The Duluth rip-saw. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1917-19??, 1918-07-13
DEFECTIVE: VENTILATION
HAZARDS PUPILS HEALTH
Experts Report That Ventilation Facilities i'm -Four
of Duluth's Newer School Buildings Are
Inadequate or Poorly Planned.

equipment is without proper control.
The subject of proper humidification
will be more fully treated in the crit
icism Of the ventilation of the Nor
gan Park school.
The individual branch ducts from
the main trunk are not provided with
volume hampers. This is one of the
most serious faults that could be
found in any ventilating system. No
matter how carefully system may
be designed, it should be capable OF
adjustment to fit actual working
conditions. This can only be &C
complished by measurement OF ac-
tual volume of air being supplied to
each room and volume hampers ad-
justed and fixed so that all rooms get
the required quantity. 1t is 1mpossl-
adjustment would be impossible with
the present installation of this school.
In this school, the supply of fresh
air to all class rooms is accomplished
by an exposed duct in the ceiling OF
each room. This duct has several
small holes near it's end to form out
lets for the air. Good ventilation
means more than simply supplying
air to a room. The air must be dis
tributed with fair uniformity so that
each pupil will receive approximately
the required quantity. Il is impossi-
BILE to obtain a proper distribution OF
fresh air with the use Of supply at
the ceiling, since the warm air will
move above the breathing space to
the windows, become cooled and drop
to the floor and travel under foot to
the foul air outlet.
The size of branch ducts supplying
the various class rooms is too small.
Assuming a proper velocity of air
at 500 feet per minute in the verti-
cal risers, the supply of air in the
class rooms would be about Is cubic
feet per minute per pupil, while the
proper supply is about 80 cubic feet
per minute per pupil.
The class room wardrobes are very
improperly and insufficiently venti-
lated. A small vent, inches square,
opens into the top of the teachers
clothes closet. The door of the teach
er's closet is stopped off 6 inches
from the floor. This means that
any ventilation of damp clothes of
the pupils must be made by air trav-
cling up through the teachers gar
ments, hanging in her clothes closet.
The toilet rooms have no ventila-
ton aside from the small vents pro-
vided for each toilet fixture. Any
odors escaping into the room have no
means of egress unless carried back
to the fixtures. The small vents
from the fixtures are carried out
through the roof without any me-
chanical pull. The only proper and
positive way to ventilate a toilet
room is to have the toilet fixture vent
stack both connected to small mo-
tor-driven exhaust fan at the roof of
the building. With such an equip
ment all air leakage Is into the tot
let rooms from the halls, and there
is a positive discharge of foul air out
through the roof.
The locker rooms are without any
mechanical ventilation facilities.
Locker rooms, because of soiled
clothing usually contained, should be
connected to mechanical pull ven
tilation with the toilet rooms.
The ventilation for the auditorium
is decidedly inadequate. Assuming
proper velocity for air Of about
1000 feet per minute in the fresh
air supply ducts, enough air could be
supplied for less than one-half of the
people that could be seated in the
auditorium. This is assuming 20
cubic feet of air per minute as prop
erly necessary for each occupant.
The outside register in front of the
stage will not permit of the removal
Of more than one-half the air that
is supplied. In other words, the out
let register would remove a volume
of air about one-fourth of what is
necessary for the auditorium. There
Is no provision in the ceiling for the
removal of the overheated air which
arises when the auditorium is filled.
A very uncomfortable temperature,
together with unpleasantly foul air,
is sure to result in the auditorium
"
MORGAN PARK SCHOOL.
The heating and ventilating equip
ment Of this school is almost identi-
cally the same type as installed In
the Lester Park school. The same
criticisms apply as listed below, viz:
Air line pump has been omit
ted.
2-Heating coils are improperly
proportional.
3-No volume hampers are pro-
vided for regulating room branches.
4-Supply of fresh air by duct at
the ceiling of class room gives poor
distribution.
5-The toilet room ventilation is
even worse than that of the Lester
Park school since fresh air is forced
into the toilet rooms to become pol
luted and then finds it's way out into
the corridors. There is no mechani-
cal pull on the few toilet fixture
vents through which the foul air is
supposed to escape from the room.
6-The locker rooms are without
mechanical ventilation.
THE auditorium ventilation is
insufficient in both supply and (ex-
haust to about the same degree exist
ing in the auditorium of the Lester
Park school,
S-No humidifier of any kind is
provided for the ventilating system.