Report on ventilation, 1865.

  • Massachusetts. General Court. House of Representatives. Committee on ventilation of the Representatives' Hall.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on ventilation, 1865. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    1865.] average throughout the hall; while that of the lower seats was not two and one-half degrees below the average. When, how- ever, in the midst of these observations, the exhaust ducts were temporarily closed, the difference soon doubled, though the whole average temperature was slightly lowered. To give these results more-in detail:— Ventilating Ducts. OBSERVATIONS IN LEVEL PLANES. Open. Closed. Average in dome of hall, ...... Average opposite gas lights above gallery, Average opposite gas lights below gallery, Average throughout the hall, ■ 78.5° 71.46° 68.57° 66.63° 68.86° 85° 73.54° 66.50° 63.72° 68.17° It is essential to the system of downward ventilation, as well as to all other systems, that a constant current should be main- tained by keeping the inlet and outlet always open. When less heat is desired, the change must be effected, not by stopping the warm air inlet, but by letting into it cooler air. And when the heat of the room goes off too fast, especially when it is empty, the heat may be economized by letting the air at the floor back into the heating chamber instead of out of doors. In support of the downward system, we will only refer to Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney's testimony before the committees of both Houses of Parliament, who has for the last ten years had charge of the ventilation of the Houses of Parliament, and who has introduced the downward system with great success, in court houses and other public buildings, in England ; to the book of Mr. Ruttan, of Canada, who has introduced the system most successfully in railway cars, on some of our roads, as well as in buildings ; and to the conclusions of General Morin, well known for his valuable scientific works on different departments of engineering, and the author of the latest and most elaborate work on ventilation (Etudes sur la Ventilation, Paris, 1863, 2 vols, 8 vo. pp. 1017.)
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