Ventilation of Cellars.
By J. H. Waggoner
As the time is approaching when cellars will be closed up, so to remain most of the winter, it is a fit time to inquire if the collection of foul air in the cellar may not either be prevented or corrected. A cellar in which are kept vegetables and fruit, especially if it is somewhat damp, not only contains an atmosphere dangerous to inhale, but it imparts it more or less to the rooms above. It is true that the effects are felt more as warm weather approaches, but confined, damp, tainted air is dangerous at all times. As the worst air in a cellar is usually the heaviest, and therefore remains near the bottom, and as the windows are necessarily small and near the top, and as there can be no opening to admit air at the bottom, it is evident that opening the windows occasionally, as may be done in favorable weather even in winter, will not dispel the foul air which lies below the range of a current through the windows. I know of but one certain method of purifying the air in a damp cellar, and that is by means of a pipe. This may be as small as desired; two inches in diameter will answer. Let the lower end remain open, and within a few inches of the bottom of the cellar, and connect the upper end to a stove pipe in the ordinary T method. The upward draft, especially when there is fire in the stove, will cause a draft from the bottom of the pipe, and of course cause the air to move at the bottom of the cellar. Because the air in cellars is usually damp and foul it has been thought by some that cellars under houses are injurious and ought to be abandoned. But I think not. A house with close underpinning, as is usually seen, admits of no circulation, nor of examination, while, with proper care, the air in a cellar may be as pure as that in any part of the house, and admits of renovation at any time. Who will remember this? And who, that has a damp cellar, will act upon the suggestion?