Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1874 — Air. [ARTICLE]

Air.

Lord Kinnaird, in the course of a long letter to a contemporary regarding the ventilation of dw-elling houses, says: People imagine that as foul air is light it is only necessary to open a hole in the ceiling or open a window at the top to allow it to escape, and «a're surprised when these openings are closed by the inmates to feel cold air bearing down on their heads. The fact is that the foul air emitted from the lungs of the occupants of a room ascends while warm, but when cold it falls to the ground. 'Anyone taking a ladder and going to the top of a room where a number of people are sitting would find the vitiated air unbearable. 4- bird could not live long in it. When there is a fire-place in a room the foul air first ascends, and then when it gets cold descends, and is then drawn up the chimney, so that a person sitting near the fire-place inhales this bad air. The remedy is to take off the vitiated air at the ceiling by a syphon acting on the reverse system of a water syphon. Where there is no fire-place in a room the case is serious indeed. M e found that a bird placed on the floor of such a room where two people slept- was dead in the morning. Were not our ancestors wise in having high bedsteads, and they were higher than the iron bedsteads now com monly used. “ Shakedowns’^are there-, foreunost injurious to health. The great difficulty in ventilation is to make the

air move. One plan may be seen carried out on a large scale in the Houses of Parliament. A huge furnace at the t«p of the house, kept constantly burning draws its life from the Houses, libraries’ dining room, tea-rooms, committee rooms and kitchen of the Palace of Westminster, and such is its power that burnt pieces of paper have been drawn from the Victoria Station to the Palace. The real difficulty is the supplying of fresh air tor fill up the vacuum, which in our dwellings is drawn from the windowcashes, and doors and key holes.