The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-24
ELECTRIC VEN77LAT7NG
 THROUGH THE KITCHEN

live much of their lives on the ledge outside their refuge and to endure the discomforts and uncertainties of the weather to escape the bad venti- lation of the otherwise comfortable cave.
 Then came the first attempt at a house-a frame of boughs covered with clay and sod, and the lack of ventilation was a curse, for they built the fire in the centre of the floor and there was no outlet for smoke except through the low doorway. And it was still so in the Great Hall in the days of the Vikings where the smoke rose to the rafters and gradually fill ed the room, until they thought to cut hole up in the centre of the roof through which some of it es- capped.
 The chimney came later--yery much later-in fact, it was actually not un- til the twelfth century that, in Nor mandy, some genius conceived this simple basic idea of ventilation, and built flue over his hearth fire to gather the offending smoke right at it's source and carry it away. For the chimney was unknown to the ancients. Neither Greece nor Rome nor the older culture of the East ever done better than to install an open grating in the roof. This simple in novation, however. solved the problem of smoke disposal for all time. We still use chimneys.
 But as our culture has progressed and our standards of living have been refined. our ideas of ventilation have also broadened. We are no longer satisfied to be rid of the smoke only. We want to be free of the odors of the cooking in. our homes. We want good, fresh, clean air to breathe. Yet. even in this day of grace and grand eur in the average household, here in these United States, this matter ot the air we breathe is left to whim and chance, And no provision what soever is made to dispose Of the un- pleasant odors of the kitchen. After all isn't this more surprising, when you stop to think of 1t, than that the houses had no chimneys up to the year of our Lord eleven hundred and something?
 When school or hospital or big auditorium is built nowadays the problem of ventilation receives very careful consideration. A ventilating engineer studies the prospective needs of the building and installs fans and flues to insure an adequate circula- tion of air. But in the house, the home where we live our lives and provide so many safeguards for the health and comfort of the family, we still leave this vital matter of ventila- tion largely to chance. Chimneys carry off the smoke and gases from the furnace and the range. We have windows to open and let in fresh air. But few of us have very intelligent or decided system about using them, and the practice varies with the judg- ment.
 I knew one old countryman down in Virginia who refused to let a window in his house be opened from fall till spring. Plenty of fresh air comes in through the keyholes" he declares, and in truth. little does get into that house except through leakage around the doors and windows and as the doors are opened and shut. The at mosphere, of course, is heavy with the odors of cooking, and stale from over- use.
 BADLY VENTILATED HOMES
 That is an extreme case, but how many homes we know where lack oi systematic airing is noticeable the moment that we enter. They have not learned to use their windows with
 sufficient skill and regularity to over come the constant flood of smells anl gases that the kitchen pours into tn, living rooms. They have overlooked entirely the fact that ventilation i. not something that can be left tt chance. It should be provided for, bu the way Is simple and the cost, i slight. The wonder is that everybod, does not do it now that electricity ha, come to be the almost universal serv
 ant. For an exhaust fan in tn,
 kitch is all that is needed to put al end to the unpleasantness of kitchen odors in the house.
 The exhaust fan for household ven tilation. is just an electric fan tha is permanently installed high up il the wall of the kitchen, in an open ing provided for it, so that. in oper ation, the fan blows the air of th kitchen with all the smoke and steam directly outdoors and away. Thi sets up an immediate circulation 0 air from the house into the kitchen an, no more smells of cooking work thei way out into the the other rooms. Tn result is that boiling cabbage does no greet the guest at the front door. Cau liflower may be cooking cheerily an, nobody beyond the kitchen knows il A ham may be boiled. baked an
 brought to the full point of perfection and still be 8 surprise to the househol, when 1t comes upon the table. In short there is an end to 1t all. Buckwhea cakes on the griddle, bacon, sausages or onions in the pan--it makes no diff ference. Fish may fry. steak may broil chops may grill over the coals an; smoke may rise in strong pungent clouds but no suspicion of it reaches even t the dining-roOm because the fan gather 1t all in and blows it all outdoors. Th' air from the house flows to the kitchen but the Kitchen air can never work it. way into the house.