Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/890

 722 The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [May, their filthy under-garments, -which have not been in the wash tab, perhaps, for weeks, all to be returned into the audi- torium, well mixed -with the hot volume of fresh air ; pure and impure, to be inhaled together. This representation, is not in the least exaooerated. and there is no doubt, but that the air is much more vitiated, by these vile habits, than by respiration. It would not be a bad notion to connect wash tubs along with ventilators. In old times, our apartments were warmed b} r radiant heat, either from open fires, on the hearth, of wood or coal ; or by means of stoves of iron, placed in the rooms. Radiant heat from iron, is objectiona- ble. The objections, however, are due, not so much, to the hot iron burning the air, but rather to the presence in the iron of arsenic and other impuri- ties. Arsenie sometimes exists naturally in iron, and its presence in its combina- tion, or mixture, renders iron too brit- tle for mechanical purposes ; hence it often goes to be consumed in the manu- facture of various sheet irons. If such iron should be used for stove making, the arsenic is slowly freed from the iron, and escapes as a vapor ; going into the apartment with the hot air. Hence the sj-mptoms of fulness of the head, a symptom caused by the inhalation of vapor of arsenic. Radiant heat, directly from burning- fuel, as from an open coal or wood fire, on the hearth, is universally admitted to be the most health}', and least liable to objection, of a sanitary nature, of any other method of warming and ventila- ting ; certainly for private residences. The great objection is, that, with open fires, we have too great ventilation, caused by the rush of air from the crevices of the windows and doors, to supply the chimney flue. For twenty- five years the writer has enjoj'ed the warmth of an hickory fire, built on the open hearth, and his experience leads him to offer suggestions which if adopted will obviate the most objectionable feature of an open fire. A fire on the hearth, requires a flue of th*area of about 160 square inches, for the escape of the smoke, gases, and vapors, resulting from the combustion of wood ; along with these, also escapes, a large volume of the air of the room. Of course, as this air goes out up the chimney, its place must be supplied by a corresponding volume : and this in general, enters through the crevices of the doors and windows, and from them over the backs of whomsoever may be between the window and the fireplace. ISTow this cold air would not be objec- tionable, or noticed by the occupant of the room, could it be admitted behoeen his person and the fireplace. A113' one occupying a room heated by an open fire, during a strong northwest- wind, may be relieved of the nuisance of this draft, (which during the preva- lence of such a gale is a nuisance,) by opening the door leading to his hall, from whence, instead of cold air, he may have his apartment ventilated with warm air. So too, by constructing under a back of his fireplace, flues communicating between the external atmosphere, and the interior of the apartment ; these flues having their openings in front of the fireplace, and to its side, a few inches in advance of the fire ; the occupant of the apartment, will enjoy the most agreeable warmth of a radiant fire with pure air, sufficient in volume, both for ventilation, and for the chimney flue. A smok}' chimney, may be cured by opening a door or window, thus supply- ing a quantity of air, equal to the requirements of the fire and flue. The old Franklin fireplace, in common use in Philadelphia fifty 3 r ears ago, was an open iron hearth, for wood, furnished with hot air flues ; which passing around the fire, communicated at one end, with the outside air, and at the other end, with the apartment, close by the fire,