THE HOUSEKEEPER AND HEALTHKEEPER

Fis-34- mouth of the jar, and instantly

/t the cold and warm air are not in , jtf conflict as before, because a cur-

r paper; the cold air descending

on one side and the warm air ascending the other side, as indicated by the arrows. As long as the paper remains, the candle will burn, and as soon as it is removed, it will begin to go out, and can be restored by again in serting the paper. This illustrates the mode by which coal-mines are ven tilated when filled with carbonic acid. A shaft divided into two passages, (Figure 35,) is let down into the

mine, where the air is warmer than the outside air. Immediately the colder air outside presses down into the mine, through the passage which is highest, being admitted by the es cape of an equal quantity of the warm er air, which rises through the lower passage of the shaft, this being the first available opening for it to rise through. A current is thus created, which continues as long as the inside air is warmer than that without the mine, and no longer. Sometimes a fire is kindled in the mine, in order to con tinue or increase the warmth, and con sequent upward current of its air.

It is on this plan that many school- houses and manufactories have been

OX WAEMIXG A HOME. 169

ventilated. Its grand defect is, that it fails altogether when the air outside the house is at the same temperature as that within. This illustrates one of the cases where a U4vise woman that buildeth her house" is greatly needed. For, owing to the ignorance of architects, house-builders, and men in general, they have been building school-houses, dwelling-houses, churches, and colleges, with the most ab surd and senseless contrivances for ventilation, and all from not applying this principle of science. On this point, Pro fessor Brewer, of the Scientific School of Yale College, writes thus :

"I have been in public buildings, (I have one in mind now, filled with dormitories,) which cost half a million, where they attempted to ventilate every room by a single flue, long and narrow, built into partition walls, and ex tending up into the capacious garret of the fifth story. Ev ery room in the building' had one such flue, with an opening into it at the floor and at the ceiling. It is needless to say that the whole concern was entirely useless. Had these flues been of proper proportions, and properly divided, the de sired ventilation would have been secured." And this piece of ignorant folly was perpetrated in the midst of learned professors, teaching the laws of fluids and the laws of health !

In a cold climate and wintry weather, the grand impedi ment to ventilating rooms by opening doors or windows is the dangerous currents thus produced, which are so injuri ous to the delicate ones that for their sake it can not be done. Then, also, as a matter of economy, the poor can not afford to practice a method which carries off the heat gener ated by their stinted, store of fuel. Even in a warm season and climate, there are frequent periods when the air without is damp and chilly, and yet at nearly the same temperature as that in the house. At such times even the opening of win dows often has little effect in emptying a room of vitiated air.

The most successful mode of ventilating a house is by creating a current of warm air in a flue, into which an open ing is made at both the top and the bottom of a room, to

170 THE HOUSEKEEPER AND HEALTHKEEPEK.

carry off the impure air, while a similar opening to admit outside air is made at the opposite side of the room. This is th£ mode employed in chemical laboratories for removing smells and injurious gases.

These statements give some idea of the evils to be reme died. But the most difficult point is how to secure the rem edy ; for often the attempt to secure pure air by one class of persons brings chills, colds, and disease on another class, from mere ignorance or mismanagement.

To illustrate this, it must be borne in mind that those who live in warm, close, and unventilated rooms are much more liable to take cold from exposure to draughts and cold air than those of vigorous vitality accustomed to breathe pure air.

Thus the strong and healthy husband, feeling the want of pure air in the night, and knowing its importance, keeps win dows open, and makes such draughts that the wife, who lives all day in a close room and thus is low in vitality, can not bear the change, has colds, and sometimes perishes a victim to wrong modes of ventilation.

So, even in health-establishments, the patients will pass most of their days and nights in badly-ventilated rooms. But at times the physician, or some earnest patient, insists on a mode of ventilation that brings more evil than good to the delicate inmates.

The grand art of ventilating houses is by some method that will empty rooms of the vitiated air and bring in a sup ply of pure air by small and imperceptible currents.

But this important duty of a Christian woman is one that demands more science, care, and attention than almost any other; and yet, to prepare her for this. duty has never been any part of female education. Young women are taught to draw mathematical diagrams and to solve astronomical prob lems ; but few, if any, of them are taught to solve the prob lem of a house constructed to secure pure and moist air by day and night for all its inmates by safe methods.

