* 3 OS' 7 H Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/ventilationwarmiOOsmea VENTILATION AKD WARMING OF BUILDINGS, UPON THE PRINCIPLES AS DESIGNED AND PATENTED BY ISAAC D. SMEAD, Now owned and controlled (under 13 patents) BY ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., TOLEDO, CINCINNATI, KANSAS CITY AND WASHINGTON. SMEAD & NORTHCOTT, ELMIRA, NEW YORK. SMEAD, WILLS & CO., PHILADELPHIA, PA. SMEAD, DOWD & CO., TORONTO, ONT. SMEAD WARMING AND VENTILATING CO., BOSTON, MASS. Copyright, 1889, by Isaac D. Smead & Co., Toledo, Ohio. HENRY O. SHEPARD & CO., GENERAL PRINTERS AND BINDERS, 181 TO 187 Monroe Street, CHICAGO. Feln-uaiy 11, 1889. Hon. Isaac D. Smeao, Toledo, Ohio, iJcar Sir : The luidersigned, your associates in busiJiess, respectfully urge upon your consideration the unanimous and earnest desire of all connected with each of the Smead offices which we represent that you permit the publication of your portrait as a frontispiece for the new book which you are now preparing. You are both the Jbundo' and thc 2:>resent.i}isjm'atio7ioi the business in which we are engaged, and wherever we introduce the Smead system we hear expressed the desire to "see Mr. Smead." From some correspondence with you upon this subject we are aware that it Avill not be in the line of your inclinations to grant our request, but it seems to us so ajjpropriate as to become almost imperative. We trust you will, therefore, lay aside your personal prefer- ences and permit the publication of the picture. Respectfully yours, Smkad & NoRTiicoTT, Elmira. Smead, Wills & Co., Philadelphia. Smead, Dowd & Co., Toronto, Ontario. Smead Warmixg & Ventilating Co., Boston. LsAAC D. Smead & Co., Kansas City. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Buildings Warmed by Smead Apparatus, . 117 to 150 Cost of Warming School Buildings (Cost op Fuel), ........ 55 Care Given to Warming Apparatus, ........... 21 Cast-Iron Furnaces, ............... 9 Engineering, etc., . . . . . . . . . . . . ■ . . 15, 57 and 58 Furnaces, ; 1 to 36 Floor Construction, ............... 94 How to Select a Warming and Ventilating Apparatus, . . . . . . . 113 Hot-Air Furnaces — A Few Samples, 11 and 12 Relation of Architects to the Question of Warming Buildings, ..... 16 Ruttan System (Its History), . . ■ 1, 2 and 3 Smead's System of Continuous Ventilation, 18, 20, 22 and 23 Smead's System op Dry Closets, ........... 61 to 104 Smead's Schoolroom Heater, 105 to 112 Smead's System of School House Construction, 109 and 110 Steam Heating, .... 53 to 60 Stove and Furnace Gases, . . . 116 i AND VENTILATION OF BUILDINGS. Dr. : Good morning, Mr. Smeail ; I am glad to find you in youi' office and alone. I am told that you are the largest manufacturer of warming and ventilating apparatus in America; and, being very much interested in the subject, I have called to get such information as you may feel disposed to give. I also propose to examine the operation of your apparatus in some of our public school buildings. I have been invited to read a paper at the meeting of the State Sanitary Association, and desire to state the truth, as near as I am able to learn what it is. Mr. Smead : I am glad to see you, doctor, and if you are disposed to be influenced by facts rather than by theories, and Avill devote the necessary time to a full investigation, and then state your conclusions in a positive, definite manner, I will devote an hour or two a day to the subject, and when Ave are through I have no fear concerning the opinion you will hold. Dr. : Are you the largest manufacturer of warming and ventilati)ig apparatus in America ? Mr. Smead : For large buildings, yes. The firms of Isaac D. Smead & Co., Toledo, Cincinnati, Washington and Kansas City, Smead, Wills & Co , Philadelphia, Smead & Noi'thcott, Elmira, Smead, Dowd & Co., Toronto, Smead Warming & Ventilating Co., Boston, of which I am the " Smead," do more work in our line than any firms in either America or Europe. Dr. : How long have you been engaged in the business ? Mr. Smead : Since boyliood ; over twenty years. Tlie experience of those associated Avith me varies from five to seventeen years. Dr. : Tell me about, the early history of the Smead heating and ventilating business. Mr. Smead : Tlie story is too long. The road I have traveled has been rough, Avith thorns all along the path, until during the past seven or eight years, and there are more noAV than I Avish there Avere. There Avould be less if people would think more. Dr. : Who commenced the business in which you are now engaged "? Mr. Smead : In 1862 Hon. Henry Ruttan, of Canada, published a large book upon tlie subject of warming and ventilating, illustrating some of his theories by diagrams, etc. In 18G6 this book, by accident, fell into the hands of some gentlemen in Illinois who Avere pleased with the theories advanced by Mr. Ruttan ; they purchased his patent for the United States. I Avas a boy employed about their office. Dr. : Did Mr. Ruttan manufacture a heating apparatus '? Mr. Smead : No, nor did he ever apply his theories on ventilation to a building containing more than one room. He simplu advanced a. theory. He Avas about eighty years old when he Avrote his book. Dr. : What Avere some of his theories ? Mr. Smead : Briefly, that the point of exit for foul and cold air from a room should be at or beloio the floor IcA'el, instead of, as then supposed, at the tO}) of the room ; and that a large volume of moderately vKirmed air should be supplied instead of a smcdl quantity of hot air. 8 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Dr. : You surprise me ! Do I understand you to say that jjrevious to the establish- ment of your business people attempted to ventilate their rooms at the ceiling ? Mr. Smead : Yes, and there are many now who do not know but that is the proper locality for foul air exits. Scarcely a week passes that architects do not lay before me plans with no other method represented. Dr. : But that would render uniform warming impossible, as all the warmest air of a room is at the top. Mr. Smead : So it would except by radiation as from either a steam coil or a stove ; and furthermore, with the stove or steam coil ventilation is not ])Ossible, as they only warm and re-warm the air in the room. Dr. : What did your employers do with Mr. Ruttan's patents and theories ? Mr. Smead : They commenced to advertise " the correct system of ventilation " and to argue for the proper construction of buildings. Dr. : What do you mean by "proper construction of buildings ? " Mr. Smead : As buildings were then constructed only smoke-flues were provided. Occasion- ally some so-called " ventilators," made of either wood or sheet iron, were scattered about the roof, wherever most convenient for the architect's draftsman or the contractor to locate them. My employers (Messrs. Wm. A. Pennell & Co., of Normal, 111.), argued in favor of the construction of a large ventilating flue or stack extending entirely through the building from the basement, and also the construction of large cold and warm-air conduits. They were entirely inexperienced in the work, none of the three being practical builders ; one was a retired merchant, the other an .iron manufacturer, the third a visionary, impractical theorist. Dr. : Were many buildings constructed as you describe ? Mr. Smead : Yes, for notwithstanding the fact that the system was assailed, ridiculed and condemned by all those interested in the manufacture of stoves, hot-air furnaces and steam- heating apparatus, there was a pressing demand, and a great many were people anxious to secure a system of ventilation, more especially those familiar with the condition of school buildings where children were being boxed-in six hours per day. Dr. : Was the system successful ? Mr. Smead : Yes, as to ventilation ; but as to heating, a total failure. Dr. : Why a failure ? Mr. Smead : Principally because one very important point had been entirely overlooked by all interested parties. Dr. : To what do you refer ? Mr. Smead : A heating apparatus. Our plans, as I have before stated, called for " large cold-air ducts" for supply, " large warm-air flues," and a " large ventilating stack" or chimney for exhaust. Buildings had been constructed wherein these were provided, and " Tom, Dick and Harry" had furnished the heating apparatus ("hot-air furnaces"); they were insuflicient to warm the volume of air required, and as a result either the heating apparatus or the ventilation must fail. My employers had guaranteed both, and were in a very serious position. Those who had opposed the system were happy, friends discouraged, and customers mad. It would amuse you to read our correspondence during the winter of 'G7 and '68 ; it does me now (1889), it did not tJtcii ! Dr. : What was done ? • Mr. Smead : The capacity of cold-air ducts and ventilating flues were reduced, customers kept as quiet as possible by promises of a new heating apparatus as mon as one could he invented and manufactured. Dr. : An encouraging outlook ! Mr. Smead : Not very to those of us familiar with the entire situation ; but, with a courage born of necessity, work was commenced ; and as we were in about the position of those who first discovered the force in steam and wanted an apparatus that would enable them to boil water ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 9 rapidly, and who inventi'd the tubular boiler, we took it as a guide, and as it could be completed more quickly in wrought than cast iron we made the fii'st air-warmer of wrought iron. Dr. : Was it " a go" ? Mr. Smead : Unfortunately it was. The natural fuel in the "West was soft coal ; but by chance this, our first air-warmer, was sent into a section of the country Avhere wood was the fuel used. The apparatus was placed in j^osition under very favorable circumstances, and was found to warm three or four times as much air with the same fuel as any other. Dr. : I suppose you were then veiy hapjjy. Mr. Smead : The visionary member of the firm was ; the other two were in doubt, as they raised the question of durahUity. I was a "boy" around the office and shops, and was not con- sulted, even if I had an opinion. Some scientific fellow in France published a book about that time, claiming that wrought iron M^as the best material from which to construct warming apparatus, and following his advice nearly a hundred were manufactured, at a cost of many thousands of dollars. They were scattered over the Western States, and as soon as cold weather came, and especially where soft coal was used, we soon learned that, although the Frenchman's ideas might be very good for the climate of France, for America we must haA'e some other material than wrought iron. Dr. : Why ? Mr. Smead : Because of our extremely cold weather. The wrought iron could not meet the demand, especially when soft coal was the fuel used. Many of those furnaces did not last a month, and nearlj' all were used up before spring. Dr. : What did you do then ? Mr. Smead : AVished we had our money Ijack and had never heard of Mr. Ruttan or his system of ventilation. Dr. : What did your customers do ? Mr. Smead : Some of them swore! Some abandoned us, put up stoves or introduced steam; for you must remember that any building can be loariaed with steam if the boiler is large enough and the pipes are properly placed. Others, still anxious to secure ventilation, and having confi- dence in the principles advanced bj' us, even if apparatus was imperfect, urged us to go on and try again. This was done ; the mechanical member of the firm commenced to make i)atterns foi' a cast-iron air-warmer, following the same principles as before, namely, the tubular boiler. Here is one of the old circulars containing a cut of the second furnace made by Messrs. Pennell & Co. I have but three of these little books, and value them as relics of the past. Dr. : That don't look much like the Smead air-warmer of 1888. Mr. Smead : Nor does the locomotive of today resemble the one made forty years ago. Dr. : Was the apparatus you represent here a success ? (See cut page 10.) Mr. Smead : In some respects, yes ; but generally, no. It was more durable than the other, and did not get tired quite so quickly as did those made of sheet iron ; but, owing to the fact that we were pioneers in the use of soft coal, we had obstacles to overcome that others had wot struggled with. We could not copy as other manufacturers did, for we were on a new track. Our great trouble was to prevent the annoyance from smoke and soot ; this had not been accomplished in the new furnace, and customers were but little better pleased than before, there being in their minds but little choice between being frozen or smoked. Hot-air furnace manufacturers, steam- fitters and stove manufacturers were about the onlj^ ones tliorouglily pleased Avith the second attempt to get into successful operation the apparatus and system that should provide both warmth and ventilation. Dr. : You speak of other manufacturers " copying." To what do you refer'? Mr. Smead: For many years there have been manufactured "hot-air furnaces," generally made by stove makers and sold by stove dealers. Just examine these cuts (see pages 11 and 12) and you will notice that they are all about the same — a fire pot, a drum and a smoke-pipe. Each practically a copy of the other, differing only in name ; one calls his the " Fire King," another the 10 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. THE AIR-WARMER AS MANUFACTURED IN 1867. " Prairie Queen " ; " Commander " and " Peacemaker " are also represented, but so far as heating capacity is concerned, one is but little, if any, better than the others. They have a small amount of heating surface, and that surface is very hot. Their use in connection with ventilation had demonstrated the fact that something 7iew must be provided, and although nearly three years had passed, we had failed to meet the demand ; for, as I have said, we could not copy or steal the ideas of others, as is done by most manufacturers. Before the use of steam there was never any boiling apparatus except a kettle ; before the people learned of the necessity for ven- tilation they were satisfied with " heat," no matter how it was obtained and regardless of the quality of the air. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 11 A GROUP OF "HOT-AIR" FURNACES. (See pages 9 and 10.) A GROUP OF "HOT-AIR" FURNACES. (See pages 9 and 10.) ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 13 Dr. : I understand that you were trying to get an apparatus that had a larger amount of fire surface than any previously manufactured. Mr. Sraead : Yes, that is exactly what we were trying to do. Dr. : How did you accomplish it ? Mr. Smead : Instead of the fire pot of that day, we made a long fire box, the fire box alone having more fire surface than the ordinary furnace. At the rear of the fire box were some short pipes, through which the smoke and flame passed to a large chaml^er, thence forward to a front chamber, then back again to the rear. Please examine the cuts representing the " hot-air furnaces," and you will notice that the distance from the grate to the point where smoke goes into smoke- pipe is very short — only about five feet. Dr. : This must make a very hot smoke-pipe, and result in a great waste of fuel. Mr. Smead : So it does, and that is one of the reasons why people complain because "fur- naces-consume so much fuel." Dr. : You say " one of the reasons " ; give me another reason. Mr. Smead : Another reason is because they are generally set in position by stove dealers, who know little or nothing about heating and the question of ventilation. They attempt to force the hot air into rooms already full of cold air, without making any provision for the exit of the cold air already in the room. Architects are more at fault than the owners of the buildings for con- structing them in the manner they are generally built. But let us go back to the question of the proper construction of an air-warmer ; we will take up the subject of engineering and venti- lation at some other interview. Now you will notice by examining this cut that this air-warmer is not built upon the plan of the hot-air furnace at all. (See cut page 14.) Dr. : How large is the furnace you represent here ? Mr. Smead : The cut represents an air-warmer ten feet long, six feet high and three feet six inches wide. Dr. : It would therefore seem that you hold on to the smoke and other products of combustion for a distance of about forty feet before they are permitted to go to the chimney ? Mr. Smead : Yes, and at the same time we present to the volume of cold air to be warmed a very large amount of fire surface heated to a much less degree than the red-hot fire pot and dome of the round furnace represented by the other cuts I showed you. Dr. : Well, what was the matter with this furnace, or "air-warmer," as I notice you call it ? Mr. Smead : I will first answer your question by asking you another. Who was there who could tell how large to make the fire box, how much grate surface to use, how large to make the pipes at the rear, the proper size of the long ones or the large one that was to connect with smoke- rtue y All the libraries of the world contained but little information upon the subject ; all heating appliances manufactured at that time were for use of hard coal and heating very hot a small amount of air. We were working in another direction and had no guide, and only by a gness at first, and experimenting with those made and in use did we learn the answer to your question. You ask "wliat was the matter '? " There was something wrong with almost every castino-. The " rules" given by " scientists " which we had followed were found to be valuable only on paper ; those who had always opposed, ridiculed both the system of ventilation and the apparatus ; dis- gusted customers " kicked," thousands and thousands of dollars had been lost, my employers were discouraged and the present reputation and condition of the business seemed a long distance away. Dr. : The evolution of the Smead air-warmer makes a very interesting chapter. Mr. Smead : Those were indeed days of anxiety. Come in again tomorrow, doctor, and I will give you another chapter. There have been a good many in the past twenty years; the one given you only comes down to 1872. Tomorrow I will, as briefly as possible, outline the history of the next five years ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 15 Mr. Smead : Doctor, I told you yesterday that I would give you some more " history " when you next came in. I do this because it is true that the story of the business you see conducted here and at the other offices (Elmira, Philadelphia, Toronto, Kansas City, Boston, Cincinnati and Washington) is a correct history of the commencement and advancement of the science of venti- lation as it is now developed, understood and applied. A thorough knowledge of what has been done, of experiments that have been made, is sometimes necessary to prevent establishment of falsfe theories, and may keep you from going oft' on a track that will lead only to embarrassment and failure. I am pleased to have this conversation with you for several reasons ; principally because it was from men in your profession that we first received our encouragemeiit to go on, notwithstanding the fact that advancement of the science of ventilation was contrary to the pecun- iary interests of the medical jjrofession. Take, for instance, the situation of this city ; the introduction of our apparatus in the twenty-four school buildings, wliereby over nine thousand school children are permitted to sit in rooms from which every cubic foot of air is removed every twelve minutes, has resulted in a reduction of the revenue of the doctors among school children fully seventy-five per cent ; and yet it is from the doctors that I receive the strongest recom- mendations and most urgent requests that we extend our work. I am convinced that your profession either do not care for money, or you are the most unselfish of men. Where did we stop yesterday ? Dr. : Away back in the anxious days of 1872. Mr. Smead : Early in 1S12 some of the firm retired, a new com])any was organized, and we commenced for the third time to manufacture new apjiaratus. The active members were our superintendent, Mr. S. D. Fisher (now of Smead, Dowd &, Co., Toronto, Out.), and myself as the secretary of the new company. From that date to 1S77 we exijended many thousands of dollars in patterns and machinery, and our improved apparatus was introduced into hundreds of buildings throughout the West ; for five j-ears we did a large amount of work, some of which was done with considerable credit to ourselves and great satisfaction to our customers. Not a pattern that was in use in 1872 was used in 1877, and success seemed assured. More than $50,000 had been expended in improvements, and but for an unfortunate investment in poor iron, which caused a susjoension, we should have been contented. The business could not at that stage be permanently stopped ; a new company was organized and the offices moved to Chicago. Mr. Fisher was still continued as superintendent. I was made the president, and filled the position as well as I could with all the embarrassments incident to that of head officer of a stock company with limited caj^ital and total lack of harmony among its stockholders and officers. In January, 1882, I resigned my position and came to Toledo, taking as my territory in which to do business that portion of the United States lying north of the Ohio river and east of Illinois.