[12] Town and village paving plans will benefit by knowledge of the
recent satisfactory experience of New York City authorities in paving
with wood blocks soaked in a preparation of creosote and resin. As
compared with the other two general classes of paving, granite blocks,
and asphalt, these wood blocks are now considered superior.
The granite blocks are now nearly discarded in New York because of
their permeability, expense, and noise, being now used for heavy
traffic only.
Asphalt is noiseless and impermeable (thereby serving the "double
sanitary purpose" mentioned by Dr. Price).
But the wood possesses these qualities, and has in addition the
advantage of inexpensiveness, since it is more durable, not cracking
at winter cold and melting under summer heat like the asphalt; and
there is but slight cost for repairs, which are easily made by taking
out the separate blocks.
These "creo-resinate" wood blocks, recently used on lower Broadway,
Park Place, and the congested side streets, are giving admirable
results.--EDITOR.
CHAPTER II
=Ventilation=
=Definition.=--The air within an uninhabited room does not differ from
that without. If the room is occupied by one or more individuals,
however, then the air in the room soon deteriorates, until the
impurities therein reach a certain degree incompatible with health.
This is due to the fact that with each breath a certain quantity of
CO2, organic impurities, and aqueous vapor is exhaled; and these
products of respiration soon surcharge the air until it is rendered
impure and unfit for breathing. In order to render the air pure in
such a room, and make life possible, it is necessary to change the air
by withdrawing the impure, and substituting pure air from the outside.
This is _ventilation_.
_Ventilation_, therefore, is the maintenance of the air in a confined
space in a condition conducive to health; in other words, "ventilation
is the replacing of the impure air in a confined space by pure air
from the outside."
=Quantity of Air Required.=--What do we regard as impure air? What is
the index of impurity? How much air is required to render pure an air
in a given space, in a given time, for a given number of people? How
often can the change be safely made, and how? These are the problems
of ventilation.
An increase in the quantity of CO2 [carbon dioxide gas], and a
proportionate increase of organic impurities, are the results of
respiratory vitiation of the air; and it has been agreed to regard the
relative quantity of CO2 as the standard of impurity, its increase
serving as an index of the condition of the air. The normal quantity
of CO2 in the air is 0.04 per cent, or 4 volumes in 10,000; and it has
been determined that whenever the CO2 reaches 0.06 per cent, or 6
parts per 10,000, the maximum of air vitiation is reached--a point
beyond which the breathing of the air becomes dangerous to health.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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