings
aggregating about one hundred and
twenty-five square feet.
Now it must be understood that it
would not do to have these constant
currents of air rushing in at any one
particular place, thus giving colds and
coughs and all manner of diseases.
Hence the entire currents have been so
arranged that they counterfeit and
neutralize each other, and produce no
drafts. All the air assumes uniform
upward direction, SO that there are only
two or three places where the currents
of air may be especially noticed. Be-
tween statuary hall and the great ro-
tunda there is small spiral staircase
facing the front of the building, through
which an exit is made, beneath the
great central east front staircase. By
the introduction Of an air pipe from the
basement, the ingress of air is SO ac-
CELEBRATED that at any season Of the year
person standing in the passage be-
tween the rotunda and statnary hall
could readily take a very severe cold.
This fact being known to all the peo-
pie having business at the capitol, they
seldom stand a single moment there.
Another place to catch a cold would be
between the rotunda of the supreme
court room, directly opposite the chilly
place just mentioned But these two
places are the least used of all public
openings into the capitol, and therefore
are the fittest for the ingress Of exces-
sive amounts of fresh air.
So carefully calculated have been all
these sources Of ingress for cool and
hot air that the temperature of the en-
tire building is maintained ordinarily
at exactly seventy degrees; that tenn
perature having been found to be most
agreeable and healthful to persons
whose habits are sedentary.
SMITH d. FRY.