* The other portion of the United States was still retained by my old associates. During the five years previous to 1882 but little advancement had been made either in heating apparatus or in application of the system of construction, due mainly to the fact that "Too many cooks spoil the broth." There were too many to please, and too many Avith a right to express and enforce their opinions. I had been with the business for many years, and chafed under the restraint of no progress ; but at last, fifteen years after its commencement, I was in a position to push it in my own way, and if I pushed it to failure it was no one's business but my own. Dr. : What was the first thing you did ? Mr. Smead : Immediately after I established my office I employed a draftsman, and decided that no apparatus should be sold or set except a plan showing the proper construction of the building was made, and this plan adopted by the owner of the building, and the building con- structed in accordance therewith. Dr. ■ • : Was this an innovation upon the past methods '? Mr. Smead : Yes ; up to that time I had never known such a department in connection with any office where heating apparatus was sold. We did before that sometimes make sketches, but * The Kansas City office is doing business only in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska — established October. 1888. 16 ISAAC D. 8MEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. generally they were to express to our superintendents our ideas of the way the apparatus should be made to conform to the plans drawn by an architect, who may or may not have designed some plan of supply and exhaust. I took the position that my great experience — a hundred times greater experience than any architect had ever had — was a better guide for the owners than the views, theories, ideas, guesses, or whatever you may call them, of architects, many of whom had never erected a dozen buildings.* Dr. : But some of them claim to have " made the study of ventilation a specialty." Mr. Smead : Your remark reminds me of the United States Senator who stated that he "now fully understood the subject of finance," for he "had been studying the subject for the last three days.'''' Dr. : Was your method approved by the architects and their clients ? Mr. Smead : Some of the arcliitects did as they always had done, namely, claim to know all about everything — heating, ventilation, light, acoustics, stone-work, brick-work, carpenter-work construction of all kinds, art, architecture ; in fact, all that makes life worth living. Others, and they (I have since learned) were the most prominent ones in the state, said, " We are glad you are willing to assume that portion of the work, and to guarantee success ; it has been the one subject that has given us the most trouble." I shall never forget the honest, hearty grip of one architect who, when he read my card, e:^tended his hand and said, " I am glad to see you ; 1 know you will succeed if you understand the business. I have built as many public buildings as any architect in Ohio ; I have tried everything — steam, hot water and furnaces — and among all my buildings there is not one properly warmed or thoroughly ventilated." Dr. : Were your plans approved by owners of buildings ? Mr. Smead : Yes, as soon as they fully understood the (juestion. The Board of Education of Toledo had just ordered the erection of a six-room addition to one of their buildings, and the first plan I designed differed so much from methods pursued before that it was only after careful investigation that they were induced to adopt it. Dr. ■ : What apparatus had they been using ? Mr. Smead : All kinds ; mostly " hot-air furnaces," although they had steam apparatus in some buildings. They required new apparatus in the six old rooms. The agents for the old hot-air furnace claimed they could do better work than I could (they often so claim), and the Board purchased theirs for the old portion of the building and mine for the new. Dr. : What was the result ? Mr. Smead : It cost $236 less for fuel to warm six rooms with my apparatus than to warm the same number of rooms with the other apparatus, on the other side of the hall, during the Avinter of 1882 and 1883. They used a less number of tons of soft coal in our air-warmer than they did tons of hard coal in the hot-air furnace. Dr. : How about the ventilation ? Mr. Smead : The air-meter said that on our side the air in each schoolroom was changed every nine minutes, while on the other side there was little or no ventilation. Dr. : That was in 1882 ; how many school buildings are there in Toledo now contain- ing your apparatus '? Mr. Smead : Erery puMlc school hullding in the city — twenty-four in all. Dr. ■ : AVhat was done with the old apparatus ? Mr. Smead : It was taken out and sold for old iron. Dr. : What was the total saving in fuel ? Mr. Smead : At prices they Avere paying then the saving in fuel was between $8,000 and 89,000 per annum. They use natural gas now, and prices given by the gas company are based on ••'Moreover, the architects themselves are now tindiug It expedient to adopt the same method of subdivision in their work which has become necessary not only in many of the practical arts but even in the legal professions, namely, either to employ special experts in the different departments, or else to organize firms in which one should be the artist, another the builder, another the engineer. Modern requirements make specialization necessary, and there are few indeed who can quaUfy themselves for all the requirements of almost any profession. — Edward Atkinson in Century. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 17 cost of warming with my ai>i)aratus. The small cost of lieatiiig such large buildings was a great surprise to the superintendent of the gas company, and I am inclined to think something of a disappointment, as his previous calculations were based on cost in other cities. Dr. : Did the Toledo Hoard reconsti'uct their buildings to introduce your system ? Mr. Smead : Yes, in all old buildings they built the necessary smoke, warm air and ventilat- ing Hues. The apparatus and exj>ense of introduction in one building cost over $13,000. Dr. : You refer to the High School building ? Mr. Smead : Yes ; all new ones constructed since the first test of my apparatus have been built in accordance with plans designed by me. By plans I refer only to plans for warming and ventilating, not to other portions of the building. I do not care whether the building in design or finish is modern or ancient, or a combination of both, whether it be one story or ten, whether it contains one room or a hundred, whether the owner be Jew or Gentile ; I sinn)ly take the plans as they are drawn by the architect, make a plan showing proper size and location of smoke, ven- tilating and warm air ilues, size and location of heating apparatus, and ask its ado])tion, and guarantee success if jilan is followed. Dr. : How do you know they will be followed if adopted ? Mr. Smead : The owner must contract with me for the ai)paratus, which I agree to set in position, ready for use, and to furnish a superintendent to see the building frequently during its consti'uction ; and if plans are not being followed he will insist upon work being properly done or stop the work. Dr. : Does he often have trouble ? Mr. Smead : Not with the customer, but sometimes with a rascally conti'actor or " smart Aleck" of an architect, who either wants to cover some error of his own or aid the builder to cheat the owner. There is one poi/it on, which we liave more trouble than on all others comhliied. Nine-tenths of all cennplaints that come to us come because of this one thing. Dr. : What is that? Mr. Smead : Deficient height of smoke and ventilating flues. I insist that they are made for use as such, and should be constructed to a height that would prevent their operation being interfered with by other portions of the building, the roof, towers, cupolas, etc. Dr. : I should not suppose there would be any argument on that question. Mr. Smead : You would change your mind if you should work for ns for a month. Why, only the other day I called the attention of an architect to the fact that as flues were represented on his ])lans they could not "draw" when the wind came from the west. (See cuts page is.) Dr. : What did he say? Mr. Smead: Called my attention to his "1)eautiful design for stone steps to main entrance," dismissing the chimney question witli the remark that "contract was already awarded and could not be changed ! " Dr. : What did you do? Mr. Smead : Called the attention of the owner to the error, and before the building is finished those flues will go to a point not an inch less than eight feet above the highest point of the roof. If the change is not made that building, costing over |60,000, will not be properly ventilated, and the smoke from the heating apparatus will pufi: out into the face of the fireman when he puts in fuel. When the January wind blows from the north or west is about the time that we want a heating apparatus in successful operation. Dr. : You speak of introducing your apparatus into twenty-four school buildings in Toledo ; have you had equal success in other cities? Mr. Smead: Yes. In 18S;3 I furnished api)aratus for two school buildings in Washington, D. C; there are now, in 1889, thirty-three school buildings there, warmed and ventilated by my apparatus. In 1883 I furnished for one school building in Columbus, Ohio ; there are now eleven school buildings there containing our apparatus. In 1883 I furnished for one school building in Detroit, and last year for ten more ; one for Cleveland Board in 1886, five in 1887 ; and I could IS ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. name scores of otlifi- cities wliei'e the same results have been obtained. I have furnished appa- ratus for more than one thousand buildings during the last few years. Dr. : Do yon meet with much opposition? Mr. Smead : Yes, and es]>ecially in the larger cities. Dr. : From whomV Mr. Smead : Steamtitters, plumbers, dealers in hot-air furnaces made in stove foundries. These parties, aided by their political friends, worry us sometimes. Dr. : What other improvements « have you made since you left the old c(jmpany 'i Mr. Smead : So many that, although we cast several tons of iron every day, I do not today use a pattern that was even designed six years ago. Come in tomorrow, doctor, and we will take up tljc subject again. -X- -X- •!<■ -X- Mr. Smead : You asked me yesterday, doctor, concerning re- cent improvements. I will call your attention to the first, namely, 'my system of "continuous venti- lation." Previous to the intro- duction of this, with all kinds of a})[)aratus, including our own, if the rooms became too warm and the occupant should close the reg- ister, entrance of air was stojiped. I have often gone into school- rooms where I knew the arrangements for ventilation to be the best, and found the air very bad, and especially would it be noticeable to one coming from outside, while those who had gradually become accustomed to it would not notice the impurity ; but the process of slow poison- ing was going on all the time, even though unnoticed by teacher or pupil. Upon inquiry, the ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 19 ■HIMHHHHHHH ISlSMBBCTJlSMSlBSKBl i h h z < u X > ui 0 CO z < J Q. y > h 0 u a. q: y 0. e no trouble experienced in heating up tlie building, and a great deal of coal saved. THIS LITHOGRAPH IS MADE TO ILLUSTRATE ISAAC D. SMKAD'S System of Continuous Ventilation As applied in The South Street School Building, TOLEDO, OHIO. Note, — This is always used in all our school work; is pro- tected by patent granted Isaac D. Smead. Section, Line B. B. Showing Cold Air Room, Furnace, And Warm Air Flue. (South Street School Building, Toledo, Ohio. Also in fifteen other school buildings, Toledo.) ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Dr. : Ai-e your instructions to janitors hard to understand or difficult to follow ? Mr. Smcad : Read them and answer the question yourself ; here is a copy : (n) Never build ut here is the new one. First examine the fire box and you will notice that it is not exhausted of its smoke, flame and other gases at the to^')-, but at the bottom^ or nearly on a line with the burning coal ; and the result is an evenly warmed fire box, except directly at the point of exit, where it is some hotter. After the smoke and flame leave the fire box, instead of passing through the very large extension or large flue with the warming surface at the most distant ])oint possible from its center, I change the shape of this flue, shaped thus : to two narrow upright flues, shaped thus : ] < Air S/jocc FORM OF FIRE BOX f EXTENSION, 1885 Pattern. and exhaust them again at the bottom, at the rear, into two back chambers, wliich are also lo)i[/ and ttarrov. Dr. : I notice that you keep the " center point " rery near the exterior. Mr. Smead : Yes, a necessary thing to do to pro- duce the best results. These two back chambers are exhausted by two long steel flues connecting with the front chamber, and instead of this form being round, as with the old, T make them thus : long and narron'. No soot or ashes can collect on the sides or top, only at the bottom at points marked FORM OF FIRE BOX EXTENSION, 1888 Pattern. FORM OF RETURN PIPES, As used from 18H7 to 1888. FORM OF RETURN FLUES, 1888 Pattern. With the old furnace the janitor had tioelne flues to clean, with this but tv^o. With the old air-warmer the large round pipe exhausted the front chamber at "a " "a. Dr. the tojJ, while with this I see that you keep it on a line considerabh- below the top of the two long, narrow flues. Mr. Smead : Yes, and in this manner, to a consideraljle extent, I exhaust lioth the long flues, back and front chambers, some distance below their top, instead of at the top as formerly done with the old one. 30 i8AA0 D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Dr. : Do you find a saving in fuel ? Mr. Sinead : Yes, about thirty per cent. Last fall I placed two of each kind in the same building to get at comparative results. Dr. : I see you have changed the location of direct-draft damper. Why ? Mr. Siuead : With the old one, located as it was, the heating surface of the front end of fire box and the bottom of front chamber was lost, and flame coming so near the front (which you will notice is somewhat ornamental) that it was liable to crack the castings ; while with the Smead air-warmer the direct draft is direct into the smoke-flue. Dr. : What is the direct draft for ? Mr. Siuead : Sim])ly to be used a few minutes when fires are started ; never after that. The furnace will not warni any more air than the ordinary round furnace Avith this damper open. There are many other points in which this differs from and is better than the old, but I think I have mentioned the principal ones. N^o furnace h of more value to tJie purchaser than so much old iroii, if it is 7iot properly set, and this brings us back to the question of ventilation and engineering. We will commence on that when you come in again. Dr. : All right; but one more question : What did this furnace cost you, the first one you made V Mr. Smead : I worked on the drawings and patterns for eighteen months, and the first air- warmer manufactured cost me a little over ^?9,000 ; I sold it for $000. I don't believe you could buy it back from its owners for $9,000 if they could not buy another. Come in tomorrow and I will show you some cuts illustrating position of air at different temperatures, and I think I will convince you that there is but one correct system of construction if desired results are obtained. I have never failed but once to convince even the most skej^tical. -X- -X- -X- -x- * % Dr. — : You said yesterday that you never failed but once to convince even the most skeptical. Mr. Smead : I was once awarded a contract on a school building where the architect insisted that the exit for the foul air should be at the ceiling instead of at the floor. I failed to convince him of his error, but he did consent to my placing registers at the floor line as well as at the ceiling; this as a compromise between us. The real reason why he insisted on his way was because his plans were so drawn when I was called, and he did not want to admit that he had made an erroi'. Dr. : But how could you warm a room with an opening at the top ? Mr. Smead : There wasn't any opening there ! I instructed my superintendent to build a solid brick wall back of the register, which he did, painted the wall black, set his register, and hung the cords ; on one cord handle was the word "open," on the other "shut." Dr. : Did the old gentleman ever discover the deception '? Mayville, Mich., March 19, 1889. Tills is to certify that the " Mayville Public Schools " have now used the complete Smead system of warming and ventilating, including the dry-air closets, since opening school in our new school building last October; that our rooms are large and high, and notwithstanding we have been compelled during the past winter to burn inferior and green wood, still the temperature has always been kept comfortable and the ventilation simply perfect. There has been no headache, no dullness, no want of pure air. We consider the system as near perfection as has yet been attained. The dry-air closets are beyond question the )?e plus ultra in that line. There is no drainage, no smell, no trouble. We believe in this system thoroughly, individually and officially. A. B. ^Maekham, Chairman School Board. Arthur Peitch. Director. W. B. Curtis, M. D.. Member School Jlo'ird. IRAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Mr. Smoad : No. There were two eiyht-rooin l)iiihling',s so arranged, and he admitted tliat tliey were the best warmed and most thorougldy ventihited buikliugs he liad ever seen, and since tliat date (1883), I liave furnished warming and ventilating apparatus for every school liuilding he has erected — over twenty-tive in number. Dr. : Does lie still insist on ceiling ventilation '? Mr. Smead : The next year he did, and I fixed them as before. The black register, blue cords and gold bronze were very ornamental ! After the second year he simply made Ids designs for the buildings and sent them to me, and I arranged the flues, etc., as I wished, and notliing has ever been said about the matter. As evidence of the successful operation of my plan, here is the report of a chemist who examined the l)uildings containing "top and l)ottom ventilators" : Laf.()Pw\T(_)ry of tiiu Chemist. \ * , February 2(i, 1885. f The HoNonAiuj;: Gentlemen, — I have the honor to report that, in compliance with directions of Commissioner to make tests and analyses of the atmospheric air of the " " and " " school buildings, I have jierfoi'med and make the following statement: On the 17th inst. I made some tests in both of these buildings, which lead me to the following conclu- sions as to the normal coudition of the air therein. The tests made in the building were in School No. !), on the third floor, containing 5G white children, and in School No. 6, on the second floor, containing 57 colored children. On the 25th inst. I returned to the building in order to make a quantitative analysis of the air. Tiie process followed by me is that laid down by Boussingault, based upon the absorption of carbonic acid bj' caustic potash and moisture Ijy strong sulphuric acid, and finally the absorption of oyxgen by copper, etc. The result of these analyses (taking the aii' from various heights in the school) are as follows : Outside air 0003 Carbonic Acid. 23.00 Oxygen. 1 Air School By weight. Air School No. 9 00045 " ", 22.94 " J It is therefore concladed tliatlUe air in the Sdiool is of normal coiidilion, 'ivh.ich is ollributable to good ventilation of the rooms. It is the atmospheric air wliich is brought in a large volume ).)y the heating apjiaratus from outside into these buildings ; and the warm air of the rooms, finding an outlet into cold conduits, eli'ects a constant renewal of air. Herein lies the secret of the small (quantity of carbonic acid found in the rooms thus ventilated. This re])ort refers more particularly to the building. ] intend to again visit the building, and make an additional analysis of the atmospheric air therein, the report of which will be forwarded lieieafter. Very respectfully, , ( 'hcmist, . LAnouAToav of tue Chemist, [ — , March 3, I8S5. \ The HoNORAiiLE Gentlemen, — Yesterday I again visited the School building, and made there a ijuantitati ve analysis of the air in Room No. 4 on second floor, while occu]iied by 52 colored children and one teacher. Result of analysis by weight: Carbonic Acid— .0004. Oxygen— 22.98. This air is of normal condition. Very resijectfully, your obedient servant, , Clirmisi, . Dr. : Was your treatment of the architect fair? Mr. Smead : I only considered final results ; they are satisfactory to taxjiayers. As further evidence of the ignorance and blindness of some who should t;ike an interest in sanitary matters, I will relate an incident in connection with one of these very schoolrooms. One day my engineer visited a sch(wlroom and asked the teacher how she liked the system of warming and ventilating. She replied : " The warming is all right, and whenever the air is bad I jy/il/ f/ii.f cord and ojieii tlie reglstjr Hp tlure, and In a vcri/ fcxo iiiomnU>!. the nlr lirre Ik dd'ajhtful.'''' I * For reasons that tlio readc-r can readily understand, [ do not pnblisli tlie names, ljut can sliow the originals if anyone wishes to see them. ISAAC D. .SMEAD. 