We have seen the process through which the air is rendered unhealtbful by close rooms and want of ventilation. Every person inspires air about twenty times each minute, using

ON WAKMING A HOME. 171

half a pint each1 time. At this rate, every pair of lungs viti ates one hogshead of air every hour. The membrane that lines the multitudinous air-cells of the lungs in which the capillaries are, should it be united in one sheet, would cover the floor of a room twelve feet square. Every breath brings a surface of air in contact with this extent of capillaries, by which the air inspired gives up most of its oxygen and receives carbonic acid in its stead. These facts furnish a guide for the proper ventilation of rooms. Just in propor tion to the number of persons in a room or a house should be the amount of air brought in and carried out by arrange ments for ventilation. But how rarely is this rule regard ed in building houses or in the care of families by house-, keepers !

As a guide to proportioning the air admitted and dis charged to the number of persons, we have the following calculation : On an average, every adult vitiates about half a pint of air at each inspiration, and inspires twenty times a minute. This would amount to one hogshead of air vi tiated every hour by every grown person. To keep the air pure, this amount should enter and be carried out every hour for each person. If, then, ten persons assemble in a dining-room, ten hogsheads of air should enter and ten be discharged each hour. By the same rule, a gathering of five hundred persons demands the entrance and discharge of five hundred hogsheads of air every hour, and a thousand persons require a thousand hogsheads of air every hour.

Therefore in calculating the size of registers and conduct ors, we must have reference to the number of persons who are to abide in a dwelling ; while for rooms or halls intend ed for large gatherings a far greater allowance must be made.

The most successful arrangement for both warming and ventilation, is that employed by Lewis Leeds to ventilate the military hospitals, and also the treasury building at Washing ton. It is modeled strictly after the mode adopted by the Creator in warming and ventilating the earth, the home of his great earthly family. It aims to have a passage of pure air through every room, as the breezes pass over the hills,

172 THE HOUSEKEEPER AND HEALTHKEEPER.

and to have a method of warming chiefly by radiation, as the earth is warmed by the sun. In addition to this, the air is to be provided with moisture, as it is supplied outdoors by exhalations from the earth and its trees and plants.

The nrode of accomplishing this is by placing coils of steam, or hot-water pipes, under windows, which warm the parlor walls and furniture, partly by radiation, and partly by the air warmed on the heated surfaces of the coils. At the same time, by regulating registers, or by simply opening the lower part of the window, the pure air, guarded from im mediate entrance into the room, is admitted directly upon the coils, so that it is partially warmed before it spreads through the room ; and thus cold draughts are prevented. Then the vitiated air is drawn off through registers both at the top and bottom of the room, opening into a heated ex hausting-flue, through which the constantly ascending cur rent of warm air carries it off. These heated coils are often used for warming houses without any arrangement for car rying off the vitiated air, when, of course, their usefulness is gone.

The moisture may be supplied by a broad vessel placed on or close to the heated coils, giving a large surface for evaporation. When rooms are warmed chiefly by radiated heat, the air can be borne much cooler than in rooms warmed by hot-air furnaces, just as a person in the radiating sun can bear much cooler air than in the shade. A time will come when walls and floors will be contrived to radiate heat in stead of absorbing it from the occupants of houses, as is gen erally the case at the present time, and then all can breathe pure and cool air.

We are now prepared to examine more in detail the modes of warming and ventilation employed in the dwellings plan ned for this work.

In doing this, it should be remembered that the aim is not to give plans of houses to suit the architectural taste or the domestic convenience of persons who intend to keep several servants, and care little whether they breathe pure or bad air, nor of persons who do not wish to educate their children to manual industry or to habits of close economy.

OX WAEMIXG A HOME. 173

On the contrary, the aim is, first, to secure a house in which every room shall be perfectly ventilated both day and night, and that too without the watchful care and constant attention and intelligence needful in houses not provided with a proper and successful mode of ventilation.

The next aim is, to arrange the conveniences of domestic labor so as to save time, and also to render such work less repulsive than it is made by common methods, so that chil dren can be trained to love house-work. And lastly, econ omy of expense in house-building is sought. These things should be borne in mind in examining the plans of this work.

In the dwelling-house, chap, ii., part ii., Fig. 7, a cast-iron pipe is made in sections, which are to be united, and the whole fastened at top and bottom in the centre of the warm-air flue by ears extending to the bricks, and fastened when the flue is in process of building. Projecting open ings to receive the pipes of the furnace, the laundry stove, and two stoves in each story, should be provided in this cast-iron pipe, which must be closed when not in use. A large opening is to be made into the warm-air flue, and through this the kitchen stove-pipe is to pass, and be joined to the cast-iron chimney -pipe. Thus the smoke of the kitchen stove will warm the iron chimney-pipe, and this will warm the air of the flue, causing a current upward, and this current will draw the heat and smells of cooking out of the kitchen into the opening of the warm-air flue. Every room surrounding the chimney has an opening at the top and bottom into the warm-air flue for ventilation, as also have the bath-room and water-closets.

