Experiments seem to show that when the amount of carbon dioxid in the
air has doubled, that is, when the expired air mixed with the air in the
room has increased the proportion of carbon acid from four parts in ten
thousand to eight parts in ten thousand, that the air is seriously
affected, and that such ventilation ought to be provided that no greater
amount than this could occur. This is such a condition that the room
smells "close" or stuffy to a person coming in from outdoors, indicating
organic emanations as well as an excess of carbonic acid gas. The
question then is: how may this condition be avoided in an ordinary
house, or in an ordinary stable, because the health of the cattle on a
farm, judging at least by the character of the buildings provided, is
quite as important as the health of the farmer's family.
We must take it for granted that no such elaborate schemes are possible
as in public buildings or schools, where fans are provided, either to
force air into the several rooms or else to suck it out. The ventilation
of the house must be more simple and easily adjusted and must depend on
the principle of physics that warm air rises and that if the warm air of
a room is to be removed, air must in some way be supplied to take its
place. The two essentials for ventilation are opportunity for the
ingress and the egress of air--ingress for fresh air and egress for
polluted air.
_Fresh-air inlet._
In the construction, of a dwelling house, special and adequate
preparation for the admission of fresh air is seldom provided, so that
the existing openings must be used for the purpose. This means that in
the summertime an open window will furnish all the fresh air which a
room receives and, when the temperature of the outside air is
approximately that of the living room, such provision is ample and
satisfactory. But in the wintertime, when the outside air is cold, the
average person will prefer to suffer from the bad effects of impure air
rather than admit cold air which may cause an unpleasant draft.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Letting in fresh air.]
One of the simplest and best methods of providing an inlet for fresh
air, without at the same time allowing blasts of wind to enter the room,
is to fasten in front of the lower part of the window a board which
shall just fill the window opening; then, raising the lower sash a few
inches will allow fresh air to enter both at the bottom, where the board
is placed, and at the middle of the window between the sashes (see Fig.
14). Persons sitting close by a window thus arranged may feel a draft
even under these conditions, since the cold air thus admitted will sink
at once to the floor and then gradually rise through the room to the
ceiling, but unless one sits too near the window, this is an admirable
method of admitting fresh air.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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