38 ISAAC I). SMEAD & CO.. KANSAS CITY, MO. have always thought that teacher a relative of a friend of mine who, to get better air in liis sleeping-car berth, raised the sash a few inclies, fastened it in position with his knife, enjoyed the improved (?) condition of his berth, and in the morning learned that he had only raised the inner sash of the two that are generally used in sleeping-cars. He had not changed the condition of the air in the slightest degree, but he thoiif/Jit lie had ; and the imagination has very much to do with our hapjiiness or unhappiness. I told you the first time you came in that I wanted you to be guided by facts rather than by notions or tlieories, and have told you this incident to illustrate the necessity of careful investigation. As a rule the teachers give very little thought to the sanitary condition of their rooms. Not long ago a teacher called my attention to "a strong current of air coming into the room at the ventilating register"; she could feel it with her hand. I asked her for a sheet of paper, and she handed me a writing-book. I placed it near the register, and the force of the air going out was so strong that it was firmly held against the iron. She expressed great surprise, and from that day to this has been a great friend of our system. But the "system" is the same as when she complained that her room was not well ventilated ! ScRANTON, Pa., December G, 1887. Comrade Alexander : Dmr Sir, — Your favor of this date is at han<]. I am glad to give you what information I can with regard to the Smead system of ventilation as I have gathered it from observation and inquiry. I want to impress on you to start with that I have no pei-sonal interest in this system, my interest and advantage being rather with the old or other systems. Mr. C. F. Mattes, the Chairman of the Select Council; Mr. T. IT. Watts, the Chair- man of the Common Council ; Mr. Vj. L. Walter, the architect of our city building, and myself went on Monday, a week ago, to Elmira to examine the Smead system of heating, ventilating and dry closets in use in the public schools of that city. The first building we visited was heated by both the Smead and another system, the Smead system being in a new part which had been in use only a couple of months. There were four furnaces in this part, and I think eight rooms, with about three hundred scholars. The heating and venti- lation were the most perfect I ever saw. The doors and windows were all closed, but the air was as sweet and pure as it could be and the temperature about 70°. We passed from this part of the l>uilding into tliat part heated by anotlier system, and the change was apparent as soon as we entered. In one of these rooms a win- dow was down at the top and in another the door was open, and yet the school smell was there. The committee were thoroughly satisfied, and so expressed themselves. The committee wlien selected were chosen with a view to having as conservative a committee as could possibly be chosen, and they were calculated to find all the objections there might be. The volume of fresh air pouring into the building was sufficient to change the air entirely in every part of the building at least four or five times an hour. After a thorough and most satisfactory examination of the heating and ventilating features of the system we went down to the basement to examine the dry closet arrangement. This to me was one of the most marvelous things I ever saw. There was not the slightest particle of odor to be discerned even within two feet of the droppings in the vault, no disinfectants of any kind were in sight, and the entire droppings of three hundred children for six weeks would not fill a half-biishel measure. The urinals were as clean and devoid of smell as the closets, althongli they stood out on the open floor and were not enclosed. We visited another building and saw its operations there, and the result was precisely the same, and the testimony of the principals of both buildings was alike and in favor of the Smead system. I have never seen anything to compare with it, an J I wish it could be introduced into all our school buildings. I forgot to mention that in some of the furnaces they were using pea coal witli best results. Mr. Walter took all the tests of passage of air and can give you them if he chooses. We tested it at the intake, dry closets (seats and vaults) and rooms. Yours truly. Ezra II. Ripi'le, Mayor. S^^^EAD Si STOVE HEATING Mr. Smead : I told you yesterday that I would show you some cuts representing the condi- tion of air under various 'temperatures. Here is a picture I have made to 'illustrate in colors the information you would get if you should locate at as many points a dozen thermometers in a room warmed by a stove or by direct radiation from a steam coil, the red representing the warm and the blue the Cold air. The lady is busy and becomes too warm, and to " cool off the room " has opened the window, and at once a stream of cold air rushes in, which, being heavier, falls to the floor. The child playing on the floor has the croup that night. The lady tells the doctor that she " don't understand why it should," for " it was in the house all day, and the house was very warm." The truth is that the child " caught cold " because it was in the current of cold air that was traveling from window to stove. Many school children have become injured for life because in a room heated by direct radiation, either from a stove or a steam coil, someone having opened a window allowed a stream of cold air to drop upon them. Normal, 111., March 1, 1889. Isaac D. Smead & Co., Toledo, Ohio : Dear Sirs— In regard to the furnace you set for us last fall, I write to say that we are more than satisfied ; we are ddighled. Tlie only trouble we have had is to keep from making too much fire. The temperature is even and delightful all over the house. We are especially happy in having father's and mother's room so nicely warmed. Every winter before they have had to move into the back parlor because we could not heat their room. We want to thank your superintendent for his kind and careful attention while introducing the apparatus. After the furnace was finished and ready for use mother was carried down cellar. She had not been down for more than four years before. She was very much pleased with the looks of things; she thinks the front of the furnace too handsome for a cellar, it would almost do for a parlor ornament. Very truly yours, Flora Pisnnell. 39 WAKM AIE B PIJBI JSIIEI) HA" IE 47 COLD AND FOUL AIR, THE POPULAR MISTAKE. Di-. : But many people seem to think that warm air must be bad air. Mr. Smead : The tem2)erature of the air is not an index of impurity ; it is upon the theory that warm air is bad air that has caused people to ventilate (?) their rooms at the top, as this cut illustrates, and that is what may be called the popular mistake. Oiviufj to the commo)ily mistaken belief that the breath rises, openings are generally made at the top of the room, but as they let all warm air out and leave the occupied portions cold and foul, they are always closed in winter, and consequently such ventilation (?) has well earned the reputation of humbug. REPLY FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE HIGH SCHOOL BOARD, CHATHAM, ONT. Chatham, November 14, 1887. W. C. Wilkinson, Esq., Secretary Board of Public School Trustees, Toronto : Dear Sir,— I found your letter awaiting me on my return from Toronto. In reply to your inquiries I beg to say : . . 1. The Smead system of heating and ventilating and their dry closet system ^vere introduced into our new Collegiate Institute building erected last year, and have been in constant use since the opening of the school in January last. The results have been all we expected. Our eight schoolrooms, corridors and a large assembly hall have been heated and ventilated in a most satisfactory manner. 2. The dry closet system has received my particular attention. 1 have personally observed it in actual f)peration almost weekly since January last. It has in our school given unqualified satisfaction. Neither m the schoolrooms nor in the closets themselves have any disagreeable odors been perceptible. The closets were cleaned out in the summer by sprinkling a little coal oil on the excrement. The whole was then con- sumed with no troul)le bv fire, leaving a small residuum of ashes. We keep a small fire in the ventilating furnace when there is no' fire in the heating furnaces. The introduction of this closet system solves, in my opinion, a very difficult problem. I have seen criticisms of it recently in one of the Detroit newspapers. All I can say is that our experience is wholly at variance with these criticisms. I will be pleased to answer any further inquiries, or I refer you to our principal, Mr. J. D. Christie, E. W. Scane, W. H. Stevens, or S. T. Martin, the three latter forming with myself our building committee. Truly yours, A. Bell, C. C. C. I. B. 40 PUBLISHED SMEAD Sc Co. KAiVs^ WARMING BY AN OPEN FIRE. Mr. Smead : Here is another humbug illustrated, so far as warming is concerned. Dr. : What have you here ? Mr. Smead : A representation of a room warmed by radiant heat from an open fire. You will notice that the man reading has already raised up one foot out of the cold. By and by he will want to turn around and warm his back. Dr. : I have always thought there was a great deal more sentiment than sense in some of the poetry and prose written about the " open fire." Mr. Smead : The much admired open fire is only for the eye, and is all right if there is a large register somewhere in the room through which there can How a large volume of warm air, and the volume must be considerably larger than the ca^jacity of the fireplace flue. Dr. : Why ? Mr. Smead : Otherwise the fireplace will " draw" cold air into the room through every opening it contains, even through the keyhole. This cold air falls to the floor, diffuses along over it toward th-e hot fire, and the occupants of the room suffer from cold feet. Dr. : That makes more business for the doctors. Ithaca, N. Y., January 27, 1886. Isaac D. Smead & Co., Toledo, Ohio : Gentlemen— Your system of heating and ventilating, which has been in use in our new High School building since the 1st of September last, proves in every respect to be most satisfactory. During the extremely cold weather a short time since, when for a full w eek the thermometer every morning ranged from zero to 10° below, the temperature of our schoolrooms at 9 o'clock was, in every instance, up to 68° or 70°. We appreciate your method of passing the foul air under the floors, whereby they are kept moderately warm. Our pupils no longer suffer from cold feel in the schoolrooms. The ventilation of the rooms is excellent; indeed, I hardly see how it could be improved. I cheerfully recommend your system of heating and ventilating as superior for public buildings to any- thing before the pubUc. Very truly yours, L. C. Fostek, Sup't of Schools. 41 I IB D PUBLISHED l$Y WAEM AIB ^.SMliAD & Co. jf^^ COLD AND FOUL AIK, THE GENERAL REMEDY VERY BAD. Mr. Sniead : So it does ; but here is a picture representing a condition that will aid the doctors and injure the people more ; it represents a condition that I have often found to exist. The register at the top is closed, and as the warm air cannot come in except the same amount of the air in the room goes out of it, the air already in the room goes down the cooler side of the register and is warmed over again. The people breathe it, it goes to the furnace, is warmed, the people breathe it again, it is warmed over again, and after several such revolutions it becomes fit only for the sewer. New Lexington, June 8, 1886. Geo. W. Keely : Daw Sir, — In reply to your letter of inquiry as regards the Smead heating and ventilating, A\'Ould say we have bad but little experience as yet, but are well satisfied with what experience we have had. It has not its equal for heating and ventilating. We did not go it blindly, but sent a committee to see and investigate the matter thoroughly. The com- mittee visited several large school buildings heated and ventilated by this system, and came home convinced it would do all claimed for it. They found that any room in the building could be well ventilated without opening the doors or windows, while in the building in which steam was used the doois and windows had to be thrown open to secure the needed ventilation. Our committee made an arrangement with tlie janitor of one of the buildings visited to wait until they could be i^resent in the morning before starting the fire. On their arrival they found the thermometer in the schoolrooms stood at 59°, and in just seventeen minutes from the time the fire was lighted the thermometer showed 70°. They also investigated dry closets, and found them just as represented by Mr. Smead's agent. I am interested in our schools of Ohio, and wish to see the ventilation of our schoolrooms improved ; and I am confident we have filled a long-felt want in the adoption of the Smead heating and ventilating system. I am authorized by our Board to say they freely and gladly recommend this system as complete, and just what every school building should have. Yours very respectfully, W. T. Meloy, Clerk of Board of Education. 42 Dr. : What does this represent ? Mr. Smead : The position of the warm and cohl air with the cxlianst register a few feet off the floor. I was recently called to examine a church that was "uncomfortable" in the winter. I went to the building (an old one) with the pastor and a number of the building committee. The pastor said he could " not understand why the people complained. We have four large furnaces, and it always seems warm enough in the pulpit." The trustee remarked that they couldn't " all occupy the pulpit " and that it " is cold down among the pews." Dr. : What was the matter ? Mr. Smead : The room was supplied with at least twenty exhaust registers, about ten on a side, and all located as you see represented in the picture, about four feet from the floor. The people were in a strata of air twenty degrees colder than that occupied by the preacher. Dr. : What did you do ? Mr. Smead : Explained to them the cause of the trouble ; they stopped up the so-called "ventilators," cut some holes in the floor, built boxes connecting the audience room with the four furnaces,'and produced the condition shown in the previous cut, namely, changed from a condition of cold air to " warmed-over air," and I lost my time and expenses of the trip. Glens Falls, N. Y., August 17, 1886. Charles H. Peck, Sup't Buildings, Worcester, Mass. Bear Sir,— Out central building is heated and ventilated by the Smead system. We have occupied the building something more than a year, and to say that we are fully satisfied is putting it very mildly. With the tliermometer 30° below zero we had no difficulty in warming the whole building within an hour from starting the fire. The ventilation is so good that in coming in from out of doors the only diflerence you would notice would be in temperature. The space heated, exclusive of basement, 175,000 cubic feet. The cost for the year— burning wood— was $271.89. The cost with soft coal would perhaps have been a little less. After all, the best thing of all is the dry closets. Should you wish any further information, I shall be glad to give it. Very truly yours, Shei»ian Williams, Sup't Scliools. 43 Di-. : Why didn't they change the location of the registers to a point on a line with the floor, as yon show in this drawing '? Mr. Smead : They could not do so without great expense, as the wise architect had com- menced the flues at that point. The hot-air furnace man had taken all their money for the work he had done, and they had no more with which to secure a complete system. This cut I have last shown you represents direct ventilation, and is correct in principle. The plan can be built into buildings already constructed, and successfully, too, provided there is someone in charge wJio knoios how to do it. Dr. : This seems to represent some of the work I have seen in one of our public school buildings. Toronto, Ont., March 22, 1889. Dear Sir,— In reply to yours of the 11th, would say that the Toronto Public School Board sent a depu- tation of five (and I accompanied them) to visit the leading cities of the United States, for the purpose of gathering the latest and best improvements in heating and ventilating school buildings. The committee returned home last night (hence the delay in answering your letter), having visited nineteen cities, and they are unanimous in the conclusion tliat the Smead system is the best and cheapest in use. We found two schools heated by steam, direct and indirect, that were, perhaps, as well ventilated as if by the Smead system, but the cost was about twice that of the Smead. We have in Toronto the Smead furnaces in twelve of our schools, and the dry closet system in nine of them, and they have proved very satisfactor^^ In view of the fact that we propose building nine new schools and enlarging ten others, and the Board being specially anxious that the schools be well heated and venti- lated, Avas the reason for sending the deputation, and they have come to the conclusion that the Smead system is the best, and I indorse that opinion. There was considerable opijosition to it at first, l)ut after two years' experiment with it in some of our schools the opposition faded away. Should you wish my oi^inion on any of tlie details of the system, I will be pleased to answer any questions you may ask. Yours truly, C. H. Bishop, SujjH of Buildimgs. 44 Mr. Smead : Yes, in the old buildings ; but in the new ones I exhaust the air upon a much better plan. Examine this drawing. You will notice that by the use of furring strips laid across the joists upon which the floors are placed, between the floor and the plastering of the ceiling below, a space is formed and air can freely pass either over or between the joists. I place the exhaust registers at several different points around the room, through which the air can pass to space under the floor, thence into ventilating flue. Dr. : This must prevent strong local currents such as you must have with the direct ventilation. Mr. Smead : Yes, and at the same time warms the floor, as after the air becomes heated the air going out is warm, the floor absorbs almost all the heat it contains before it reaches the stacks. Another advantage is, that with this plan, one ventilating Hue can be made to do duty for several rooms if properly located and of proper size. Dr. : Not much chance for cold feet in a room constructed as you represent here. Mr. Smead : No ; and that is one reason why the doctors' bills among school children in Toledo have been so much reduced. You may remember that I called your attention to that when you were in a few days ago. Cleveland, Ohio, April 20, 1889. Isaac D. Smead & Co. : Gents, — Your heating apparatus and dry closet system is, in my opinion, the best the city of Cleveland ever liad in our public schools. It is far superior to sewerage and steam heating which is used in some of our school buildings at the present time. Had I alone the power I would discontinue the old system and place your apparatus and dry closet system in their stead. As to the Leader articles condemning your system, pay as little attention to them as possible. They are liable to write all kinds of trash about a person. I suppose if you had " greased " them your system would have been the best in the land. Very respectfully. Ph. Voelkle, Ex-member of the Board of Education. 