The pure air for rooms on the ground-floor is to be intro duced by a wooden conductor one foot square, running un der the floor from the front door to the stove-room, with cross branches to the two large rooms. The pure air passes through this, protected outside by wire netting, and deliver ed inside through registers in each room, as indicated in Fig. 7.

In case open Franklin stoves are used in the large rooms, the pure air from the conductor should enter behind them,

174 THE HOUSEKEEPER AND HEALTHKEEPEE.

and thus be partially warmed. The vitiated air is carried off at the bo'ttom of the room through the open stoves, and also at the top by a register opening into a conductor to the exhausting warm-air shaft, which, it will be remembered, is the square chimney, containing the iron pipe which receives the kitchen stove-pipe. The stove-room receives pure air from the conductor, and sends off impure air and the smells of cooking by a register opening directly into the exhaust ing shaft ; while its hot air and smoke, passing through the iron pipe, heat the air of the shaft, and produce the exhaust ing current.

The large chambers on the second floor (Fig. 18) have pure air conducted from the stove-room through registers that can be closed if the heat or smells of cooking are un pleasant. The air in the stove-room will always be moist from the water of the stove boiler.

The small chambers have pure air admitted from windows sunk at top half an inch ; and the warm, vitiated air is con ducted by a register in the ceiling which opens into a con ductor to the exhausting warm-air shaft at the centre of the house, as shown in Fig. 23.

The basement or cellar is ventilated by an opening into the exhausting air-shaft, to remove impure air, and a small opening over each glazed door to admit pure air. The doors open out into a " well," or recess, excavated in the earth be fore the cellar, for the admission of light and air, neatly bricked up and whitewashed. The doors are to be made en tirely of strong, thick glass sashes, and this will give light enough for laundry work — the tubs and ironing-table being placed closed to the glazed door. The floor -must be plas tered with water-lime, and the walls and ceiling be white washed, which will add reflected light to the room. There will thus be no need of other windows, and the house need not be raised above the ground. Several cottages have been built thus, so that the ground-floors and conservatories are nearly on the same level ; and all agree that they are pleas- anter than when raised higher.

When a window in any room is sunk at the top, it should have a narrow shelf in front inclined to the opening, so as to

ON WAEMING A HOME. 175

keep out the rain. In small chambers for one person, an inch opening is sufficient, and in larger rooms for two per sons a two-inch opening is needed. The openings into the exhausting-air flue should vary from eight inches to twelve inches square, or more, according to the number of persons who are to sleep in the room.

The time when ventilation is most difficult is the medium weather in spring and fall, when the air, though damp, is similar in temperature outside and in. Then the warm-air flue is indispensable to proper ventilation. This is especial ly needed in a room used for school or church purposes.

Every room should have its air regulated not only as to its warmth and purity, but also as to its supply of moisture; and for this purpose will be found very convenient the in strument called the hygrodeik,* which shows at once the temperature and the moisture.

The preceding remarks illustrate the advantages of the cottage plan in respect to healthful ventilation. The econo my of the mode of warming next demands attention. In the first place, it should be noted that the chimney being at the centre of the house, no heat is lost by its radiation through outside walls into open air, as is the case with all fire-places and grates that have their backs and flues joined to an out side wall.

In this plan all the radiated heat from the stove serves to warm the walls of adjacent rooms in cold weather ; while in the warm season the non-conducting summer casings of the stove described in the next chapter send all the heat either into the exhausting warm-air shaft or into the central cast-iron pipe. In addition, the sliding doors of the stove- room (which should be only six feet high, meeting the par tition coming from the ceiling), can be opened in cool days, and then the heat from the stove would temper the rooms each side of the kitchen. In hot weather they could be kept closed, except when the stove is used, and then opened only for a short time. The Franklin stoves in the large room would give the radiating warmth and cheerful blaze of an

* It is manufactured by N. M. Lowe, Boston, and sold by him and J. Queen & Co., Philadelphia.

276 THE HOUSEKEEPER AND IIEALTHKEEPER.

open fire, while radiating heat also from all their surfaces. In cold weather the air of the larger chambers could be tempered by registers admitting warm air from the stove- room, which would always be sufficiently moistened by evaporation from the stationary boiler. The conservatories in winter, protected from frost by double sashes, would con tribute agreeable moisture to the larger rooms. In case the size of a family required more rooms, another story could be ventilated and warmed by the same mode, with little addi tional expense.

