The Republican journal., 1907-08-08
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS.
Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the
High and Grammar School Buildings by
A. G. Young, M. D., Secretary Of the
State Board of Health.

dlgh ana Grammar SCnool DullulASs W
A. G. Young, M. D., Secretary Of the
State Board of Health.
AUGUSTA, Me, July 80, 1907.
Mr.. Charles Bickford, Chairman School
Committee, Belfast, Me.
DEAR SIR:-I have the honor to make
the following report to you on the re-
suits of my examination of the High
School Building in your city and of the
Grammar School Building on the same
lot neari it.
HIGH SCHOOL.
The high school building is ancient
1t was built,H have been told, in 1910,
not for the special purpose of school
building, but as court house. 1t is
brick building 40x6O feet outside di-
mansions, and three stories high.
BASEMENT.
The basement or cellar is faulty. Its
ceiling is too low, it is not we'll lighted,
it is damp. The water closets for the
boys are insufficient in number, only
two, and they are of the fashioned
long hopper construction with their
traps set below the cemented floor, it
they have any. They are dirty and i'll
kept. That will undoubtedly remain
the record until the school is supplied
with fixtures which are modern and
command the respect of the boys, and
which do not render the efforts of the
lanitor futile. For the girls there are
just three closet bowls, for an average
of ia girls in the four rooms on the
three floors.
y light, dry, clean basement beneath
a schoolhouse is always desirable, be-
cause the building above it when artl-
ficially heated acts, as a whole, as a
tlue, drawing the air from the basement
into the room above, and this IRE
Spective of stairways, doors and other
large openings. If the air of the base
ment is polluted with undesirable ema-
nations from water closets, urinals or
products of combustion from the heater,
these de!eterious qualities of the atmo,
sphere are pretty rapidly transmitted
to the rooms above. The truth of this
statement has been verified by liberat-
ing gases in Easements apparently COM
pletely shut off from the rooms above,
and then determining by chemical tests
the presence of the gases in the rooms
on the several floors above. A clean,
dry, and we'll ventilated basement in a
school building is an important require
ment in school sanitation.
HALLS AND sTAIRWAYs.
The halls and stairWays are unSatis-
Factory and in view of the possibility
of a fire in the building, OF of a fire
panic among the pupils, the stairWays
and the upper halls or landings are in a
very dangerous condition. In the event
of stampede the results would be
likely to be disastrous. The condi-
lions here found constitute first class
fire trap.
HEATING AND VENTILATION.
The heating is by direct steam.
There is no legitimate provision what
ever for ventilation. The number of
cubit feet of air space in the school
rooms generally is far below that which
is recognized by all authorities on
schoolhouses and school hygiene as
requisite to healthful conditions, even
when a good system of ventilation is
provided. The opening of windows for
the purpose of ventilation is impossi-
Bile in the coolest weather, particularly
for pupils whose powers of resistance
are lowered by the breathing and the
rebreathing of an inadequate and vi
tiated-alr supply.
SCHOOLROOMS.
First Floor-There are two school
rooms on this floor of the same size and
shape l found the dimensions to be
81 feet in length by IS feet in width,
with the ceiling 10 feet high. This
gives a cubic air space which would
suffice for IS or 30 pupils if the ventila-
ton We're fairly good. But in one room
the average attendance has been so
pupils and in the other, "a without ven
tilation.
The lighting of these rooms is very
faulty The window surface should
equal one, fifth of the floor surface, but
in each Of these two rooms the proper
ton is l to Q 1,2-abOut one-half of
what it should be-
But this is not all. Three of the four
and half windows in each room are
back of the pupils. The ceiling is too
low. and still above the windows there
is a space of 10 inches not utilized for
lighting. This leaves the windows ex-
tremely low for schooroom lighting.
The best light for schoolIooms comes
from a considerable height, because it is
thrown farther into the room and falls
at more favorable angle upon the
desks and the pages of the books.
In these rooms the low windows
supply an inadequate quantity of light
at too low all angle, and as most of the
light comes from the rear of the pupils,
their shadows fall upon their work.
The window and half in one end of
each of these rooms is too far away
from most of the pupils to be of any
use.
These two rooms are divided by a
light partition, the upper part of which
is of glass. This glass is of doubtful
utility The reflection from a solid
light colored wall would probably be a
greater though rather small, aid to the
lighting.
One other serious fault is that direct
sunshine comes into these rooms dur
ing school hours; into the left hand
room your back to the building) during
the whole of both sessions, and into the
right hand room during the afternoon
session This trouble, due to the orien-
tatiOn of these rooms, cannot be
remedied. The resort to window shades
or shutters would only intensity the
dearth of light, while without them,
work in direct sunlight is more trying
and dangerous to the eyes than a
moderate degree of deficiency is.
If it were deemed practicable and