45 46 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Mr. Smead : We spent some time yesterday examining the pictures I made representing air in its various positions, and' I tried to show you that the position it occupies is governed almost entirely by its temperature. If I am correct must it not follow that successful VKmnlng and ventilating depends upon the slcill of the engineer in so arranging his plan that, with the lowest degree of temperature comfortable, the hest results may he obtained ? Dr. : Why do you say " with the lowest degree of temperature " ? Mr. Smead : Because, except such degree of warmth as we may get from the sun, all other heat is secured at an exp>ense — at a cost of dollars and cents, and that, too, in several directions, namely, cost of apparatus, cost of fuel and cost of attendant to care for ajjparatus and supply the coal. Dr. : I understand that you claim to have reduced all to the lowest point possible. Mr. Smead : Perhaps not to the lowest point it will ever go, but we have reduced it to the lowest 23oint up to this date, and I am at a loss to iinderstand how it can be taken much lower. Dr. : Do you reach low tide in every building ? Mr. Smead : By no means. Dr. : Why? Mr. Smead: There 'are many reasons why. There are no two buildings exactly alike, and it is not possible always to apply all the rules to every building. It would be if we could have, the entire and absolute arrangements from commencement to completion. When this is done we always strike the low point. Dr. : During one of our first interviews you convinced me that your warming appa- ratus is correctly constructed to get the best results from the fuel used. What features do you consider next in importance ? Mr. Smead : No less important than the heating apparatus is correct engineering or arrange- ment of cold and warm air Hues, location of the apparatus, a faithful execution of the engineer's plan, and care of apparatus after it is turned over to the customer. Dr. : I wish you would show me a job of poor work, and then show me the same work properly arranged. Mr. Smead : Come in tomorrow and I will. " * -K- % ■ -x- -x- ^- * Mr. Smead : Good morning, doctor ; I told you yesterday that I would show you two kinds of engineering. Here are some pictures that fairly represent the ideas I wish you to understand. (See cuts pages 47, 48 and 49.) In 1882 I was requested to submit an estimate to furnish warming and ventilating apparatus for a school building in Youngstown, Ohio. I was informed that there were already in the building "hot-air furnaces," and that "the only warm portion of the building during cold weather was the basement," and that was too warm ; that about " one hundred tons of hard coal were burned annually," and schools were dismissed because of cold schoolrooms very often each winter ; that " board were prejudiced against furnaces." Upon examination of the building I found exactly what I have seen many, many times before, namely, small f urnaces, small v:arm- air pipes, small warm-air flues, the basement room spoiled for any other purpose than for fuel and the "hot-air traps," which some inexperienced hardware dealer, or some traveling " salesman " who sold furnaces on a commission^ had sold the board. They could not be used for play-rooms or for janitor's quarters, and what was worse, there were no ventilating flues in the entire building; the air of the schoolroom was simply horrible. . (On page 4Y I represent a basement plan of the building as I found it.) A careful measurement showed 510 feet of v-arm-air pipje. (On page 48 I represent the plan I presented for the consideration of the board.) ISAAC D. SIMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 47 BASEMENT PLAN OF SCHOOL 15LriLDlNG, YOTNGSTOWN, OHIO, Showing application of '• Hot-Air" System uf Wai'wiug. For explanation, see page -I'i, 48 ISAAC D. SMEAD o'clock this afternoon two boilers in the engine room of the State Hospital for the Insane exploded, completely wrecking the engine house, killing two patients, injuring- two others, and the two engineers will lirobal>ly die before morning. Extract from last (1888) annual report of Board of Education, Wasliington, D. C: VENTILATION. "The schoolrooms that have been provided during the last seven years are cheerful, thoroughly venti- lated and healthful. I am glad to be able to say the system of ventilation employed ventilates — and ventilates in spite of the preoccupation of the teacher or of the jtmitor. In respect of heating, lightivg and ventilation, notlting more i'x to be desired in the new buildings." On the question of ccst of fuel I ask you to examine this table, showing COST OF WARMING SCHOOL BUILDINGS. IN TOLEDO. For Winter of 1S84-5 : With Smead apparatus 122.79 per schoolroom. With steam-heating apparatus 52. ()S " " With hot-air furnace 80.25 " " IN DETROIT. With Smead apparatus (frame building) $25.25 per schoolroom. With steam-heating apparatus (brick building) 54.00 " " IN WASHINGTON, D. C. With Smead apparatus $24 .20 per schoolroom. With steam-heating apparatus 5(i.OO " " 66 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. On the question of repairs, I refer you to the extract from the Columbus, Ohio, report (page 21). There are two school buildings in Columbus, both of the same size — twelve rooms. One is warmed with steam apparatus that cost, including closets, over |8,000 ; the other with mine, which cost, including closets, less than |4,000. Tde rteam apparatus is cared for by a skilled engineer. The one containing mine is entirely cared for by a janitor. During the winter of 1887 and 1888, 84 tons of soft coal were burned in my apparatus, and 168 tons used in the steam-heated building. Dr. : How about the question of exposure ; is yours less exposed to the wind ? Mr. Smead : On the contrary it is very much more exposed, one being in the business portion of the city and the other (ours) almost out in the country. Dr. : In your eleventh objection to steam you refer to a loss of three-fifths of the force. Do you speak from practical experience or do you quote from Sewall ? Mr. Smead : Both. Here is what Sewall says : Another method of heating is by driving steam through coils of iron pipe. Not only does this method of warming render ventilation impos-ible, hut it is, perhaps, the most uneconomical. Now heat may manifest itself in two ways, namely, as temperature and as- expansion. All the force generated by the burning fuel will appear in one of these forms, or a part of both. Water at the normal pressure can be heated to only 212° Fahrenheit. Consume as much fuel as you will, and the water will remain at 212° Fahrenheit; but the force generated by the consuming fuel is not lost, but is transmitted to the water in the form of expansion, and the water is converted into steam. Now, if the water be confined, and this tendency to expansion resisted, the temperature can be elevated to almost any extent; bat if not thus resisted the temperature will not rise above 212° Fahrenheit. As it is necessary to force the steam through the pipes, this expansion must be resisted until sufficient force is accumulated to accomplish this result. Noiv, this mechanical work is performed at the expense of temperature. If a building is warmed by steam, three-fiflhs of the force generated by the burning fuel is consumed in the form of mechanical motion. The temperature of the steam in the boiler may be 400° or -500° Fahrenheit, but the pipes never indicate a temperature above 212° Fahrenheit. I have never found it above 190° Fahrenheit. On the other hand, air may be heated to 600° Fahrenheit, with but slight expansion, so that nearly all the force generated by the burning fuel appears as tempei'ature, while scarcely a particle appears as mechanical motion. Here we see why Ericsson failed in his attempt to use heated air instead of steam as a motive power. Heat being applied to the air appears as temperature, but being applied to water appears as expansion, or mechanical motion. Mr. Smead : You will notice that Sewall says that heat may " manifest itself in two w^ays," etc. Now you will remember that we are mainly interested in the question of vKirming. We have no machinery to run, we simply wish to get as much warmth as possible from the fuel con- sumed. Dr. : To warm a room how could the fuel be burned to get the most degrees of heat in the room ? Mr. Smead : By piling it upon the floor and burning it, assuming that we get perfect com- bustion. The Cave-dwellers, Esquimaux and North American Indians have appreciated the economy of this method. I claim almost an equal economy for the system of heating that I shall describe, and a plan, too, that, unlike the steam-heating apparatus with its miles of pipes, does not ruin the basement for other uses than for heating apparatus. Locate an air-warmer in the basement ; surround it with a wall of non-conducting material (brick answers very well) ; have the space between heating apparatus and wall in free com- munication with outer air below, and construct free conduits into the rooms above to be warmed. Now, as soon as the fire is started (the products of combustion being disposed of by a special flue) the air in immediate contact with the heated iron of the furnace is displaced upwards by the cooler and heavier air from without, and is conveyed by the warm-air conduits into the rooms above. Thus, you see, the warming of the rooms begins with the first consumption of the fuel, and there is no warming of a volume of water (or more often thawing out a volume of ice) up to 212° before heat is obtained in the rooms above. Dr. : I notice that you admit that successful warming can only be secured by means of proper ventilation. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 67 Mr. Smead : Three things more are necessary, doctor, namely, properly constructed warming apparatus, successful engineering as to its location, and decent care after apparatus is properly set. Dr. : Your plan seems correct, and I do not see any necessity for the use of steam to convey the heat generated to the room to be warmed, as the force necessary to make it go there must be at the expense of fuel. Mr. Smead : So it is; "three-fifths of the force generated by burning fuel is lost," M'hile with the natural system (ventilation by fines), very little is lost, as they, if properly constructed, do their duty " without charge." Dr. : But wliy is steam so often used ? Mr. Smead: It is not used nearly as much as it used to be, and but little in schools, churches, etc. Dr. : In wliat class of buildings would you recommend its use ? Mr. Smead: There are several kinds; for instance, a business block containing a large number of ofiices, elevators, with large, open corridors, etc., but iierer where the question of ven- tilation or cost is an important factor to be considered. In a factory where the exhaust steam from engine can be used and heat thus secured costs nothing, and heating by direct rddiation is the only plan that can be used (owing to construction of the building), then I would use steam ; or in any other building where power is required and the only thing to consider is the question of temperature. But simply to secure uniformity of temj)eratx(,re and ventUation the use of steam is entirely unnecessary, as better results can be secured at much less cost and entirely without danger. Dr. : Is there really so much danger ? Mr. Smead : There is so much that if either of my two children were attending school in many of the buildings in which I have been, I should be in constant fear for their lives. The talk about " low pressure " and "twelve-year-old boys" acting as engineers for steam-heating apparatus is all nonsense. Of course "low pressure" is much safer than " high pressure." Dr. : Manufacturers of steam-heating apparatus talk a great deal about "indirect heating." Mr. Smead : Yes, so tliey do, since necessity for ventilation became so apparent and we succeeded with a system of indirect heating. Twenty-five years ago no one heard them proclaim its merits, and they never wt)uld have done so but for the remarkable success of our work. Dr. : Previous to tliat date steam heating was by direct radiation ? Mr. Smead : Yes, by coils placed either around the sides of the room or bunched together in a radiator. Dr. : But these would only warm the air in the room ; a stove will do that. Mr. Smead : A stove would (b) better than the steam coil, as the air used to sujtport com- bustion of fuel in the stove is of necessity drawn from the room, and to that extent ventilates it. Sewall says : Few persons seem to understand just how the air in a room is warmed. It is generally thou.uht that the air in immediate contact with the burning fuel or lieated stove is warmed, and that this warms another, and so on until all the air in the rooui is warmed. Not so at all. The air next to the burning fuel, in the case of the open fire, is warmed, and for the most part goes up the chimney. A small part, however, arises, and the cold air takes its place. The heated air that rose slowly cools, and is displaced by the warmer and rarer air just escaped from immediate contact with the fire, and after a time falls and is again warmed. So that we see only a small part of the air of the room is warmed, while whole oceans are heated and escape from the chimney. If a stove be used for heating, only a small part of the air comes in contact with the burning fuel — in fact, just enough to oxidize tlie fuel, while the air about is heated and rarified, and then pressed up by the cooler and heavier air, which is in turn heated and forced up, and thus we have a current of air established, moving toward the stove, then up to and along the ceiling, then down to be warmed again. But as this current takes place in a closed room (and the tighter the better, we tliink), of course it is the same air moving in a circle, to which we are constantly imparting the carbonic acid of the breath, which is warmed and circulated and breathed again, and if our rooms were absolutely air-tight in a short time the air would be so saturated with carbonic acid as to produce death. The " hot-air furnace " system had failed, people must be n'lrrm, the steamfittcr could (as I have said before) put in a large boiler, introduce pipes in the rooms, and get the building /ie>t. 68 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. This was the condition of affairs when we conamenced to work for proper construction of flues for supply and exhaust. The result of our success with the system of ventilation and progress in inventing an " air-wai'iner " was to frighten the steam-heating fi-aternity, and so they com- menced to advertise that they could do with their apjsaratus anything we could do with ours ; some of them would guarantee to cure corns with their appai'atus if customers should request it. Dr. : Didn't you have patents to protect yourselves ? Mr. Smead : Yes; but for selling purposes what does the imitator care about that? They have always been very careful to put in enough pipe for direct radiation to heat the rooms in cold weather ; the indirect is generally a blind. Dr. : Why ? Mr. Smead : Because the temperature of the steam in the pipes cannot be over 212 degrees (generally is about 190 degrees) ; and a coil as ordinarily placed in a cold-air conduit, with air at say 10 degrees below zero, cannot stand the cold, steam is condensed and pipes are frozen. Dr. : But even if such were not the case and pipes could warm the air, would not the same importance attach to proper construction of flues ? Mr. Smead : Certainly it would, and there is where they fail again. Our system of con- struction varies as buildings vary ; our skill as engineers is the result of many experiments and past experience. They would introduce in a building something they had seen built under our supervision in some other building differing in many ways from theirs ; failure followed in both heating and ventilation, and in some instances I have known them to blame us! As a member of the Board of Managers of the Ohio Penitentiary for several years, I have gained considerable information concerning crime, and have some acquaintance with criminals ; hut I h/ive more sym- patJbjj for the Jii'/Jaocdj robber than for the thief v>ho would steal the ideas of a mechartic or 2>ass as his otvn the ideas aiid designs of others. I have read circulars iss^ied by vjoidd-he competitors con- taimng whole pages cut from our publications. I ha ve known them to copy our cuts, errors and
:>. 66 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. SOUTH STREET SCHOOL BUILDING, TOLEDO, OHIO. Representing, liy Itreaks in the floors, the passage of air under them, location of main air register in school- rooms and corridors, and also location of foul-air exits before it passes under floor. PLAN OF SECOND FLOOR SOUTH STREET SCHOOL liLTILDING, TOLEDO, OHIO. 68 PEKSPECTIVE VIEW OF VAULT HEATER IN POSITION As used with Smead's Dry Closet and Cremation System. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 75 floor of iron, and, as often as may be desired, a fire started at the end of tlie vault most distant from the stack soon reduces all collections to ashes. Here is a recent item from our local press that may interest you : AN INTERESTING EVENT. A committee from Fort Gratiot, Michigan, and a number of persons from the city yesterday visited the Warren School building for the purpose of seeing the vaults of the Smead dry closets burned out. A reporter of the Commercial, having heard of the approaching event, repaired to the Warren School at the appointed time to witness the process. It is very interesting, both from a chemical and sanitary standpoint. It must be borne in mind that on tlie side of the building where the deposits were yesterday burned the closets are used daily by some three hundred and fifty pupils for ten months of the year. Nothing had been done with this excreta for two years, and yet not the slightest odor was perceptible about the basements, closets, urinals or anywhere else. As may be readily conceived, an immense quantity of excreta had been deposited here in the space of two years, but the fact is, very tittle (at least of the offensive portion of it) remained. The vaulted closet space, arched and surrounded with brick and stone, is so connected with the interior of the building and the large ventilating stack to the outside that a constant strong current of warm air is drawn over and through the deposits. The result is that the excreta become thoroughly dry and odorless, only the skeleton or solid tissues of the original matter remaining. The excreta remaining is thus rendered very combustible. A few minutes after touching the match to the matter yesterday the whole vaulted chamber was a mass of roaring, seething flame. There is no possibility of damage by fire, as all the surroundings of seats, floors and walls are of iron, brick or stone. This process of burning out tlie deposits yesterday was subjected to the closest inspection by the gentle- men out of the city. They were inclined to be somewhat critical and skeptical before they came to Toledo as to the means of disposing of the residue, but in a few minutes after the fire was lighted the devouring llame swept along the passage, fierce heat was generated from the dry, combustible matter, and soon nothing was left of the entire mass except a few ashes. How vastly better it is to have these great masses of poisonous matter thus evaporated and purified by the ocean of air above and the residue consumed by flame than to have the whole pass into clogged and reek- ing sewers or left in privy vaults after the old fashion, to create its unwholesome stench, and be absorbed into the earth to contaminate waters and breed disease and pestilence. These closets have now been in use in Toledo four years, and time only seems to demonstrate more fully the perfection of the system. Mr. Smead is certainly to be congratulated upon the success of these dry closets. He rightly deserves whatever of profit and praise may come to the inventor of such a beneficent plan for disposing of great quantities of unwholesome matter. The gentlemen who witnessed the burning-out of the diy closets yesterday expi-essed themselves as more than satisfied with the result. Mr. Smead : Here is another cut representing a late improvement ; in this one you will notice a brick j^latform extending'tbrongh the vault. (See cut page 74.) Dr. : This to permit air to pass both under and over the deposit ? . Mr. Smead : Yes ; the porous brick at once absorbs all water as soon as it comes to the vault, and then gradually gives it' off as fast as the passing air can take it up. Dr. : Do you find this to be a valuable improvement ? Mr. Smead : Yes, wliere the earth is damp, as is sometimes the case. Dr. : What is the size of the vault ? Mr. Smead : Three by four feet. Dr. : How rapidly does the air pass through the vault ? Mr. Smead : A little faster than five feet per second. Dr. : Over 216,000 cubic feet per hour ? Mr. Smead : Yes, it will average more than that. Dr. : Does the current ever reverse and malodors go back into tlie basement or building '? Mr. Smead : I have had but few instances of the kind, and never a back current where the engineering was properly done. . Fearing I might have trouble in that way, I devised an automatic I 76 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. check-valve at the end of the vault next to foul-air room. Altliough they only cost -$G each, I soon abandoned their construction, as I found them to be entirely unnecessary. Dr. : The result would be serious if a back-set did occur. Mr. Smead : Not very serious. It would be very annoying, but, unlike the deadly sewer gas, there would be little or no danger, as the signal is at once given, its presence being plainly notice- able, while the sewer gas is not noticeable by its odor, and is present in all buildings where plumbing is introduced. Dr. : The fact that you have gone on introducing them year after year for the same parties, for instance Toledo Board of Education, is pretty good evidence that they are all right, and especially as they are being substituted for water-closets and outside vaults. Mr. Smead : Here is an extract from a circular written by Mr. Otis Jones, of Chicago, upon the subject, that I have always thought to be a very clear statement of the closet question. I hope you M'ill have time to read it. The dry-closet system, as patented by Isaac D. Smead, will convince the most skeptical of its superiority over any other system in use. Two otliers are practiced. The first and most common is the old