Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1922-03-16

ing signs of pulling away from the
walls. The filling between the joists
in the basement, especially over base
ment windows, is falling out. The
brick work on the main chimney, es-
pecially in the basement, is in poor
shape and the brick have deteriorat-
ed to the extent that a good portion
of the outer course has been drop
ping off, and the brick are so soft
that a hammer can very easily
punch a hole into the f1ues. This
brick work should be properly chip
ped off and scratch brush cleaned,
and be filled with a layer of good
cement The pointing of the brick
chimney over the roof line is also
weathering very fast, and needs to
be looked after very soon.
1t was not possible to determine
how long ago the floor stay bolts
were provided, but it must have been
quite number of years ago, and the
of the wall and between the floors
could not be ascertained.
AS far as the condition of this
building for school purposes is con-
cerned, it is about as bad as may be.
The ventilation was originally in
tended as a gravity system, working
in conjunction with fiues heated
either by stoves or furnaces. The
newer steam plant has replaced
the older heating methods and
the ventilating system is OF
course no longer active. The
only ventilation discovered was in
the 5th grade room where through
some fortunate circumstance the
difference in, temperature between in
side and outside was also sufficient
to provide a ventiiating current of
40 Gu. it. per minute. The amount
required in this room was above 800
Gu. it. per minute. In all of the
other rooms, with one exception, no
ventilation was apparent and the eX-
ception mentioned was that there
was slight current of air resulting
in 65 GU. it. minute which of course
is negligible.
The air in a number of the rooms
was foul and the teachers were at
tempting to produce ventilation by
opening the windows This of course
means that some pupils were sub
jected to chilling air currents and
also means that considerable por-
tion of your coal pile was being
drawn out of the window From a
hygienic standpoint this condition is
as bad as it could be.
There is no room which is properly
and adequately Lighted. The 9Th
grade room which is the best room
you have is lighted from left, right,
and rear. This approaches the min
imum; that is, the average illumina-
tion was six foot-candles, the min
fmum under the law.
The 5th grade room was ilumin-
ated from left and rear with an aver
age of four and quarter foot-can-
dies. The 4th grade room likewise,
while the third grade room showed
but four foot-candle illumination
and the I'd grade room showed ap-
proximately four and one-half foot
candles. All of these rooms, with
the exception of the 9Th grade room,
are therefore insufficiently illumin-
ated. And more serious, the illum-
nation was provided from left and
right !, giving rise to cross lighting
which is extremely undesirable to
say the least. It was noticed that in
a number of rooms in order to pre-
vent the cross lighting the shades
were pulled down. This would OF
course cut down the illumination by
so per cent in the rooms mentioned,
a condition which could not be worse
In a number of rooms the plaster
was falling down from the ceiling,
thus constituting a hazard to life
and limb in case the plaster should
fall on to children while school was
in session. Your board of course