We will next notice the economy of time, labor, and ex pense secured by this cottage plan. The laundry work be ing done in the basement, all the cooking, dish-washing, etc., can be done in the kitchen and stove-room on the ground- floor. But in case a larger kitchen is needed, the lounges can be put in the front part of the large room, and the mov able screen placed so as to give a work-room adjacent to the kitchen, and the front side of the same be used for the eating-room. Where the movable screen is used, the floor should be oiled wood. A square piece of carpet can be put in the centre of the front part of the room, to keep the feet warm when sitting around the table, and small rugs can be placed before the lounges or other sitting-places, for the same purpose.

Most cottages are so divided by entries, stairs, closets, etc., that there can be no large rooms. But in this plan, by the use of the movable screen, two fine large rooms can be secured whenever the family work is over, while the con veniences for work will very much lessen the time required.

In certain cases, where the closest economy is needful, two small families can occupy the cottage, by having a movable screen in both rooms, and using the kitchen in common, or divide it and have two smaller stoves. Each kitchen will then have a window, and as much room as is given to the kitchen in great steamers that provide for sev eral hundred.

Whoever plans a house with a view to economy must ar range rooms around a central chimney, and avoid all project ing appendages. Dormer-windows are far more expensive

ON WARMING A HOME. 177

than common ones, and are less pleasant. Every addition projecting from a main building greatly increases expense of building, and still more of warming and ventilating.

It should be introduced, as one school exercise in every female seminary, to plan houses with reference to economy of time-, labor, and expense, and also with reference to good architectural taste ; and the teacher should be qualified to point out faults and give the instruction needed to pre vent such mistakes in practical life. Every girl should be trained to be " a wise woman " that " buildeth her house " aright.

There is but one mode of ventilation yet tried that will, at all seasons of the year and all hours of the day and night, secure pure air without dangerous draughts, and that is by an exhausting warm-air flue. This is always secured by an open fire-place, so long as its chimney is kept warm by any fire. And in many cases, a fire-place with a flue of a cer tain dimension and height will secure good ventilation, ex cept when the air without and within is at the same tem perature.

When no "exhausting warm-air flue can be used, the open ing of doors and windows is the only resort. Every sleep ing-room without a fire-place that draws smoJce icell should have a window raised at the bottom or sunk at the top at least an inch, with .an inclined shelf outside or in, to keep out rain, and then it is properly ventilated, provided the air outside is colder than the inside air — but not otherwise. Or a door should be kept opened into a hall with an open window. Let the bed-clothing be increased, so as to keep warm in bed, and protect the head also, and then the more air comes into a sleeping-room the better for health.

In reference to the warming of rooms and houses already built, there is no doubt that stoves are the most economical mode, as they radiate heat and also warm by convection. The grand objection to their use is the difficulty of securing proper ventilation. If a room is well warmed by a stove, and then several small openings made for the entrance of a good supply of outdoor air, and by a mode that will prevent dangerous draughts, all is right as to pure air. But in this

178 THE HOUSEKEEPER AND HEALTHKEEPER.

case the feet are always on cold floors, surrounded by the coldest air, while the head is in air of much higher temper ature.

The writer believes that ere long the common mode of warming by furnaces will be banished as most pernicious to health, and constant sources of discomfort and economic waste. The reasons for this demand reference to some of the principles of pneumatics.

It has been shown how the air is heated by convection, or changing contact. It is thus the atmosphere is warmed, not by the rays of the sun passing through it, but by contact with the earth and other objects which have been warmed by radiated heat from the sun. The lower stratum of air being thus warmed, becomes lighter, and ascends, giving place to the cooler and heavier air. This process continues, so that the warmest air is always nearest the earth, and grows cooler as height increases.

The air has a strong attraction for water, and always holds a certain quantity as an invisible vapor. The warmer the air the more water it demands, and will draw it from all objects it can reach. When air cools, it deposits its invisi ble moisture as dew. When the air has all the water it can hold, it is said to be saturated; and when it cools so as to be gin 'to deposit moisture, it is called the dew point.

When air holds all the moisture it can sustain, its moisture is said to be at 100 per cent. ; when it holds only one-half as much as its temperature demands, it is said to be at 50 per cent. ; and when it holds three-fourths of what its tempera ture requires, it is at 75 per cent. ; and when only one-fourth, it holds 25 per cent.

In summer, outdoor air rarely holds less than half its vol- iime of water ; that is, a quart of air usually holds as much as a pint of invisible vapor. In 1838, at Harvard and Yale, at 70° Fahrenheit, the air held 80 per cent, of moisture ; at New Orleans it often holds 90 per cent.; at the North, in fogs, the air often holds all it can, or is saturated — that is, holding 100 per cent. Thus it appears that the hotter the air, the more water is demanded by it for invisible vapor, and this it takes from all around.

OX WARMING A HOME. 179

Professor Bremer, of Yale College, states that 40 per cent, of moisture is needed to make air healthful. Now furnaces receive cold air containing little invisible moisture, and by heating it a demand is created for much more. This is sucked up, as by a sponge, from walls and furniture, and es pecially from the lungs and capillaries of our bodies, thus causing dryness and sometimes inflammation of lips, nose, eyes, throat, and lungs. Experiments prove that while 40 per cent, of moisture is needed for health, furnace-heated air rarely has as much as 20 per cent., even when a few quarts of water are evaporated in the furnace chamber. Thus the in mates of the house breathe dryer air than is ever breathed in the hottest deserts of Sahara.

Thus, for want of proper instruction, most American house keepers who use stoves and furnaces not only poison their families with carbonic acid and carbonic oxide, and starve them for want of oxygen, but also diminish health and com fort for want of a due supply of moisture in the air. And often when a remedy is sought, by evaporating water in the furnace, or on thfe stove, it is without knowing that the amount evaporated depends, not on the quantity of water in the vessel, but on the extent of evaporating surface exposed to the air. A quart of water in a wide shallow pan will give more moisture than two gallons with a small surface exposed to heat.

There is also no little wise economy in keeping a proper supply of moisture in the air. For it is found that the body radiates its heat less in moist than in dry air, so that a per son feels as warm at a lower temperature when the air has a proper supply of moisture, as in a much higher tempera ture of dry air. Of course, less fuel is needed to warm a house when water is evaporated in stove and furnace-heated rooms. It is said by those who have experimented, that the saving in fuel is twenty per cent, when the air is duly sup plied with moisture.

There are other difficulties connected with furnaces which should be considered.

The human body is constantly radiating its heat to walls, floors, and cooler bodies around. At the same time, a ther-

180 THE HOUSEKEEPER AND HEALTHKEEPER.

mometer is affected in the same way, radiating its heat to cooler bodies around, so that it always marks a lower degree of heat than actually exists in the warm air around it. Ow ing to these facts, the injected air of a furnace is always warmer than is good for the lungs, and much warmer than is ever needed in rooms warmed by radiation from fires or heated surfaces. The cooler the air we inspire, the more oxygen is received, the faster the blood circulates, and the greater is the vigor imparted to brain, nerves, and muscles.

Every woman ought to know all the dangers connected with furnaces and how to remedy them. The following may aid in this duty :

When a furnace does not draw well, it often is owing to the stoppage by fine ashes or soot, and then the smoke-flues must be cleaned. The fewer and more simple the smoke- flues the less this trouble will occur. Sometimes the shak ing of a furnace makes cracks in joints, and this causes out flow of gas and also diminishes the draught.

When iron is very hot, it burns the particles floating in the air, making an unpleasant smell a»d dryness. A large furnace, therefore, is better than a small one that must be kept very hot.

Water should be evaporated in large surfaces, and so as to deposit dew on windows.

Heated air passes off by the shortest courses, and it is oft en the case that the more distant rooms thus warmed have no ventilation and little renewal from the furnace air, and this is often shown by a fetid smell.

Furnaces where air is heated in the furnace-chamber by coils of steam or by hot water, though costing more at first, require much less fuel, and do not involve the evils of warm ing by hot iron.

The safest and pleasantest way of warming a dwelling is by steam-coils, provided there are fire-places or hot-air flues to carry off bad air. Without these, this is the most un- healthful mode of all, as there is no fresh air brought in, and what is heated is breathed over and over, till it is poisonous.

The want of care in regulating the dampers of the air- box often makes a house cold, however great the furnace

OX WABMI'NG A HOME. 181

fire. A strong wind requires the dampers nearly closed, especially when it is on the side where the air enters from without. Every furnace should be supplied, not by cellar air, but by air taken through a shaft from a height, and so more pure.

Remember that an open fire, or an opening into a hot-aiv flue, will ventilate properly in all seasons and all weathers. The opening should be at both the top and bottom of the room.

182 THE HOUSEKEEPER AND HEALTHKEEPEE.