vault plan, in which the vault is used until it is filled, wlien either the building is placed on a new vault and a little earth thrown over the old one^ or, during the night, as secretly as possible, the contents of tlie vault is removed by night-soil scavengers, taken to the limits of the city, where a pit is dug, the excreta dumped in and a few feet of earth or sand covered over. There it lies for years, a festering mass of corruption, a veritable plague-spot upon the face of the earth. In the course of time (how near eternity the "time" may approach no one can tell), these disease-breeding particles will be absorbed and changed by the sur- rounding earth ; but this is mainly through the action of the atmosphere and sunlight — the more deeply it is covered the slower the action, and the longer the danger continues. However horrible the odors may be, they are not in themselves poisons, but arc notices to man, spoken in Nature's loudest voice, that the penalty for taking the poisons from whence the odors come into man's system is death. The second plan is the water-closet system as used in naost large cities. It consists in washing all the excreta in pipes, provided for the purpose, from the houses of the city into running streams, or large bodies of water where " in course of time" it becomes so dissipated by the action of the water and atmosphere as to cease to be injurious. There are two very great dangers that we encounter from the use of this system. Sewer gas is a terrible enemy to life, and it requires the work of the most skillful sanitary engineers to merely keep it at bay, as it is ever waiting for its opportunity, through careless workmen or imperfect material, to make its silent and persistent attack. The other danger is in the contamination of drinking water. Tlie people of Chicago, or any other large city, need not be reminded how often there are epidemics of " bowel complaints." It is undoubtedly true that " winter cholera " and other similar epidemics have been caused entirely bj^ sewage contamination in the drinking water. The recent terrilile tyijlioid fever scourge at Plj'- mouth. Pa., was at first a very mysterious disease, but the mystery disappeared when the drinking water was analyzed. It was taken from a small river, near the margin of which, some miles above, several privy vaults of a small town had stood for years. The filth so completely saturated the ground that it finally reached the river, thereby contaminating the water, causing great suffering to ever one thousand people and death to more than a Jiundred and fifty, as estimated by Dr. Higgins, of Wilkesbarre. He detected the typhoid germ in the water, athough it was apparently pure. There is a modification of the water-closet system which many scientific men, notably, George E. Waring, Jr., consider much better than the usual one we have named. This consists in having two sets of sewage pijDes ; one for rain-water for roofs and streets, the other for the waste from water-closets, sinks, etc. The first named goes into the river or lake, as in the former case, while the other is forced, by means of pumj^ing machinery, some miles from the city and thrown upon the surface of a large tract of ground provided for the purpose, in some cases requiring thousands of acres for a single citj'. There it is left for the atmosphere to evaporate its moisture, when it becomes inoffensive and innocuous. Now let it be noticed that in each case there is danger until the excreta has been acted upon by the atmosphere and the sunlight ; and when that exposure has been free and ample, giving every opportunity for evaporation, all danger has passed from it and it is ready to be mingled Avith " mother earth." Mr. Duclaux claims to have recently proven, by experiments with fluids containing known percentages of germs, that sunlight possesses a uncrobocide p)Ower fifty times more energetic than heat. The following, taken from the Sanitary News of May n, 18S5, is only one of thousands of similar cases throughout the United States: Tlie authorities of a county jail in Wisconsin are considerably perplexed by a problem of drainage for their institution. The building is located on low ground, and within a few hundred feet is a so-called river, which is really nothing but a lialf-stagnant pond. For ten years the drainage of the institution lias been directed towards this " river," througli an open ditch, without reaching it. Tlie result is that the ditch is full and its contents are spreading out over the lowdying ground. The waste is backing up under the building ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 77 itself, and the pri.soners, of whom there are never less than forty, are sufierinn; (rreatly with sickness. The county commissioners want somebody to tell them what to do — and, of course, without cost to the county. Since such epidemics are avoidable by avoiding the conditions which cause them, it becomes an imjicra- tive necessity to make the conditions as harmless as possible. The old systems confined and covered all human excreta with y the fuel consumed is l(jst. 5. That with a reasonable amount of carelessness and neglect the ap]>aiutns shall be dnralile. 6. Easily repaired if broken. 7. Almost automatic in its oi>erati(jn. 8. Absolutely free from danger, either l.)y fire or by explosion. 9. That it shall take the air from that portion of space occupi(,M.l l)y the inhabitants of the earth and send it into the building uninjured by over-heating. 10. The liuilding sliould l)e so arranged that, at the will of the teacher (if a school liuilding), air at any temj)erature desired can be secured with little effort. 11. So arranged as to avoid local or unpleasant currents of air. 12. So arranged that the temperature will be uniform. 13. So arranged that the floor will be warmed and an unequal temperature between head and feet avoided. Now, the.se are a " baker's dozen " of specifications, and I Ix-lieve that no reasonable jierson will ask for many more. There are in this city over twenty school buildings in which nearly all these si)etuficatiut rather call your attention to the practical side of the question. I will ask you to % come, afier adjournment, to one of the l>uildings referred to and see for yourselves whether the stateuients are true or not. If in your oinnion they are not, I hope you will not hesitate to say so. If they are true, will you not lend me your assistance in suppressing the fiends who declare that " no one has yet solved the problem?" And while we are about that business, let us also include those who always write and advise, but never do anything else. If you accept my invitation I will take you to a school building cared for by a woman janitor, and show you schoolrooms in which the air is changed every nine minutes, and where the teacher can secure air through the i-egister at any temperature between January and August; where the floors are warmed, as all air exhausted from the rooms passes under tliem on its way to the ventilating stacks, via the dry closet vaults in the basement. To describe these vaults, I will simply use the language of Hon. .1. J. Clark, president of the Canton, Ohio, Board of Education, who came here to examine them, and who, in his report, says : The members of the conunittee confess that these res^dts created in their minds a deep and profound sensation. Here was a system of closets sufficient in cajiacity to accomodate six hundred pupils, in constant use four months, at an original cost of not to exceed $150, in perfect condition, with no noisome odors, no unsightliness, no pipes, no water-works, no plumbers' appliances, no sewerage system, no loathsome and disease-creating cessitools, no stifling disinfectants, nothing but a free and unobstructed circulation of God's atmosphere, which had already performed the double and important functions of heating and ventilating Ihe rooms in which five hundred children had been engaged in their school work. Now, if Mr. Clark has told the truth, and if others who have written upon the same system ami in the same manner have told the truth, why need the theorist and professional writer whine and sigh for some- thing "better?" Dr. : Did you have some trouble at Cleveland ? Mr. Smead : Yes, with the newspapers. Here is an interview published recently that will tell the whole story ; jilease read it : " What is the matter with the Smead system in the Cleveland School building? " asked a U^acZe reporter of Hon. Isaac D. Smead, whom he found in his new office building on Huron street. " Nothing now." " What has been the trouble there?" " There has l)een no trouble with the ' Smead ' system of heating, but in one building there was a serious defect in the application of my system of dry closets. I suppose you h^me been reading the Cleveland Leader" replied Mr. Smead, with a smile. " Yes, and the Blade would like to know the facts in the matter." "Then I will have to tell them, for you cannot get them from the Leader, if I can judge by what they have printed." " Have you done much work in Cleveland ?" "Yes, both for the Board of Education and in other public buildings. Briefly, the facts are these: Several years ago the Cleveland Board of Education wasted a very large sum of money in heating ajjparatus, having a large number of fine buildings. "One morning, two years ago last summer, three gentlemen came into iny office and were introduced as a committee from the Cleveland Board to investigate my apparatus for school buildings. After examining into the matter with what seemed to l)e more than ordinary care, they contracted with me to furnish appa- ratus for the Eagle Street School building, and returned home on the afternoon train. " The apparatus was used during the winter of 1886-87. During the spring of 1887, while in Washington City, my attention was called to an attack upon me and my apparatus published in the Cleveland Leader. I went down to the newspaper offices, and by examination of the Cleveland papers learned for the first time that at a meeting of the Cleveland Board of Education the Building Committee had been instructed to intro- duce the ' Smead system ' into all of the new buildings, some five or si-^i; in number. Our contract amounted to some $2.5,000. " I was fairly entitled to the contract, because of the successful and satisfactory operation of my apparatus in the Eagle street building, and also in the West Cleveland School building. Of course I was pleased at the action of the board ; but I was also being injured by the Leader articles." " AVhat did you do ?" " I finished my business in Washington, came home and asked the T^eader to send a reporter to inter- view all the teachers in the Eagle street building (nine in number). This it did, and also interviewed the members of the West Cleveland board, and Mr. Teachout, chairman of the Building Committee of Hiram College, who resides in Cleveland. I have since published the interviews among mj' testimonials. Every statement made was contrary to those which the Leadn- has been publishing. T]iey prhded ilie interviews and charged me 50 cenlH for every line printed." ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 81 "Did you pay the bill?" "Of course I did. A man is very foolish to quarrel with an editor if it can be prevented. The advan- tage is all on the editor's side ; and the poor contractor is the legitimate prey of the newspaper man." " How do you know ? " " Twenty years of experience teaches a fellow some things he don't soon forget." "As a newspaper man I cannot agree with you ; but what aljout the recent trouble?" " Just this : the work done in 1 S87 was entirely satisfactory to everyone except disappointed competitors and their friends; and the board again contracted with me to furnish apparatus for two more buildings. One of these — the High School building — was erected a good many years ago. It contained a steam-heating apparatus and four large ventilating stacks. In these stacks there were steam coils and pipes designed to keep the stacks hot and make them ' draw,' notwithstanding the fact that the stacks were twenly-one feet loiver than^ the highest portion of the roof. Although we were assured that ' there had never been any down-drafts,' we hesitated about connecting the closets with them ; but my superintendent finally did so, although against the protest of my engineer. "The system operated successfully until some three weeks ago, at which time there was a severe wind- storm in Cleveland, and the wind struck the roof in such a manner as to glance otf and go down the ventilat- ing fine. The result was just what my engineer had anticipated. "The superintendent of buildings wrote me; I went over and saw the building for the first time. It was plain to me that the error was ours, and .could be corrected by an extension of the flues to the proper height. This I did by an addition of 23 feet to each chimney, and now the harder the wind blows the better the draft, and the meter records an exhaust of 723,000 cubic feet per hour from the building. " The members of the committee were so well satisfied that they at once recommended that the other two stacks (with which we had nothing to do) be extended to the same point at which I stopped mine. It has also developed that the position taken by Prof. Campbell, principal of the school, is correct, namely, that until now the building has never been ventilated at all; and he strongly urged the extension of the other two flues. " With ^\4ater-closets the poisonous sewer gas escapes constantly to a greater or less degree, and, although very poisonous, has but little odor ; while with my system there can be no sewer gas, and if anything is wrong the odor gives the signal at once." "You spoke of being in Washington; are you doing work there?" " Yes, between January 1, 1883, and January 1, 1888, I introduced my apparatus into twenty-four school buildings there, and am now executing contracts there on nine more school buildings for the district commissioners." "How do you, a republican, hold on under a democratic administration ?" "Politics have nothing to do with the engineering department, so far as I have ever observed, under any administration." " Who will be the next president? " " Harrison, I hope. But what has that to do with troubles in the Cleveland school buildings?" " Is the Cleveland board democratic or republican ? " "I never heard a member of the board mention politics; but I understand the democrats have the majority." " Has that anything to do with the Leader articles? " "I don't know. I notice that they abuse the board'for about everything it does." " What are you going to do about it?" "Nothing. I do not have to pay 50 cents per line now, and I hope the articles will do me as uuich good as did those of the Detroit News last winter. Since the attack of the News commenced I have had all the contracts awarded there — eleven large buildings." " Do you often have trouble with your work ? " " I do the most work in my line of any man in America. I never have trouble with cither my customers or my apparatus, except occasionally because of mechanical errors, as my workmen are not all perfect. But I always have trouble with my competitors, and in large cities it is worse than anywhere else. The worst fight I ever had was the one at Columbus. There the Pittsburgh, CHeveland and Columbus steam-heating men combined against me, and we got into the courts. The other side had the costs to pay, and the Columbus board has introduced my apparatus into seven buildings, in addition to the four I had when the fight commenced." -X- % -x- -X- -X- -x- Mr. Smead : Well, doctor, here we are again. You liave been interviewing me for the past ten days; I now want to ask you a few (juestions. Did you examine the Segur Avenue Scliool building, and did the janitor know very much about the merits or demerits of the macliinery under charge ? 83 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Dr. — : Seemingly very little. Mr. Smead : Do you suppose the teachers appreciate the comfort and healthfulness of the rooms they occupy? Dr. : I have found a number who do. Mr. Smead : I am glad of it, they are generally very hard to please ; I gave up trying it long ago. Dr. : Who do you try to please when you put up a heating and ventilating apparatus? Mr. Smead : Only the purchaser and myself. Myself first. Dr. : Is most of the work you do done in public buildings ? Mr. Smead : Yes; our a]>paratus is suitable for scliools, cliurclies, opera houses, court houses and residences, although for the last ten years I have done but little with the latter. Dr. : What was the amount of your sales the first year after estaljlishment of business in Toledo ? Mr. Smead : Twenty-two thousand dollars the first year; over 1500,000 the seventh. Dr. : By your card I see that you have other offices besides at Toledo. Mr. Smead : Yes, at Elmira, N. Y., at Philadelphia, at Kansas City, at Boston, at Cincinnati, at Washington and at Toronto, Canada. The gentlemen associated with me in tliese offices were former employes in tliis office. They are skilled engineers, honest and faithful men, men whom their customers have learned to respect and honor ; and it gives me more pleasure tlian I can find words to express to know that, although to a degree I Avas instrumental in their early start in business, the confidence I have reposed in them has in no instance been betrayed. The skill they possess is not excelled by any now remaining here. Tiiey have had a " hard row to hoe " ; hot-air furnace men, steanifitters and ])lumbers opposed them at first, and the pirates of late steal and copy all they can. Architects, or some at least, anxious to have it understood that no plan is right except their own, or fearing some credit ma^^ fall to some one besides tliemselves, or with some experiment to try, oppose them ; but the gentlemen labored on in spite of all obstacles, until there are now scattered all over their territory monuments in the form of breathing buildings — monuments to their industry and skill that will last many years after those who would now steal from them all that is not covered with patents (and they often infringe on those) have long been forgotten. Dr. : Don't you have j»atents to i)rotect your invention ? Mr. Smead : Yes, but no inventor gets full protection from the thief. Here is an extract from a brief recently submitted in one of my cases by my attorneys (Dodge & Son, Washington, D. C). They seem to know something about the troubles of a manufacturer who tries to make impi ovements. Between the ingenuity of tlie pirates, aided by the present strict construction of the courts, on the one hand, and the dictation of claims by examiners on the other hand, the inventor of today finds it next to impossible to secure by a patent that protection of his invention wliich the law was designed to afford him. This being so, the office sliould not'i^lace unnecessary obstacles in the pathway of a class of men who, as Com- missioner Fisher, in liis report to Congress, says, "have done more for the glory and prosperity of the United States than any otliers, and who have never been favored cliildrcn." The action in this case was well described by Commissioner Fisher as tlie " unfriendly liand of adverse criticism," and which, as lie states, "if it had been applied to most or all of our great inventions wlien first presented to the office or tlie public, would liave strangled them at birth." Tlie spirit which should actuate the office in all its Ijranclies was lieautifully expressed by Commis- sioner Holt, in the case of D. D. Badger, rejected on a technical objection, wherein he said : "If, however, tlie stringent construction now favored in certain quarters be adopted in practice, it is to be feared tliat many inventors who have been summoned tc this office by the constitution would find its doors shut in their faces. " It is due to tlie dignity of the subject and to the generous spirit of tlie constitution that the patent laws should be liberally construed, having ever in view the great end they were designed to subserve. They were enacted for the government of an office whose range of action is altogether above the barren field of mere technicalities. That oflicc, in my judgment, would be forgetful of its mission and disloyal to one of the highest interests of humanity were it to permit itself to be entangled in a mesh of mere words or palsied by doubts ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 88 born of intricate metaphysical disquisitions. Il lias to do with the substance of things, and to deal witli the earnest, ingenious, practical intellect of the age, and it shoidd deal with it frankly, not perplexing and discouraging inventors by subtle distinctions, but kindly taking them by the hand as benefactors of their race, and strewing, if possible, their path- way with sunshine and with flowers." Mr. Sraead : There is a great deal said about tlie health of our school children, l^el'ore entering upon a discussion of the inspection requested at my last interview, it may be well to bring out a few points in regard to school life. Do you think that the health standard of school children is improving? Dr : That question can scarcely be answered in a few words ; but I thiidi that, taking all things into consideration, the physical standard of school children is being lowered.