Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1899: Volume LVI, No. 1Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1899: Volume LVI, No. 1
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
A large number of theaters are ventilated on the upward system. I will
mention first the large Vienna Opera House, the ventilation of which
was planned by Dr. Boehm. The auditorium holds about three thousand
persons, and a fresh-air supply of about fifteen cubic feet per minute,
or from nine hundred to one thousand cubic feet per hour, per person
is provided. The fresh air is taken in from the gardens surrounding
the theater and is conducted into the cellar, where it passes through
a water spray, which removes the dust and cools the air in summer.
A suction fan ten feet in diameter is provided, which blows the air
through a conduit forty-five square feet in area into a series of three
chambers located vertically over each other under the auditorium. The
lowest of these chambers is the cold-air chamber; the middle one is the
heating chamber and contains steam-heating stacks; the highest chamber
is the mixing chamber. The air goes partly to the heating and partly
to the mixing chamber; from this it enters the auditorium at the rate
of one foot per second velocity through openings in the risers of the
seats in the parquet, and also through vertical wall channels to the
boxes and upper galleries. The total area of the fresh-air openings
is 750 square feet. The foul air ascends, assisted by the heat of the
central chandelier, and is collected into a large exhaust tube. The
foul air from the gallery passes out through separate channels. In the
roof over the auditorium there is a fan which expels the entire foul
air. Telegraphic thermometers are placed in all parts of the house and
communicate with the inspection room, where the engineer in charge of
the ventilation controls and regulates the temperature.
The Vienna Hofburg Theater was ventilated on the same system.
The new Frankfort Opera House has a ventilation system modeled upon
that of the Vienna Opera House, but with improvements in some details.
The house has a capacity of two thousand people, and for each person
fourteen hundred cubic feet of fresh air per hour are supplied. A fan
about ten feet in diameter and making ninety to one hundred revolutions
per minute brings in the fresh air from outdoors and drives it into
chambers under the auditorium arranged very much like those at Vienna.
The total quantity of fresh air supplied per hour is 2,800,000 cubic
feet. The air enters the auditorium through gratings fixed above the
floor level in the risers. The foul air is removed by outlets in the
ceilings, which unite into a large vertical shaft below the cupola.
An exhaust fan of ten feet diameter is placed in the cupola shaft,
and is used for summer ventilation only. Every single box and stall
is ventilated separately. The cost of the entire system was about one
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars; it requires a staff of two
engineers, six assistant engineers, and a number of stokers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account