Imperial Valley press., 1913-11-29


rife blaze of the unmerciful Indian
sun. A coolie, doomed for this life
to serve dumbly his superiors, from
time to time throws water on this
cocoa mat so that it drips down un-
derneath. He must keep that tatty
wet continually, and his brother coolie
sits cross legged at his side and pulls
the rope that swings the punkah in
side the house.
Using the muscles of these two
coolies, the occupant Of the house has
good ventilation, because the air is
drawn in through the wet cocoa mat
and is washed free of its impurities,
while inside it is kept in constant cir
culation by the punkah. The latest
scientific achievements in ventilation
have not taught us much more than
this. They have, however, pointed the
way for US to have clean air even
though we may not have two coolies
constantly at work outside our cham
/ ber door.
The tatty has been adapted in India
to more modern uses. For instance,
the windows of a railway coach in
India are fitted with four drops: One
of the ordinary glass; one the ordi-
nary wire screen, such as our Pull
mans have; another is Venetian
blind, and the fourth is tatty. Rid
ing along over the Indian deserts. with
the thermometer above 12O and the
dust and sand blowing, it is a great
comfort to curl up on a seat, pull
down the tatty in the window, and
turn on the stop-cock above it that
liberates a trickle of water to keep
the tatty wet. The air coming in
through the tatty is cool and clean,
and without it such railway journey
would be almost unbearable.
In India they use the tatty to keep
out dust In London a similar device
has long been used to keep out fog
and smoke The ventilation system of
the houses of parliament provides air
for its chambers by system Of in
taking fans that draw the air through
a chamber filled with wet cotton. How
much smoke and dirt is extracted
from the air is shown by the fact that
when this cotton is changed daily, al
though it goes in white as snow, it
comes out black as coal.
The sanitary engineers say that
clean air in motion and of the proper
temperature and humidity are neces-
sary to indoor comfort. For q long
time we believed that bad air was
made bad because of an excess of car
bonic acid. Lately, however, it has
been proved that within ordinary linn
it's the excess of carbonic acid in the
air is not to be feared. 1t is absolute
dirt that is given off from the bodies
and the clothing of persons where
many are congregated together that
makes the air foul and bad. Then, too,
if the air is not in circulation, we
breath over and over again the same
air. Although there may be an abun-
dant supply in the room, it cannot
reach US unless it moves. Indeed, the
chief virtue of cold air in sleeping
room is that the warm air expelled
from the lungs rises at once to the
ceiling and we must, perforce, have
fresh air at the next inbreathing.
The air we breath must be clean.
The sanitarians say that cleanliness
is the great thing to be desired in air,
even as it is in water. Water that is
grossly foul has been regarded as dan.
gerous always. But it is only within
the last few years that water mod
erately contaminated has been feared.
We have put microscopes of the water,
and in every city we demand water
supply that will give up not only clear
water, but water free from dangerous
microscopic impurities.
George c. Whipple, professor of
sanitary engineering at Harvard,
says: "a clean water supply is now
watchword of the modern city. If
precedent is followed, we shall come to
regard as undesirable much of the air
that would not by present day stand
ards be called unclean, as well as air
that is grossly laden with dust and
foul gases
Even in buildings where provision
has been made for fresh air intakes
and circulation by tanning systems,
the inlets are frequently placed close
to the ground where dust and smoke
will come in. In building at Har-
ward University the air inlet is placed
near main entrance where automo-
biles stop and start. AS consequence
the odor of spent gasoline permeates