* Mr. Smead : To what do you attribute this degeneration '? Dr. : There are many factors that are influential toward this end. The first seeds of premature break-down are sown during the growing period. The forcing system of education, lack of proper physical training, combined with umoholesome schoolrooms, are largely accountable for imperfect development; and thus do multitudes of youths enter on life's work handicapped by physical weakness. Mr. Smead : I can see signs of beginning reform in one feature that you have mentioned. Schools of manual training embody my idea of a perfect educational system; and more attention is being given to physical training, is there not ? Dr. : You are quite right, but it is no easy j)roblem to stem the tide of degeneracy. An imperative duty devolves on every school board and corps of instructors having youth in their care. The laws making education in any way compulsari/ at the same time impose on the public servants assuming control of school pro])erty a serious obligation. ' Mr. Smead : You refer to providing vjholesome schoolrooms and snrrottinlinijs ? Dr. : That is the duty of every board of education. AYe cannot afford to train our higher faculties at the expense of our general physical welfare. That is what we have been doing for too many years. Mr. Smead : What do you regard as the essentials of a wholesome schoolroom y Dr. : A comfortable temperature and pure air. There are many otiier features not necessary to enumerate, but there is a broad field for reform woi'k in the above. Mr. Smead : It is not so difiicult to maintain a comfortable temperature, but the jjure-air problem is not a simple one, as I have learned from observation and many costly experiences. Dr. : It has been worked at for a century, and what is the result '? A general distrust of all methods and an educated indifference toward the pernicious influences of breathing impure air. The spirit of the times demands an energetic reformer — one who can force the indifl'erent to see the error of their ways ; stimulate in them the spirit of incjuiry ; give them a few object lessons. Mr. Smead : By object lessons you mean the insi)ection of a practical operating system of ventilation, do you not? Dr. : That is just what I refer to. The -personal inspection of a perfect system of ventilation and warming is a most potent public educator. The contrast between p)erfect ventila- tion and no ventilation is as light to darkness, and those who are too indilfin-ent to choose the former can make no better bequest to the world than their own ashes. Mr. Smead : You are quite right, doctor, when you say that personal inspection is a powerful argument where there is real merit in the thing inspected. Dr. : The superior merit of your system has enal)led you to -fearlessly provoke ]>ublic criticism, confident of a favorable issue ? Mr. Smead : Public criticism has almost invariably resulted to our advantage; what is the result of your inspection at the Segur Avenue School building ? What were your first impressions on entering ? * Preyer states that one-fourth of all students are injured phjsically by the educational process ; 60 per cent of the students are physically disabled and unfit for life's work.— Co^f/ress of Physicians and Nattiralists, Wiesbaden. 84 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Dr. : The temperature in the spacious halls was about the same as that of the rooms. Tlie thermometer did not vary three degrees from 12° in any part of the rooms. The atmosphere was perfect, in as far as the senses can judge, on the days of my inspection. Mr. Smead : To what extent can the senses be depended on in investigations of this cliaracter ? Dr. : Elaborate experiments by Dr. de Chaumont jjrove that the organic constituents of expired air corresponding to carbonic acid gas to the amount of .4 parts per 1000 above that in the normal air (.35 per 1000) can be detected by the educated senses. Mr. Smead : Our senses are then capable of giving us reliable warning, under favorable circumstances, as I understand, when the accumulation of respiratory products has reached a deleterious amount. Dr. : The evidence of our senses, referring to those who have these faculties unim- paired, is to all jjractical purposes reliable, in so far as most of the natural gases of decomposition are concerned. There are poisonous gases developed in certain artificial filth reservoirs, as, for example, sewers, of which our senses give us no warning. I regard the sewer, as ordinarily con- structed, as the most pernicious of all the features that mark the era of city building, since it becomes a vast reservoir for accumulation of the gaseous products of putrefaction of which the pipes entering the houses are the highest portion, and consequently the most natural outlets for such gas. But they are dangerous chiefly because the gases so generated are those against which man has developed but little resisting power. We are all well aware how much ordinary above- ground stench and filtli the human system is capable of withstanding. Nature has developed a certain amount of resisting power, and has cultivated in us a faculty that can warn us of such deleterious influences ; but the sewer and its own peculiar products of decomposition is a con- comitant of modern civilization, and man has not as yet developed a resisting power to withstand their injurious influences ; nor have Ave even a faculty capable of warning us of the presence of these dangerous gases. Not only general debility may follow the breathing of sewer gas, but most of the zymotic diseases, as diphtheria and scarlet fever, are aided in their work of destruction, and epidemics of typhoid fever have been traced directly to the presence of sewer gas.* Mr. Smead : Then would you say, doctor, that the odors coming from decomposing human ordure are not injurious in proportion as they are disagreeable ? Dr. : I do not mean to say all of that, but I can assert that I should prefer to risk my health working as a scavenger, carting ofi: above-ground filth, than to be compelled to live where emanations from a sewer more or less constantly (and without the warning of our senses) con- taminate the air. Mr. Smead : You feel that your system can resist and throw off the emanations from ordinary jjutref action, but you fear the gases developed in underground reservoirs where there is absolutely no change of air from one year's end to another, and poisonous gases become concen- trated and ever more and more virulent '? f * See paper read before Hygienic Congress of Vienna, 188", by Prof. Brouardel ; and Epidemic of Typhoid Fever in Michigan State's Prison, Jaoksou, by Prof. Vaughan. I Dr. H. J. Herrick, Professor of Hygiene in the Medical Department of Western Reserve University says: "The relative capacity of air and water for destroying noxious elements and for purifying might be a matter of some question. The atmos- phere has, to my mind, a very much greater capacity for destroying and diffusing the noxious germs or noxious gases than the water. According to authoritative statements sewer water has a capacity for discharging an almost illimitable amount of noxious vapor wherever it is found. Dr. Letheby found that sewage water excluded from air and containing 128 grains of organic matter per gallon yielded one and two-tenths cubic inches of gas per hour during a period of nine weeks. The pecu- liar fetid smell of sewage gas is owing to the presence of organic matter whose exact chemical composition has not been deter- mined. It is believed by some to be carbo-ammoniacal. According to Dr. Cunningham it contains distinct bacteria and other low forms of cell life. Now, water has a capacity, especially running water, for purifying itself It is claimed, as I remember it. that a distance in rivers of twenty miles is sufficient to render running water comparatively pure from sewers entering the river above. I am not certain as to the distance, but that is a fair estimate. The methods by which the water is purified are by animals or iilants in the water, by the action of oxygen upon the organic matter, that is, aeration, by the diffusion of the noxious material and by sedimentation. The methods of purifying the atmosphere from its noxious gases and elements are : By the rapid difi'usion of the gases in the atmosphere, by the action of oxygen which is always ready to consume — especially where there is any amount of ozone it is active for the destruction of organic matter — and, coincident, is the action of vegetable life, which rapidly consumes by an appropriation of carbonic acid gases, and, it is supposed, also of mephitic gases. These are the natural methods by which the atmosphere is kept free from gases or conditions uufavorable to animal life." "According to a well-known law the diffusion of gases is in a still atmosphere proportioned to the square of the distance. Currents of air, winds, vastly increase the rapidity of the diffusion. Gases discharged into the atmosphere the height of the high school stacks are very rapidly diffused. Bear in mind that the contents of those closet vaults are comparatively small. There are perhaps 50U evacuations in each twenty-four hours. It must be seen that the vapors from these contents are very rapidly diffused and that they are not a perceptible factor for rendering the atmosphere impure." ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 85 Dr. : Tliat is a concise statement of my belief, and recently adopted systems of sewerage, as for instance the Waring system, recognize tliis fact and reduce as miicli as possible the danger from accumulation of gases by reducing the size of the sewer to the actual volume of solid excrementitious material to be disposed of. Mr. Smead : To return to our original theme. You would say that the absence of any odors in a schoolroom to one coming from the outer air is proof that the air is wholesome. Dr. : This is certainly true, but the converse does not necessarily hold. The presence of odors does not always indicate a positively unwholesome air. There are so many sources of human odors that it is almost impossible to keep a schoolroom absolutely odorless. The home life of many school children is such that the clothing often becomes saturated with the odors of the close living-room or still more fragrant kitchen, and a few uncleanly children can contaminate the air of a whole room. Mr. Smead : You regard the organic gases as tJie deletei'ious constituents of breathed aii'. What part does carbonic acid gas play as a gaseous excreta? Dr. : It is conveniently used as an index of respiratory impurity, being much easier of determination than organic matter ; but it is harmless as compared with the oigaiiic matter in suspension in watery va])or and organic gases, and it is very diffusible and does not accumulate so readily. Dift'usion is constantly going on, and the air of a room may be thus freed from much of the carbonic acid gas ; especially in poorly constructed buildings where there are many cracks and crevices left by the " sanitary " carpenter ! Mr. Smead : But obviously this watery vapor is not so diffusible as the carbonic acid gas, and the air of a room is less easily freed from it. I should think that it would be liable to accumulate wherever the air stagnates, and especially on all cold surfaces, since saturation of the air varies with the temperature. Dr. : That is just what does take place. The amount of watery vapor, more or less saturated with organic matter in suspension and organic gases exhaled by every adult, is about nine ounces in twenty-four hours. It may be asserted that theoJ>ject of a ventilation system should he to relieve the air of a room of the organic constituents and prevent deposit by strong, constant out-going currents of air. There is just this difference between a well-ventilated room and one poorly ventilated. The one constantly filled with Nature's purest, the other a reservoir receiving daily the deposit of a putrescent sediment on walls and ceiling until it becomes a place suitable only for the myriads of minute organisms, whose sole reason for existence is to haunt the abodes of higher forms of animal life and thrive and multiply on the products of decomposing organic matter. If the condensed breath collected on the cool window ])anes of a room when a number of persons have been assembled be burned, a smell as of singed hair will show the presence of organic matter, and if the condensed breath be allowed to remain on the windows a few days it will be found, on examiiiation by microscope, that it is alive with bacteria and animalciikii. It is the inhalation of air containing such putrescent matter which causes half of the sick headaches which might be avoided by a circulation of fresh air. Mr. Smead : Doctor, have you ever made any chemical tests of the air in rooms ventilated by my system ? Dr. : I have, and can present one series of such observations in a tabulated form. On May 11, Hon. E. G. Hubbard, President Board of Education, Tiffin, Ohio, writes: " In reply to your favor of the 9th inst., bey to say that with my experience in examining the practical workings of the different systems of heating and ventilation, I am most decidedly in favor of the Smead over any other now before the country, for it has certainly given us eminent satisfaction. In regard to tlie dry closets you speak of, I inclose explanatory letter from our superintendent, Mr. J. W. Knott, who has been with us ever since the first intro- duction of the Smead system in our school buildings." The following is from the letter of Superintendent Knott referred to above : " I think you can safely indorse the system of dry closets put in by Smead & Co. In any building in which there is any means of causing an upward current in the ventilating flues of the vaults, the closets cannot fail to give satisfaction. In our new building they coiae as near doing their work perfectly as anything of the sort which I have ever seen." ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. a B o O 611 O C3 C O) O r;T3 q O a- * O •-s .a o -w O OJ M TT TO '3 — I q; CO g o o *^ O _ C3 S 5j a > fa ■3 o unoq J9d ^98J oiqiiQ -Saa IT? a; a u Tin a9d ^89j JBauiq^ MR! 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CD 3 a: -3^ 5 pS cr ^ S 'Ex*^ !!!^ *C P 'il ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Amount, in cubic feet per hour, for each 200 cubic feet of room .space. (Each pupil has about 200 cubic feet. 2,100 cubic feet. 1,700 cubic feet. utooj JO ^aaj oiquQ 23,500 27,500 ■jnoTj aad ;9aj aiquQ 258,400+ 239,300— •puooas idd ;9aj oiqnQ 71.79+ 66.47+ 'UOT^OTJJ 8.62 7.98 •pnoo9s aad :}99J UI ;{^)iaop^ 14.72= 13.68= ■90U9J9JJI(J 0 0 0 C-] CO ■g.inj -'B,I9dlU9; 9piS|n() 0 0 ^ 0 C-l (M •a.in^ -Bieduiaj a3BJ9AY 0 -'"t-.r . SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 93 SECOND STORY PLAN SEGUR AVENUE SCHOOL BUILDING, TOLEDO. 96 ISAAC T>. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Mr. Sraead : Please give me further results of the Segur School building inspection. Dr. : The volume of air entering each of four rooms that ventilated into one common stack was between 67,000 and 78,000 cubic feet each hour. This was determined by an air meter accurately gauged. (See plan of Segur building on page 91.) Mr. Smead : Then, if that volume of air entered the room, there must have been a corre- sponding outflow. Dr. : This was also determined. I went to the top of the ventilating shaft (in com- munication with these four rooms alone) and measured the volume of air escaping per hour. I found it to be about 300,000 cubic feet.* Mr. Smead : How does that agree with your measured inflow? Dr. : Remarkably well. The measured inflow at the four registers in the rooms was 291,420 cubic feet per hour ; the outflow at the mouth of the stack was about 300,000 cubic feet per hour. Mr. Smead : Is the current constant, doctor ? Dr. : I have never remarked any noticeable variation where the fires are uniform. Mr. Smead : According to your estimates at this insjiection, what is the supply of air for each pupil in the rooms ? Dr. : The seating capacity of the four rooms is about 160; 300,000 cubic feet per hour would allow nearly 2,000 cubic feet to each of the 160 present. Mr. Smead : What do you consider a fair allowance ? Dr. : Under ordinary circumstances, 1,500 to 1,800 cubic feet per capita is an ample allowance. Mr. Smead : The dimensions of each of these rooms are 26x36x12, making 11,233 cubic feet contents. The air in the rooms would be completely changed every ten minutes. That is not a bad showing. Dr. : I was somewhat astonished myself, and regard it as one of the grandest achieve- ments of modern sanitary science. How do you produce such a uniform temperature ? Actual trial at floor, ceiling and on two sides of the room showed a remarkable uniformity. There was not over two degrees F. variation from 73°. Mr. Smead: The air enters in large volume, and rarely above 120° F. Of course it is possible to heat the air much hotter, but there is no necessity for a janitor allowing it to get above 120° F. Remember that an ordinary stove heats the air near it to 200° F. The gentle to-and- fro currents dissipate evenly over the whole room, and there is a gradual settling of the upper strata of air, the lower strata passing out at the outlets in the base-board, and thence under the floor on the way to the main exit shaft. This has been proven by the smoke-test. A room was filled with a dense smoke, and then the currents were established. The strata next the floor passed out first — warm air from the register taking its place above. This continued until the forms of those witnessing the trial emerged from the smoke level, as the trees rise above the fading mists of the valley, and then the desks, until finally the last vestige had passed out at the outlets in the base-board — this change of air taking just twenty minutes. In the rooms that you have inspected, the foul air passes directly into the exhaust-shaft, for there is no "dry closet" in connection with this ventilating shaft. Did you inspect the other rooms in this building that are in connection with the dry closet ? Dr. : Yes, sir ; and I can give you some interesting figures from that investigation as well. The temperatures ranged between 69° F. and 74 (school was just out and some windows were opened where the janitor was sweeping). I then Avent down into the basement and entered the " foul-air-gathering chamber," on the boys' side. The air from four rooms passes into this chamber and thence over the vault contents. The temperature here was about 70° F. The plat- form receiving the ordure is about 30 feet long, and is somewhat elevated ; the current of air passing above and below it. * This estimate is a little too high, since a portion of the outlet at the top of the stack was necessarily blocked by the body of the person holding the air meter, and hence the velocity was increased ; but no deduction was made. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. !)7 Mr. Smcad : What volume of air did you iiiid passing at tins point, i. e., through the dry closet ? Dr. : On the boys' side, I measured the volume of air passing each hour as 338,250 cubic feet. On the girls' side of the building, the result was 381,300 cubic feet each hour. Mr. Smead : That makes a velocity of over seven miles an hour ; quite breezy for a closet vault.* Dr. : There are few cities whose streets are as thoroughly disinfected by purifying- winds as are the closet vaults with your system. Your comparison of the contents of such vaults with the "buffalo chips " of the plains is a very appropriate one. Mr. Smead : Yes, and I have often wished that I could imitate Nature still fuilher by getting a little direct sunlight into those vaults. Have you ever examined carefully the contents of a vault ? It is only by such close inspection that the skeptical can be convinced of the state of " innocuous desuetude " to which human ordure can be reduced. Describe more minutely this drying process. Dr. : Human ordure is mixed with more or less mucus from the bowels. In health this is only moderate in quantity, but there is suthcient to form a thin pellicle around the drying mass. This drying progresses until there is only a porous, parched mass left, retaining the original form and very tough and firm in structure. Mr. Smead : Now that reminds me, doctor, that I was accused not long ago of being instru- mental in the infection of whole communities. One would thiidi that I had invented a duease- germ factory ; and the imprecations of the gods were invoked to punish me. Such accusations, couched in terms of ominous scientific meaning, worried me ; but I soon made up my mind to fight it out, for a great fear of death came over me then. How could I face the multitudes whose death I had caused? My friends were all among the living. I worried some, investigated a great deal, and finally I simply made up my mind to ossi- bly survive the drying. Moisture is all-essential to the welfare of bacteria of disease and of decomposition, and that is the reason why they love the methods of the plumber, but wither uj) and die under the enormous fiow of oxygen that hourly passes through your dry closets. * Compare this with the amount escaping at the exhaust-shaft not operating in connection with " dry closets "—having no foul- air-gathering chamber— the air from rooms passing directly into the shaft at its own floor level. 