Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-01-31
Humidity in Lining Rooms
HOY a Husband and Wife Have Made Their Home More
Comfortable and More Healthful.
BY LILLIAN s. LovELANo.

We modern Americans, when we
build Il new home, have it back plast-
cred. or build it of brick or stone.
equip 1T with storm windows and
Weather strips, lay double floors. and in
every way strive to keep out the cold.
best heating apparatus to be had, and
attach a thermOstat to insure eve
temperatures; we keep our living rooms
at whatever temperature WI choOse and
think we nave solved the matter. But
i'm shutting out the cold, we also shut
out the moisture i'm the outside air. and
when we proceed to dry out what mois-
ture does get in by our various heating
appliances.
The houses in which we live are
dryer in winter than he drycst desert
regions of the globe. For instance. the
42.9 per cent: at Santa Fe. N. M, AIS
per in the Punjab and north
western India, 81 per cent: and i'm the
deserts of Africa il averages from -
To 33 per cent. The humidity of our
living rooms in winter is from Is TO Sc
per cent. where no effective effort has
been made to raise the humidity. The
average outdoor humidity i'm the United
States is from 60 to 20 per cent; there
fore the change from indoor to outdoor
humidity is very great. BY relative
humidity is meant. the ratio of the
'tiilouHt Oh moisture present 10 tnc
mount necessary for s%aturation: that
is. if we say the relative humidity is
40 per cent. we mean that the air on
tains one-half as much moisture as it
would 1T 1t We're saturated.
In the old days when the houses We're
heated by fireplaces, the occupants
probably suffered much discomfort
from cold. but their method of heating
Old not dry out the moisture in the air
of their houses as is lone i'm ours.
There are numberless JIM effects
which result from the extremely dry
air of our living rooms: our furniture
checks and cracks and falls to pieces;
~ pianos lose their tune; house plants
get brown and Wither up: our skin be-
comes parched. and We women, without
knowing why we have to do il, apply
cold cream. glycerin and the like to
keep our SIX moist. our throats be-
come sore and our voices more. and
more harsh and scratchy. Possibly this
explains the american voice" which is
such Il source of ridicule among Europ-
cans. They do not keep their houses
hot and dry as we do. because their
mild climate does not require our mod
ein heating methods. Even i'm northern
Europe. where the cold is severe, thcir
method of heating is primitive like that
OF our forefathers in this country. and
they DO no dry out the air as we dc
With u furnaces, steam and hot water
heating. The dry atmosphere also acts
AS a to the nervous system:
U sleep becomes restless and brOken
and We become more and more con-
5c1ouS that we have nerves. The
change IN going from our dry living
rooms to the moister air of outdoors,
also makes us. more subject to odds.
Furnace X realize this state of
affairs to some extent, as most furnaces
are equipped with Il cast iron pan hold
ing about IL quarts, from which ia
evaporate water into the house.
During the winter OF 1901. my
husoaI'd. who is a meteorologist,
and myself tested this furnace pan
quite thoroughly. We lived i'm the
north half of "a double house,
both parts being practically alike and
equipped with furnaces of the same size
and make. We used the water pan
In oar furnace. while that in our neigh
bor's was not used. Each day at moor
for a period of three weeks i took the
humidity observations in both houses.
We eSaporated about two quarts OF
water a day from our pan. and the
result was only about l per cent higher
humidity i'm u house: a difference 81,
light. that it seems probable that such
il small pan In "A M is of little o,
no value.
Many people put small pals or pans
OF water just inside the registers an.
l have known physicians to
this practice i'm cases of catarrl, on
throat troubles. We tried placing pans
of water in o Of the registers i'm ad-
dition to the pan i'm the furnace. anG
increased the evaporation to SO quarts
per day: when the humidity was 9.
per cent higher in our house than oul
neighbours.
From observations taken in steam
and hot water heated houses. we FIND
that there is practically no difference
in the relative humidity of the air. be.
tween them and furnace heated houses
Many people believe that hot water
heating gives a moister atmosphere IL
the house. it does give a more even
uniform heat. but none of the mois.
tnre from the hot water itself can ge'
into the house. The only way to rails