Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1897-12-29
Shall We yentilate or Shall we perish!

Shall We Yentilate or Shall we perish!
To the Editor of the New DOMINION:
The most vital consideration in
relation to the, new school building
is the matter of ventilation. Just
as the most vital matter to the
health of human being is the air
he breathes.
If that building is not sufficiently
ventilated it is just as much fail
ure as if the foundation were ineom-
plete. No child ought to be sub
jected day by day to the deadly eff
fects of impure air. 1t were better
that our children should grow up
without education than that they
should get it at the cost of impaired
health.
The School Board has wisely Civ
en- careful consideration and agreed
to invest a large proportion of the
cost of the building in a heating APP
paratus that will help to ventilate
it. But if the ventilation of that
building depends on the heating APP
paratus alone no matter how much
it costs-it will be a failure. If the
architect has planned that building
with reference to yentilating it by
the heating apparatus alone, the
plan ought to be rejected because it
will be failure.
i am not propounding a theory
/ am simply giving the result of un-
iyersal experiment | am not as
sorting that yentilating apparatus
is not good thing and ought not to
be put in every public building, but
| am asserting most positively that
there is no heating apparatus in the
market that, can be depended on Of
itself to keep the air of an occupied
public building sufficiently fresh not
to be oppressive and deleterious to
health
[ see the pastor of the Presbyter-
ian church claims that the ventila-
ting apparatus in that church is a
success. OF course he believes that,
and it is probable that his church
has an up-to-date heating and ven
tilating apparatus. But / will wager
dollars against peanuts that on any
day he may designate, with the seat
ing capacity of the audience room
fairly occupied, and depending on
the ventilating apparatus alone,
most of his audience viii be asphy
lated and all of them more or less
stupefied by theair before even one
Of his short, crisp sermons is con
Guided This is not theory either,
because it has been demonstrated.
There is more carbonic acid gas
consumed in this town than any /
know. There is more indifference to
bad air There are more sermons
spoiled, more entertainments fall flat
from the effects Of bad air than any
other cause There is not a public
hall in town that can be properly
ventilated or any care is taken to
properly yentilate it. People don t
care. Three or four hundred people
crowded into the yestrN Of the NJ. e.
church On Christmas night, where
the air was consumed every minute
and they sat complacently in that
atmosphere for an hour and half.
They didn't die on the spot and were
therefore assured that no harm came
of it, but it is not improbable that
the health Of some of that audience
will be affected for a lifetime by
what they took into their lungs that
evening
1t is barbarous and shameful for
an intelligent people to submit to
that kind of thing. 1t will be bar
barous and shameful if our costly
new school building should be con
strueted as reservoir for carbonic
acid gas. OXYGEN.