98 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Mr. Smead : But to come back to the inspection. What volume of air did you find passing through each of the dry closet vaults ? Dr. : About 350,000 cubic feet per hour is the average through each vault. Mr. Smead : This is equivalent to 2,735 cords per hour ; how much moisture is that capable of taking up ? Dr. : If it leaves the rooms at 80 per cent relative humidity, it is capable of taking up about 5 gallons of water an hour, or about 120 gallons for twenty-four hours ; 60 gallons for twelve hours. Mr. Smead : What would be the amount of daily watery excreta for about 360 pupils ? Dr. : About 9,000 ounces of water is a liberal estimate.* Mr. Smead : There are 128 ounces in a gallon, and hence 5 gallons per hour is equivalent to 640 ounces an hour. We should multiply this by two to find the total amount of evaporation going on in both boys' and girls' closets, giving 1,280 ounces an hour. Now the number of hours during which the air is passing at the rate of 350,000 cubic feet varies. Here in Toledo it passes nearly twenty-four hours, because we have natural gas ; but ten hours is a fair estimate for most other places. This, then, gives us an evaporating capacity of nearly 13,000 ounces of water each day, while the maximum estimated daily excretion of water is about 9,000 ounces. Dr. : The basis of computation is certainly very fair. Mr. Smead : Well, you know I like fact figures better than theoretical figures anyway, and since fact figures are obtainable let us comjjare the theoretical figures with them. I agree with you that your estimates seem very fair, judged from a common-sense point of view, but let us look at the facts. I recently estimated (by weighing a portion) the dried residue in one of those closets. I found about 56 pounds in each closet, making less than 120 pounds of dried residue in both. This has accumulated in about 120 days, making less than 1 pound dried residue per day from 360 pupils, while, according to your estimate, there should be something over 10 pounds a day of dried deposit. Dr. : My figures are outside estimates — a mixed population of a city averages about 2+ ounces per day excreta. I assumed 2 ounces for school children — rather high. Hence you see that my estimates on the capacity of evaporation are also outside and safe figures, the premises being granted. Mr. Smead : Right here, doctor, I should like to read you an extract from Sewall's article on " The Physiology of Respiration ": THE PHYSIOLOGY OF RESPIRATION. It is said that we breathe to purify the blood. But how? Why is it, then, when we wish to preserve, to keep pure, any organized matter, as vegetables or meat, we remove, as far as possible, all air, and secure it from its action? If tlie air will purify the blood, why not meat, or any other organized body? Now we know that the air — or the positive acting agent, the oxygen — always acts as a destroyer ; its sole office is to tear down, to break uj) all organic compounds and resolve their elements into simple and more stable groups. Its office and tendency is everywhere the same, and unless this tendency be resisted by some antagonizing force the oxygen would speedily and completely destroy the whole organized world. Then why does not oxygen destroy the animal? It does, and yet does not. It feeds upon the very tissues of the body, and is fed by tiiem; it demands victims to be sacrificed to appease its never-satiated appetite; and were it not for that strange and mighty force which we name and recognize, but do not comprehend — vitality — which regulates and controls the action of this agent, it would speedily resolve all organized matter into stable and lifeless forms. Literally, the organized world would be burned up and naught left but its ashes; and when vitality ceases to antagonize or resist its action we return to the dust from which we sprung. * Eacli pupil is assumed to pass about 2.5 ounces of watery excreta daily, and 2 ounces of solid. This gives about 9,000 ounces oi water daily, for 300 pupils, to be evaporated. One cubic foot of air at 65° F. and SI per cent relative humidity is capable of taliingup .312 grains of watery vapor before it is saturated (the air rarely reaches 81 per cent relative humidity in rooms, and is often above 70° iu vaults). The exposure is not complete, and so it is assumed in the above that 1 grain (instead of 1.32) is fallen up by each cubic foot of air passing through the TauKs. c50,000 cubic feet pass through, and hence 350,000 grains of water are taken up each hour, or 700,000 on both boys' and girls' sides of building, equal to 10 gallons. Solid excreta, 2 ounces per day per capita, gives 720 ounces" per day, less 75 per cent for water, equals ISO ounces per day, being more ttan 10 pounds per day dried residue. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 99 Then, breathing is not for the purpose of purifying the blood, but to break down the tissues of the body and remove them under the direction and control of the vital principle. In all animal tissues there is a work performed which has a tendency to wear out and render unfit for service parts of themselves — parts or mole- cules that have lost their vitality — and these worn-out molecules become the food for oxygen. These worn- out atoms are, for the most part, hydrogen and carbon. The oxygen seizes upon them and converts them, by thus uniting with them, into carbonic acid and water, or, using another figui-e, the oxygen may be regarded as scavenger boats, which enter the lungs, pass into the blood, and are carried into every part of the body, where they are loaded with these worn-out elements, carbon and hydrogen. With these loads they return through the veins to the lungs and pass out into the air in the form of carbonic acid and vapor of water. They are now taken up by the leaves of the trees, unloaded, the carbon and hydrogen entering into and becoming a part of the tree, while the unloaded scavenger boats (oxygen) are returned to the atmosphere to repeat the process. Verily, then, the "leaves are for the healing of the nations." This, then, is the office of respiration — to remove the worn-out tissues of the body. Now if the air is more or less saturated with this carbonic acid, some of these loaded barges, when we inhale a breath of air, will enter too. The demand of the tissues is for vehicles to carry away the waste pro- ducts, and the demand is imperative ; and though the loaded barges go at the call of the suffering tissues, they cannot remove any of the material, for they are already completely loaded. Two atoms of oxygen can take but one of carbon, and therefore they but obstruct and block up the way, and thus produce disorder and disturbance — disease. Now there must always be a small amount of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, because it is continually being emitted by the whole animal kingdom, and as a product of combustion and decay. Yet, by the peculiar law of gaseous diffusions, it is so completely diffused through or mingled with the atmosphere that it amounts to only ^too of 'ts weight. As the specific gravity of carbonic acid is considerably greater than that of the air, were it not for this gaseous diffusion it would settle to the bottom of the atmospheric ocean and form a layer five feet in dej^th. But if only the normal amount be present, it is completely diffused, so that we find it existing in exactly the same proportion on the mountain and in the valley. But if more than jsVo be present, the tendency is to settle at the bottom, making the ten per cent of carbonic acid greater near the surface than in the higher regions. Thus in the Grotto del Cane, in Italy, where the gas esca]3es in large quantities from the earth, all animals entering the cave almost instantly die from the effect of breathing the carbonic acid. Now, if the air contain only one or two per cent, its effect is clearly poisonous. If ten per cent, it produces immediate death. Mr. Smead : That is a beautiful explanation of the part that oxygen plays, and it seems to me that there is an actual destruction of dried fecal matter constantly going on and passing ofE in combination with oxygen. This may account for the very small amount of residuum found in the vaults as compared with your estimates. These features aie interesting, but let us refer bade to the schoolrooms and their relation to disease propagation. Why do childhood diseases spread so rapidly ? Dr. : Because as a rule school children breathe and re-breathe the same air. The natural vitality and resisting power of the system is thereby lowered, and the element of contagion is free to gain access to the system, and the work of disease begins. Mr. Smead : Surely then good ventilation in schoolrooms and pure, wholesome air will lessen spreading of contagious diseases. Dr. : You are quite right in your inference and statistics will prove the same. Brown- Sequard reports that he has found and isolated a poisonous ptomaine (an organic constituent) in the air from tlie lungs, and that its poisonous effects are intensified by raising the tempera- ture. This may account for the rapid spreading of childhood diseases to a large extent, for in the diseased state such poisonous excreta are certainly increased. Heating by direct radiation (as by stove or steam-coil in the room) would then have the effect of heating up the poisonous constituents of the breatlied air, and thus intensify their virulency. This method of heating- would not even dilute these poisons, but they continue to accumulate, and are not only re-breathed but are deposited on walls and ceiling, and, together with watery vapor and organic matter, furnish a most excellent feeding-ground for disease germs to grow and multijily. Mr. Smead: Doctor, what becomes of the "foul air," laden with human emanations and gases resulting from the destruction of the vault contents, after it escapes from the top of the ventilating stacks that I erect ? 100 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Dr. : I have frequently taken the temperature at the stack outlet, and have always found it more than 10° F. above that of the surrounding air. Now the rate of ascent of the air in the ventilating shaft depends on the difEerence in temperature between the air in the shaft (it is better to take the average of the whole si/steni from the furnace to the shaft outlet) and that of the atmosphere outside. Hence, if we have 10° F. difference at the outlet, the average for the whole system would be much higher, and (disregarding friction) this difference of temperature is an index of the velocity of outgoing current. Mr. Smead : If you found the air of the shaft outlet 10° F. higher than the outside air, the average for the whole system would give at least 20° difference. You say at one interview that the air in the vault was 70° ; in other words, the base of the stack is 70°, and the average temperature for the twelve school months is 43° F. There you have a difference of 27° F. This gave a current of about seven miles per hour at the shaft outlet. Doctor : The air leaves the mouth of the foul-air shaft at a velocity between five and seven miles an hour. Mr. Smead : On a still day that would certainly continue its ascent, just as we often see the smoke from a factory chimney rise to thirty-five or forty feet above the outlet. But I am aware that smoke is not a gas, and does not diffuse rapidly. Dr. : The gases of which the foul air is made up mingle very rapidly with the pure air. The degree of dilution is, under the most simple calculation, the square of the distance from the shaft outlet. Let us take a pailful of air containing about one part of carbonic acid to one thousand parts of air (and other gases in proportion) and follow the rate of dilution. At 100 feet from the shaft it would be about o^e 7>«r^ q/' ^Ae foul gas to 10,000,000 25«>'ace occupied by people as compared with all space you could then multiply by one hundred millions more, and not then reach the limit of diffusion that takes place after the foul air from school buildings leaves the ventilating shaft. Mr. Smead : What an overwhelming dose of poisonous air[]the neighbor to the school-house must endure ! If he can muster the audacity to assert that this air is injurious in such a state of dilution, he would do well to carry his delusion into commercial life by squeezing a lemon in the Maumee river, and selling Lake Erie by the glass as lemonade ! ISAAC D. SMEAT) & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 101 THE DKY CLOSET SYSTEM OF DISPOSING OF EXCISEMEN T. BY JOSEPH A. STILWELL, M. D., HKOWNSTOWN, IND. From Indiana State Board of Health Report. This is worked on tlie same principle as that by wliicli mines and tunnels are ventilati'd. The thing of primal necessity is a shaft or chimney that will conduct a column of air so high above us that its outjxit will l)e beyond our breath supply. This is necessary in order not only that the foul air may be placed beyond our reach but that it may be thrown out into a wide range of atmosphere, where the great law of the diffusion of gases will scatter and mix it in such a manner that its noxious properties are destroyed. Ill mine ventilation the shaft is sunk into the earth until it reaches the mine at a place farthest from the shaft by which the mine is being worked. Then heat is made by fire at the bottom, which lifts the air to the top of the shaft above ground, and by the vacuum thus created fresh, pure air is invited down the work-shaft and carried through the mine to the ventilating shaft. A circulation of pui'e air is in this way supplied to the miners and tiie foul air carried off. The dry closet is made at the bottom of a stack, shaft or chimney and heat applied at this l)oint. The heat raises the air and carries with it the foul volatile matter of the excreta. Vola- tilization and evaporation are continued until only the dry residue is all that remains. To accomplish this a shaft or chimney with a stove at the bottom, or a lamp may do all that is needed, with privy seats so arranged that a current of air will be conducted from the outside, under them, or through the holes, to supply the rarified sijace about the heated stove. So long as the heat is kept up this current and vaporization will continue, and the drying and neutralization will take place. Testimony that will establish the practical application can be furnished, of which the follow- ing is prominent : Dr. T. Clark Miller, of Massillon, Ohio, then president of the State Board of Health of that State, has taken pains to examine and report on the efficiency of this system ; he says : It is almost a new stm_ in the sanitary heavens. He had the firm of Isaac D. Smead & Co., who are putting in apparatus of this kind, employ Prof. Kirchmaier, of the Northwestern Ohio Medical College, to examine and make a report of the working of the closets of this firm. The Ohio State Board of Health. Massillon, Ohio, March 22, 1887. Isaac D. Smead, Esq.: Dear Sir, — Have you the data to fill a table, such as the one enclosed, as to the schools warmed and venti- lated by your system in Toledo? Of course the percentage of GO2 is the crucial test. I would like to have these points for use in a report on Warming and Ventilation and School Hygiene, which I am gathering information for, and intend to i)repare during the present year. Of course if I cannot get these points I will have to do without. I thought it possible you might have them. Yours very truly, T. Clarke Miller. 102 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Isaac D. Smead & Co., Toledo, Ohio : Gen/lcinni, — Your order to make qnantitativo an- alysis and other experiments to ascertain the saluljrity of the air in a school huilding containinjj; your warm- ing apparatus and ventilating system, as requested hy Dr. T. Clarke INIiller, President of the 8tate Board of Health of Ohio, has been complied with. On April 5 we proceeded to the Illinois Street School building, which is warmed and ventilated )jy tlie Smead apparatus and contains tlie Smead system of dry closets in the basement. The closets we f(_)und in perfect condition ; tlie air in the rooms in wliich the closets are situated was entirely free from the objectionalile odors usually found in such places. The following is a tabulated, analytical rei)ort of the air in and ahout the Illinois Street School building: Eight estimations were made — four for carbonic acid gas and four for oxygen. Air was collected at different heights in the rooms, during school hours, on April 5, P. M., and April 6, A. M. For estimating carbonic acid gas, Pettenhofer's method was used. For oxygen, Lieljig's method. In rooms grade 1, 2 and 5, we made such experi- ments as we thought uecessar}', with results as shown in the annexed table. All nf which we respectfully submit. (Signed) (t. a. KiKru^[AiicR, Pli. C, Prof. Clicminlnj and ToxlcoUxjn, N.- W. Ohio Med. College. 1 •> 5 Grade of room. GO 60 60 Number of seats. G6 40 48 Number of persons present. Between 3 and 4 I'. JI. and between 10 and 11 A. M. Hour of visit. 2.981 2.981 2.981 CO 2 in 10,000 parts in outside air. 4.450 4.261 3.990 CO2 in 10,000 parts in rooms. 21.001 21.001 21.001 Oxygen in outside air in 100 parts. 20.796 20.820 20.812 Oxygen in air in rooms in 100 parts. .85 .85 .85 Relative humidity in outside air. .79 .83 42° .74 Relative humidity in school- rooms. 42° 42° Temperature outside. 70° 68° 70° Temperature in rooms at floor. 70° 68° 72° Temperature in rooms 4 feet 72° 68.5° 72.5° Temperature in rooms at ceil- ing. 1 1 1 Number doors — closed. 7 7 7 Number windows — closed. 7 7 7 Number ventilating registers — open. 11,000 11,000 11,000 Cubic feet in rooms. 8.9 8.3 10.8 Time required to change air in rooms, in minutes. 04 84 11 Average age of cliildren. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 103 Dr. Villi Pell, Ik'ulth Officer of Toledo, Ohio, also reports : I regard tlie Isaae I). Siucad system ol' dry closets healthful in e\ei'y way. Mr. P. D. ]>rieker, of Jersey Shore, Pa., says : The dry closets are ellicacious, novel aiul highly appreciated by us, as they work well. A special cornmiltee of the Board of Education of Englewood, 111., August 5, I SHU, reports : We inspected the 1)uilding; (a school building in Toledo, ( )hio) very thoroughly. Each vault was ahoiit 24x3 feet and 20 feet long. These are connected witli a ventilating shaft, which is 4x5 and &■) feet high. Iii the base of the shaft was an iron furnace with a very moderate fire in it. Nothing had been removed from either vault since they were erected one year ago. The door at the end of the [lirls' vault was wide open, and closet connected directly with lite janitor's living-rooms, all Oie doors being wide open. In approaching this vault, and even in standing within the vault door, there was not even a suggestion of disagreeable odor. We were astonished at the small amount of excrement left after a year's use l)y .SOO children, showing that almost all of it goes up the flue as vapor. We tested the draft through the privy vaults with an anemometer, and the result showed a passing 1,250 cubic feet per minute in eacli. It must be remembered that the mercury on the outside of the building stood at 85° and 90°. We burned some of the dry excrement in a furnace lire, and it ljurned as readily as cannel coal. In the same report of another building this committee says : Five hundred children have been, in attendance at this scliool, and no excrement has been removed for tiro years. We went into this vault and found no disagreeable odor whatever. There was no fire in the ventilating shaft, but the current of air from the closets was very strong. In the boys' closet some holes had been bored through the floor into the vaults for tlie accommodation of urine accidentally spilled. Tested with a match there was found to be a strong current of air down through the auger-holes. The vaults could be easily cleaned by one man in two hours, and the system works perfectly, ami the entire cost was less than .filoO. Dr. G. W. Keely, a member of the school board of Oxford, Oliio, after reciting tlie encomiums of various parties whom he came in contact with on a tour of inspection of school apparatus, says : At the South Street School building, Toledo, we saw the best test of the dry closet system. This is an eight-room building. The superintendent and janitor told me that at least four hundred pupils had lieen using these closets for two school years, and "that the vault had never been cleaned. I examined tlie vault carefully, crawling by the side of at least three stalagmites made by deposits from the boys, striking them with my cane. They were hard and dry, and it seemed to me that a bushel basket would hold all the vault con- tained. When necessary to clean the vault the deposits can be burned. I). W. Jetferis, of Chester, Pa., in a paper read before the State Sanitary Convention at Philadelphia, says : Somebody has said that he could judge of the civilization of a peojilo by the condition of their privies. Between the foul-air-gathering rooms and the ventilating shaft we have j)laced our chisets. Through each set of closets will rush 150,000 cubic feet of dry, warm air every hour. This air has already accomplished the