The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-10-17
A SOURCE OF HEALTH.
The Open Fireplace . Good Medium II
the Removal Of Foul Air.

|
the Removal Of Foul Air.
Fireplaces and CRATES are delightful
adjuncts to the house, and according
| to physician a great benefit also
| When man learned to make and con.
troll fire for the purposes of warmth
and the preparation OF food. he took a
notable start upward in the scale OF
| civilization. When he SO adopted it as
to have a fireplace in his dwelling, that
confined, concentrated and reflected
the FIRE and carried away the smoke.
he builded for all ages-for so long as
man has fuel to burn. the CRATE fire or
| fireplace will retain its place in his
heart and his needs.
Even when not in use a fireplace is
valua bic as channel for admitting
fresh air, and when in use it removes
foul air, constantly renewing and
changing the atmosphere, which is so
essential to the sanitary conditions of
our dwellings. In all properly venti-
lated rooms. cold air should enter at or
near the ceiling, by registers so con-
structed that the incoming current can
be regulated at will. OF course some
fresh air will find its way into almost
any room around the window sashes,
or it may be admitted by lowered
sash, but it is much better plan to be
able to control its entrance by a regis
ter.
Foul air should always find its exit
on level with the floor if possible, for
foul air is heavier than pure air. as a
rule, and therefore falls to the lowest
part of the room. A properly con-
structed chimney flue. heated and con-
Meeting fireplace with outer air, will
always cause such draft as sucks out
Of the room much air, and, taking it
from the floor, removes the harmful
elements and greatly changes its char
acter.
Much more air will enter through a
fresh air register. or around the sash
and through crevices in walls, where
an active overflow from the floor is
kept up, for in this way partial
vacuum is produced which the outside
air strives to fill. A fireplace will heat
a room more evenly than a stove, when
these currents are kept up, than where
they do not exist, because of a more
thorough mixture of the air. The
heated air OF the room, rising to the
ceiling, met by the incoming current
of fresh, cool air, is purified and the
cold air is modified, SO that as it set
ties. by the suction of the fiue at the
floor to the level Of the lungs it is both
purer and warmer than it otherwise
would be. TO let in cold air near the
floor is to cool off unduly the lower
strata of air in the room, and so pre-
pare the way for cold feet q
While carbonic acid gas is not neces-
air, its presence is signal of danger, for
the excretions from the inner and outer
surfaces of the body give faint and
odor, and furnish infectious conditions.
If possible the carbonic acid gas
should not exceed .O8 per cent
per LOCO, and when it equals
per 1000 the air is positively in
furious On the basis of 1000 cubic
'eet of space for each person, to keep
he carbonic air at or below .O6 per
,ent. per 1 200. 1000 cubic feet of fresh
,ir should be admitted into a room
'very hour. If two persons, therefore.
'ccupy room fifteen feet square and |
line feet high 6,00G cubic feet of fresh |
lir should be admitted every hour.
Heated air contains less oxygen per
-olume than cool air. In the ordinary |
house no way Is specially provided. un-
ess by the fireplace, for removing the /
oul air from dwelling house The /
more freplaces in the home the more
'ood air, and good cheer and good
health. Consumption and filth dis.
ases would be less frequent if these
delightful and healthful aids to venti-
alton were more numerous in our
Iwellings. Rural.