Omaha daily bee., 1921-04-09
. .entilating
Modern
Home
sy EARL E. WHIrEHoRN.

For some $4,000 years, more or
less, men and women have been wor-
rying about the ventilation of the
home. Back in those days of the old
stone age, it was very distressing
problem. The Neanderthal men
were living in their grottoes in the
valley OF the Loire in France and
thereabouts, and the caves were deep
and dry and warmer than out Of
doors. But the smoke of the do
mestic hearth fire was more than
even their eyes and lungs could bear,
and the cave man and his family
were compelled to live much of their
lives on the ledge outside their ref
uge and to endure the discomports
and uncertainties OF the weather to
escape the bad ventilation Of the
otherwise comfortable cave.
Then came the first attempt at
house--a frame of boughs covered
with clay and sod, and the lack OF
ventilation was curse, tor they
built the fire in the center OF the floor
and there was no outlet Tor the
smoke except through the low door
way. And it was still SO in the great
hall in the days OF the Vikings where
the smoke rose to the rafters and
gradually filled the room, until they
thought to cut a hole up in the center
Of the roof through which some of it
escaped.
The chimney came later-very
much later--in fact, it was actually
nce until the twelfth century that, in
Normandy, some genius conceived
this simple basis idea of ventilation,
and built fue over his hearth hrc
TO gather the offending smoke right
at its source and carry it away.
But as our culture, has progressed
and our standards of living have
been refined, our ideas of ventila-
ton 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. .
When a 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 fues to insure an adequate
circulation of air. But in the house,
the home where we live our lives
and provide so many other safe
guards for the health and comfort
of the family, we still leave this
vital matter of ventilation 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. b.:
few of us have any very intelligent
or decided system about using them,
and the practice varies with the
Judgment
Ventilation is not something that
can be left to chance. 1t should be
provided for just as heating is pro-
vided for, but the way is simple and
the cost is slight. The wonder is
that everybody does not do it now
that electricity has come to be the
almost universal servant. For an ex-
kaust fan in the kitchen is all that
is HceucQ 10 put an eng 10 the un-
plcasantness OF kitchen odors in the |
house.
The exhaust fan for household |
ventilation is just an electric fan that
is permanently installed high up in
the wall OF the kitchen, in an open
ing provided for it, so that, in opera
ton, the fan blows the air of the
kitchen, with all the smoke and
steam, directly outdoors and away.
This sets sets up an immediate cir
cuiation of air from the house into
the kitchen and no more smells of
cooking work their way out into the
other rooms. The result is that
boiling cabbage does not greet the
guest at the front door. Cauliflower
may be cooking cheerily and nobody |
beyond the kitchen knows it. A ham
may be boiled, baked and brought to |
the full point Of perfection and still
be surprise to the household when
it comes upon the table. The air
from the house flows to the kitchen.