two-fold purpose of warming and ventilating the rooms above, and now is called to another oHice as it sweeps up the big chimney, carrying with it all the moisture and bad odor of tlie excreta, leaving behind only a small ([uantity of inodorous material, which burns readily, and which may be actually burned in situs or thrown into the furnace. No malodor can possibly reach the schoolroom. Tiie apparatus necessary to the most economical and efficient ap[ilicatioii of tlie system is as yet limited to that of Isaac D. Smcad & Co., Toledo, Ohio, and associated offices, so far as I am able to find, and to wdiom I am indebted for the references to prove their effectiveness, and of course whose acts in the premises have to be taken with the much swallowed cimi grano sails. But they forestall objections by guaranteeing satisfaction. But per contra what have we? The privy vaults and cesspools arc the same authorized by Moses, and have not been improved since the Children of Israel crossed Jordan to the Promised Land after the exodus. And without any intent of disparaging tlie sanitary regiilatimis of the translated lawgiver, we must say, after four thousand years of experience, that they are m(!thods ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. of hiding a poison, filling the earth with traps and snares to destroy those who follow us ; that the germs of pestilence and death thus planted and cultured, carrying yearly victims to untimely graves, is the reproach of the system, and mankind cries aloud to be spared. The sewer, wdiile it has a fair appearance in many respects, is only passing the evil to the next neighbor, with the compromise that it shall continue to pass, but finally is stranded on the first shoal of river or bay, only to be compromised with again by some new contrivance and expensive outlay. London has two thousand miles of sewer, at an expense of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars, and her filth on hand yet. New York, only a short time since, had an estimate for repairs on her sewers amounting to six million dollars. If you wish to puzzle a man of science who has given attention to the subject, you only need ask him what is to be done with future accumulations of effete matter. The theory of dry closets is very simple. The practical ajiplication is simple and efficient. Instead of hiding away in pits and sinks — traps and snares for the unwary — or slushing miles of filth into rivers of pollution, and passing it from hand to hand, the giant is to be strangled in its cradle hj the constant watchfulness of draft and evaporation. When every house shall have a shaft to evaporate its filth ; when the human brain shall set down to cheapen and render eflicient this system, then sewer and vault will be the adjuncts of the drying process. Permit me to imagine a large city, having every habitated point set with a drying shaft ; having the accumulating lilth continually on the move upward, and by this means constantly creating space to gather in pure air from the hills and valleys, rivers, lakes and seas ; from where contamination has been spared in the same way ; imagine tlie new impulses, the growth of brawn and brain, the profits, the jjleasures, giving all life a new lease and deejjer leasehold, where aggre- gation means groAvth, instead, as now, decay and death. If vital economy and health genesis is the purpose of these public boards — and that they are no one who observes their efforts wnll deny — then the questions and knowledge regarding them should be laid before the millions who are the inevitable partakers of their fruits, be they good or bad, in such a manner that they who are the final arbiters may see and feel the right, and select with intelligence and correctness. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 105 Smead's Schoolroom Heater. (See pages 106 to 112.) IHE cuts on pages 108 and 111 represent the Ventilating Heater we are now manufacturing for use in school or other buildings where a furnace cannot well be introduced. The favor with which our Schoolroom Heater has been received by school directors, church trustees, merchants and others, has induced us to expend a large sum in adding new features which, we think, will make it by far the most popular ventilating stove ever manufactured. The advantages of an oi'EN FIRE OVER A CLOSED ONE, in the matter of 'KKirnmif/ the feet and conducting the foul gases from the room, are too apparent to require comment from us. The first ventilating stove ever made was patented by Mr. Ruttan. For the past twenty years a great many of his stoves have been manufactured ; but as they were only suitable for burning loood, we could not meet the demand for a coal-hurner. We are aware that there are other ventilating stoves (so-called) in the West, and have examined them all with great care. We made the examination with the intention of buying the right to manufacture the one best suited to the work — that is, warming witli a volume of air instead of by radiation. By our examination we learned that all schoolroom stoves were but little more than a common cannon stove with a sheet-iron case, and that the amount of air they would warm was by far too small to p'i'ojyerJy ventilate a schoolroom. The principles upon which we have constructed our stove are substantially the same as we have heretofore used in our furnace, to-wit : a large amount of actual fire surface, large fire-box, and more than twice the grate surface of any other heater. The casing, being of cast-iron, radiates less heat, is more ornamental, and less liable to injury by rust or blows from pupils than if made of sheet-iron. We guarantee the heater to burn soft coal or wood equally well, although it is made witli especial reference to the consumption of soft coal. Its weight is about fotir times as much as other stoves, and great care has been used to make it durable. 108 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 112 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Town of Gates, District No. 4. Gates Centhe, April 27, 1889. Messrs. Smead & Nortiicott, Elmira, N. Y. : Gentlemen, — The ventilating heater which you put in our school in December, 1887, has given perfect satisfaction. 1. We can keep our schoolroom from 60° to 80° in any weather. 2. The room is an even temperature in every part, not varying over from 2° to 4° at a distance of four feet from heater and the back part of the room. 3. The ventilation is good ; we always have pure air. 4. We use very little, if any, more coal than with the stove which warmed only a small part of the room in very cold weather. Respectfully yours, J. L. Chase. Leominster, Mass., April 22, 1889. Messrs. Smead & Northcott, Elmira, N. Y. : Gentlemen, — In reply to your inquiry of April 18, concerning results obtained by the schoolroom venti- lating heater, of which we have four in use, I can say as follows : 1. We have been able to obtain comfortable tempei-ature with the mercury at 15° below zero, starting fires at 6:30 in the morning. 2. The uniformity of temperature in different parts of tlie rooms is remarkable. 8. The ventilation is excellent. 4. As to the amount of fuel used as compared with other methods of warming schoolrooms, we find this is the cheapest that has come under our observation. " / S.S Respectfully yours, I. F. Hall, SupH of Schools. Jeremiah Smith, School Commissioner, Gates, Monroe Co., N. Y. P. O. Address : Box 200, Rochester, N. Y. Gates, N. Y., May 2, 1889. Messrs. Smead & Nortiicott, Elmira, N. Y. : Gentlemen, — I am glad to inform you that the schoolroom ventilating heater set up by you in Decembe r 1887, at Gates Centre, has, from the first, given universal satisfaction. Both as a heater and as a ventilator it does perfect work. The even temperature in all parts of the schoolroom (24x40x16) is quite remarkable. Our trustee informs me that by comparing his coal bills with those of other seasons the quantity used for the heater does not vary much from that consumed by a stove, with which the temi^erature could not be brought n-p to a comfortable point in winter weather, to say nothing about ventilating. Entering frequently, as I have done, ill-ventilated schoolrooms, where the atmosphere was oppre.ssive, prepares me to appreciate a perfect ventilating and heating system, and to discover, beyond the possibility of a doubt, the most potent health destroyer — vitiated air. 1 am confident that people must .soon be tauglit to appreciate a perfect heating and ventilating system, and that the old style stove must go. I am, gentlemen, yours respectfully, . Jeremiah Smith. Lake View, N. Y., May 5, 1889. Smead & Nortiicott, Elmira, N. Y. : Genlleme7i, — Yours of April 18 received. The heater in use in our schoolroom the past two winters gives perfect satisfaction. We have never noticed a difference of over four degrees in temjjerature in any part of the room at same height from floor. The coldest, windiest days last winter the temperature was kept above 70 without the least trouble, and frequently the cooling damper was lowered. As to the ventilation, we have no scientific tests, but the air is always fresh, and no complaints of headache, etc., we so often hear of in un- ventilated schoolrooms. Our room is 26x32 with 12-ft. ceiling. Very truly yours, Geo. B. Cole, Trustee Dist. N^o. 12. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 113 HOW TO SELECT WARMING AND VENTILATING APPARATUS. "There is a pr[NCii>le which is a bar against all inp'Ormation, which is proob" against all aeguiMENt, AND which cannot FAIL TO KEEP A MAN. IN EVERLASTING IGNORANCE. TlIIS PRINCIPLE IS, CONTEMPT PRIOR TO EXAMINATION." — Dr. PalciJ. ONE of the greatest farces enacted by any man or set of men is that one very frequently enacted by boards of education and other committees liaviug in charge the construction of public buildings. Yet, I do not know that they are entirely at fault, nor am 1 sure that I can make plain a better method than tlie one usually adopted. They generally know little or iK:>thiug about the subject of Avarming and ventilating or of the various kinds of apparatus in use ; they simply know that tliey must buy some kind of a heater, and as they work witliout 2)ay can give but little attention to the matter. They postpone the letting of the contract as long as possible, then invite bids, get themselves in position to be talked to by the " uyents" allowing each "agent" say thirty minutes to teach them all he knows up(ui the subject. (Ample time I admit for the majority to tell all they know of the matter, if we may judge of their knowledge by their works!!) But suppose there is among tliose who bid on the work to be done a careful, com- petent, conservative and experienced engineer, who has given a score of years to the learning of the business, who has had several hundred buildings under his personal supervision, and who is honest enough to acknowledge that he has made many mistakes in the past and is anxious to avoid them in the future, and who may have spent from $200 to $500 in preparing plans and estimates on the building under consideration, and who may have discovered serious errors in original construction or in the plans prepared by the architect — ^ errors which if not corrected would, to his positive knowledge, cause a faihire, no matter what apparatus might be used. Can he in thirty minutes' time explain all these details and teach the committee a business it has taken him years to learn, or make clear to them a set of plans it may have taken him two weeks to design ? Manifestly not. It is preposterous to suppose he could, and especially if he be met with and have to Aqwj or explain a lot of statements that some " agent " or visionary " salesman " may have presented to the committee before his appearance. They (the " agents ") may have told the committee that away chjwn in some obscure corner of some distant state, " away back when Adam was a boy," the system was a failure, and that the systems used by all otJiers than themselves had " been used by the Chinese four thousand years ago." And after answering all these statements, how much time is left him of this " thirty miiiutes " in which to explain to the committee who cast the vote, and of whom perhaps not more than two or thVee know the difference between a plan of a building and a map of Europe. How much time I say has the engineer left to explain his methods as repi'esented probably by an expensive set of drawings absolutely necessary to the jiroper execution of the contract ? First-class work in any line alwavs costs more than second or fourth class, and as it is fair to suppose that the student knows more than he who has never studied, it is as fair to presume that a carefully prepared estimate is higher than one that is " guessed at." I can assure the reader that it is often mighty up-hill work to get a majority vote for the best apparatus from the wise men who have devoted possibly three hours to the question. I was recently given an hour in which to answer the arguments (?) of four " salesmen," three of whom had never warmed a building one-third the size of the one under consideration, and to explain a 114 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. set of plans it liaub]ic health. At the same time Gen. Morin presented the results of several experiments, upon which all of the cry against cast-iron has been based. These experiments were made with soft coal (which, as is well known, yields more gaseous products than anthracite], and stoves of cast-iron only one-tenth of an inch thick. The stoves were heated to a red beat, yet in the concluding experi- ment, lasting twenty-seven hours, there was produced in the 250 liters of air in a close vessel surrounding the stoves about ylVo of a liter of carbonic oxide, or only one part of this poisonous gas in fi,000 parts of the con- fined air. Had the gas produced in twenty-seven hours escaped into a room of 1 ,000 cubic feet capacity — a room without the slightest ventilatifin — there would have been found in 625,000 parts of air only one part of carbonic oxide. If .such a room were ventilated, is it possible that the air at any given time would have been poisonous? Even this small quantity of carbonic oxide did not pass througli the cast-iron, for by far the greater part of it was developed on its outer surface, as the subsequent report of the commission shows. A commis- sion was appointed to fully investigate the matter. Among its members were Fremy, Payen, St. Clair, Deville and Gen. Morin, and after a series of experiments lasting more than a year, a full report was made. No one of those who have said so much against cast-iron seems to have given this report any notice. It is contained in the Comptes Rendus, May '■'>, 1869. After detailing at considerable length their various experiments and methods showing the production of carbonic oxide in small quantities, under certain circumstances, by stoves of either wrought or cast iron, they report: The results indicated above are produced only when the metal is brought to a red heat. The most immediate effects are those due to the direct radiation of these surfaces, and in this respect lliere is no difference between wrought and cast iron. The report further shows that carbonic oxide is produced mainly by the following causes: I. The direct action of the air upon the carbon in the iron heated to redness. II. The decomposition of the carbonic acid in the air by its contact with the metal heated to redness. III. The influence of dust and organic matters naturally contained in the air. The commission further report that a development of carbonic oxide may take place from wrought-iron stoves brought to a red heat, and they close with the statement: By lining stoves with fire brick or clay all the inconveniences noted may be avoided. It is far from my purpose to underrate the great importance of having the air of our houses as pure as possible, and of avoiding the slightest presence of carbonic oxide or other dangerous gases; but it seems to me very wrong that sensational stories should be circulated in the name of science, and facts exaggerated, causing unnecessary alarm in regard to matters of great interest to the public. Our stoves and furnaces too often emit dangerous gases, but it is not tlie cast-iron "permeated by these gases at every pore" that is at fault; it is the red-hot surfaces acting upon the air itself; the imperfect dampers; the dust in the air. Let us hope we may hear no more of this great scare about iioisonous gases coming through the pores of cast-iron in a furnace an inch thick. Respectfully, No. 8 Boylston St., Boston, June 6. James F. Babcock. OPINION OF A WELL-KNOWN SCIENTIST. Prof Kedzie, of the Michigan Board of Health, contradicts the notion that has been so industriou.sly cir- culated of late years that gas wtll not escape through the walls of wrought-iron furnaces. It will not penetrate them as readily as cast-iron, but will pass through if highly heated. Cast-iron furnaces are good enough if large enough, so as to furnish sufficient warmth without being overheated, if the joints are well closed with cement, and if no dampers are allowed in the pipe to obstruct the passage of the gas into the chimney. More- over, cast-iron radiates heat better than wrought-iron. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. HIGH SCELOOL BUILDING, ITHACA, N. Y. A. IS. WOOD, ARCHITECT, ITHACA. Wanned and ventilated hy the Smead system. STATE CAPITOL BUILDING, CHEYENNE, WYO. D. W. GIBBS & CO., ARCHITECTS, TOLEDO, OHIO. Warmed and ventilated by the Sinead system. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO 119 GLENS FALLS, N. Y. "Warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. 120 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 121 No. 14 SCHOOL BUILDING, ROCTIESTEE, N. Y. O. K. li-OOTE, ARCHITECT. Warmed and ventilated liy the Smead system. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. WEARY A KRAMER, ARCHITECTS, AKRON, OHIO. Warmed and ventilated by the Smcad system ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. A. S. WAGXER, ARCHITECT, WILLIAMSPORT, PA. Warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Warmed and ventilated by the Sniead system. 126 tSAAC i). SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 128 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 'r M FIFTH AVENUE SCHOOL BUILDING, COLUMBUS, OHIO. S. J. HALL, ARCHITECT, COLUMBUS, OHIO. Thirteen school buildings in Columbus wanned and ventilated l)y the Sniead system. ISAAC D. SJMKAI) & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 129 CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, ALLEGHENY, PA. J. F. OSTERLING, ARCHITECT. Warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. I 130 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 132 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Fourteen school buildings in Toronto warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. (Smead, Dowd & Co., Contractors, Toronto, Ont.) ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. W. W. LUMMUS, ARCHITECT, 48 CONGRESS STREET, BOSTON. Warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. 134 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 136 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. F. W. HOLLISTEE, ARCHITECT, SAGINAW, MICH. Nine school buildings in Saginaw warmed and ventilated 'by the Smead system. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 137 ILLINOIS STEEET SCHOOL BUILDING, TOLEDO, OHIO. HENRY C. CONRAD, ARCniTEfT, TOLEDO, OHIO. Twentj'-six seliool buildings in Toledo warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. 138 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDmC, CAREY, OHIO. F. K. HEWITT, AECniTECT, TIFFIX, OHIO. Warmed ami ventilated by the Siiiead system. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 139 Warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. 140 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. ELAH TERRELL & CO., ARCHITECTS, COLUMBUS, OHIO. Warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. ISAAC D. SMEAt) & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 141 Warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. EOSSITEE & WRIGHT, ARCHITECTS, 47 LIBERTY STREET, NEW YORK CITY. 142 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. UNION FREE SCHOOL, DANSVILLE, N. Y. L. r. RonriEEs, architect, Rochester, x. y. Warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 143 ADDISON (N. Y.) UNION SCHOOL. WATJvER A NOLAN, ARCIlrrE( 'TS, EOOIIE.STEr!, N. Y. Warmed and ventilated l)y the Smead system. 144 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. ST. JOACHIM BUILDING, DETROIT, MICH. Fourteen school buildings in Detroit warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. 146 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. Nine school building.s in Saginaw warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 147 Wai'iiied and ventilated by the Smead system. 150 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. 152 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. ISAAC ID. SMEAD: & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. WILLS & GO'S BUILDING, 417 LOGUST ST., PHILADELPHIA, PA Warmed and ventilated by the Smead system. 154 ISAAC D. SMEAD & CO., KANSAS CITY, MO. GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE