Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1913-02-06
SCHOOL HOUSE VENTILATION

BY s. a. chatham, state Inspector
Of Graded Schools.
An old writer has said, when
rnen lived in houses Of reeds, they
had constitutions Of oak; when they
live in. houses Of oak they have
constitutions Of reeds Out OF
doors with the temperature at so.
degrees Fair. DR.. Billings computes
that each individual comes in con-
tact with $40 cubic feet of air each
minute, when there is no precepti-
BILE wind, and the displacement Of
air is made at the rate on one foot
per second. Considering then on
/ ~ the part we need for respiration,
nature has thrown around us an.
extravagant supply Of fresh air. But
| because that common, costless,
abundant thing, air." says Prof. S..
H. Woodbridge, envelopes man as
1.-THE great ocean does the fish, that
it is almost lost in its waste of wa
tiers, he:is prone to think itzof com
nonplace and minor value, and its
exact purity Of small account" This
| air as it enters the lungs has from
two to four parts in 10000 Of carbon
dioxide, but as it escapes from the
lungs ii has increased this to- 40
parts in 40, 900. In other words ex-
PEELED air contains more than Zoe
times as much carbon dioxide as
the purest air we inhale. When it
therefore comes to rendering indoor
air fit to breathe, the problem Of
ventilation becomes one of vast mo-
Iment. To make conditions indoors
what they are outdoors in the mat
ter Of purity Of air is practically
impossible. It is possible, how
ever, to fix certain standard Of
purity and construct opr ventilating
apparatus SO that it may have the
proper capacity to meet this stand
ard.
On the basis that the air of the
school room may contain twice as
/ much carbon dioxide as the air out
l of doors, it has been computed that
any ventilating device which has a
80 that It; may furnish
thirty cubic feet Of air per minute
for each person ought TO give fair
lily satisfactory results from san
Iitary point Of view. IN 1888 Mas
sachusetts passed a law requiring
I the ventilation Of public buildings
i and school houses. The inspection
4 department of the Massachusetts
4 district police was authorized to fix
4 a standard. This department. es-
I tablished thirty cubic feet a minute
4 for each individual as a minimum
4 The Pennsylvania legislature in
B 1905 enacted a law fixing the same
4 standard in school buildings erect
ed at q cost Of $4,000 or more: n
lIi907 the state department Of health
y ol Michigan fixed 33 10 cubic fee,
!. per minute for each person in ordi-
( nary day and sleeping rooms in
! charitable penal, educational and
reforlnatory institutions of the
a state. In 1908 the State Board Of
d Health of this state made thirty GU
bic feet Of fresh airSper minute the
minimum amount to be introduced
Into a school room for each pupi
8 that the room will accommodate
This amount is quite generally re-
sEquired in the larger cities where
any intelligent attention has been
B paid to the matter of sventilation. In
many schools in New York, Boston
4 Cincinnati, and st. Louis there are
systems that furnish 20 to SO cubic
! feet OF fresh air per minute foI
4 each pupil. In the Overwhelming
Ilnajo rity, however, are the cities
u and villages which leave the matter
entirely to the architect and heat
4 ing contractor and in too many
cases these either on account Of ig-
lnorance or knayery have failed to
provide much more than a hypo-
Ecritical register and a vagrant mi
croscopic flue. The plumbers in
4 the installation. of systems Of ven
tilation in Minnesota in the past
i have hnnn hainn11s IN nnn.ri4.r