On the smokeless fire-place : chimney-valves, and other means, old and new, of obtaining healthful warmth and ventilation / by Neil Arnott.

  • Arnott, Neil, 1788-1874.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the smokeless fire-place : chimney-valves, and other means, old and new, of obtaining healthful warmth and ventilation / by Neil Arnott. 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.

    66/276 (page 50)
    On tlie nature of Epidemics, given below, are collected other instances, to exemplify wliat happens among crowds of human beings in schools, hospitals, ships, camps, &c.—(See page 81.) The striking good effected by the ventilating valve in such cases as above selected soon caused it to be introduced to a considerable extent throughout the country; but so little was and still is the nature of what is called chimney-draught understood, not only by people in general, but even by stove-makers, builders, and arcliitects, who have to apply the know- ledge, that the two conditions pointed out as essential to the perfect action ofjjie vejitilating valve—namely, the narrowing ofyb^0iimne3£%:^b4jt, by some kind of damper or regi^^^ perfectiy^-uiader-^eW and the diminution of the o]^'b^;pc^e]^ftwe^lthe fire and the chimney-throatV-have__b^^n_much disregarded, and many ordinary rhs^glaces beiA^ v^v f^-^lty in both these respects, the ol^^ee^-sought have been in many cases very imperfectly obtained. And, thus—although the valve when fitly introduced can no more fail to do its work well than a stone can fail to sink down when left unsupported—the disappointments occasioned by faults in the setting have led many persons to think that the valve is of uncertain efficacy, and adapted only to a part of the cases where its agency is re- quired. Seeing the prevailing want of knowledge in regard both to the importance of ventilation and the means of accompHshing it, the author of this work—who had previously been consulted on various questions of public health by the Poor Law Commissioners, the General Board of Health, and other public