The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-31
RAILROADS SHOW
 MUCH INTEREST Question of Proper Ventilation
 Much Discussed IS COMPLICATED SUBJECT Tendency Is to Revert to the Old Ideas of the Anclents and Admit Air From Above-Numerous
 Plans Suggested.
IS COMPLICATED SUBJECT

0dsHlnBlOnl July oV.-NSpecldl.l-1He ne III vestigations now being made by the loca boards of health of number of th' larger cities into the subject of yentila. tion and its relation to the public health are being followed by railroad officials with even more interest than by the United States medical officers, as the latter are concerned almost solely be- cause of the scientitic problems involved while the former are wathing their pro gross from a utilltarian stanopoint.
 As the outcome of the experiments is 1 expected to enhance the comfort of the travelling public and further protect il from disease the subject is regarded as being one of the greatest importance to 1 the general public. Dr. C. B. Dudley, the well known chemist of the Pennsylvania railroad system, who has spent a number of years in Investigating this subject, re- gently said: Tt seems not improbable 1 that If vote of the travelling public were to be taken as to improvement in pas senger cars a large majority would favor ventilation, and 1t is fair. in justice to railroad officers, to say that this is not ignored by them. They are equally con versant with the fact that the passenger coach, especially the Pullman car, is not l properly ventilated and because of the extreme difficulty of the problem.'
 Method of Ventilation.
 For twenty years the Pullman company has sought a method of insuring perfect ventilation of its cars, chair cars as well l as seepers, with a lack of success to which the travelling public bears witness. For ten years the Pennsylvania railroad ! naf int toff a,, ,tal laboratory at Altoona, for the same pur- pose while systems have been devised and inventions patented almost without number in an effort to solve the problem of supplying the passengers in the rail way coach with pure, fresh air, without cinders, dust on smoke, and without a draft.
 Consequently, if the investigations and | experiments in progress under the direc- l tion of the local boards of health of such cities as St. Louis, Baltimore, Chicago Boston, Brooklyn and New York, shall result in casting new light upon this sub- jeet and in obtaining better ventilation for the street cars, especially, the railroad officials will have reason to be very grateful.
 At the interstate commerce commission 1t was learned that the rivalry between l tH0 AoiiA VolOS III llllS ulTeCIlOn IS very pronounced. Recently the Pennsylvania has adopted the most elaborate and ex- pensive system of ventilation employed on any railroad in the United States and under the direction of Dr. Dudley has equipped over one thousand Of It's coaches l with this system The air is taken in through hoods covered with wire gauge, passes through a vertical down-take tc l a space underneath the floor and thence into heater boxes and out through a tu. bular aperture situated under each seat into the main aisle.
 Other systeme Tried.
 Other railroads, among them the New York Central the New York, New Haven and Hartford, the Wabash, the Delaware Lackawana and Western, and the Mis- souri Pacific, have adopted other means to the same end. The Central railroad of New Jersey for instance has recently undertaken to refit all it's passenger cars | to secure perfect ventilation and it's of l fcials claim it will be soon operating the | best ventilated cars in the country. This claim is disputed by President Ramsey of the Wabash line, and A. c. Bird, vice president of all the Gould lines. who ad- vance the same claim for their roads. | The experiments on the Wabash and Gould lines have been made under the personal direction of MT. Bird and MT. Ramsey and on their own private cars.
 Reports received here indicate that the boards of health have directed their ef- forts to the ventilation of street cars for the same reasons that made public ve- | hicles the first point attacxed in the cru sade against indiscriminate expectoratior when the campaign for more thorough l sons being that nowhere else are so many people so often and so long confined ir such small space. Already much bene- ficial work has been done by the boards of health in securing Improvements ir the ventilation of public school buildings and It Is understood that following the 1 investigations as to the ventilation Of street cars the boards of health interested will take up the subject or the proper ventilation of churches, theatres and oth- CT public halls, over which the municipal authorities may have control.
 Treatment for Consumption.
 The attention given this matter by the local health officials is traceable to the successful "open-air treatment for con sumption. Physiological evidence makes certain the paramount importance of proper aeration of the blood, which gath CTS up the impurities of the body and returns to the lungs for purification, which throw off all the refuse in the form of carbon dioxide-carbonic acid gas.
 The process of vitiating the atmose- phere is startlingly rapid. A healthy adult will pass through the lungs three l thousand cubic feet of air per hour. On | its expulsion this will contain an average | of .0636 cubic feet of carbonfc acid. At mospheric air contains .o4 per thousand vols, 209.6 of oxygen, 790 of nitrogen, wa tery vaper varying with the temperature and traces of ammonia, organic matter, l ozone, salts of sodium, etc., carbon diox- | ide causes death at 50 per 1000 vols and | has been proved dangerous at 15 Tc maintain a healthy condition respiratory lmpurity must be rendered from 0636 tc .02 by the constant supply of air, and the standard of ventilation is the purifica- l tion of inhabited enclosed spaces to that l point where the air seems as fresh or entering as outside air To effect this each person In car should have 6Ot cubic feet of fresh air per hour.
 Experiments are Made. | Experiments have proven that air nov ing at the rate of only two miles an hour which is almost imperccptible, and allow. | ed to pass through a space twenty feet wide, will change the air of the space 52S times in One hour. The problem is how to provide an adequate supply oi l fresh air of natures own mixing at