p. 91 | HEAT AND VENTILATION

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 12, 1892

HEAT AND VENTILATION.

INSEPARABLY connected with the subject of heating is that of ventilation—a topic of vast moment, and one which in its broader lines engages the attention of leading scientists of the world. But for the dwelling house the matter need not be a complicated one. It cannot be too constantly impressed upon those who would live long and happily that the very first requisite for that consummation is pure air. Let this air, if possible, be of a comfortable temperature, but at any rate let it be pure.

And yet the matter of ventilation is subject to abuse. A stream of colder air, amounting practically to a draft, pouring down upon the heads of the inmates of an apartment, is not ventilation—it is an invitation to colds, catarrhal affections, and all the deadly evils which follow in their train. Fresh air can be admitted almost anywhere, in sufficient volume to replace all the vitiation and consumption, without the creation of a draft or annoyance to even the most sensitive. It should not come, as is sometimes the case with the hot-air furnace, from a musty cellar, but should be taken from without, in such manner that it shall be as free as possible from contamination.

The details of such arrangement necessarily vary so much, and will depend so much upon individual circumstances, that few inflexible rules can be laid down, and it is not the method upon which results will depend. A window slightly raised, with such provision that the incoming cool air shall not rush in a compact column across the room, will give the supply of oxygen which the human lungs require, as certainly as the most elaborate "system" which has ever been devised, though the operation may not be quite so convenient.

—Good Housekeeping.