BREATHING IN STUFFY ROOMS

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 85, 11 April 1933, Page 6

BREATHING IN STUFFY ROOMS

Sir Leonard Hill, who probably knows more about muscular fatigue, nerves and respiration than any other man in Great Britain, has made some experiments at Bedford College, London, which shed much light on the difficulty that we experience in stuffy, overheated rooms. Steam radiators and glowing coals emit long infra-red or heat rays. These Dr. Hill calls "nose shutters" because they make the muscles of the nostrils contract as the result of a reflex action in which the nerves are the principal agents. Dr. Hill cut a hole in a piece of cardboard, and, using this to screen his face, breathed warm air through the hole and found that his nasal passages remained open. When the screen was removed his nose was stopped up again. But there are other rays that Dr. Hill calls "nose openers." Such rays are given off by bright, exposed flames. They, too, are heat. Moisture absorbs the invisible, infra-red "nose shutters," so that they do not reach the nostrils. Thus Dr. Hill explains the salutary effect of water placed on a stove or radiator. Fanning also dissipates the harmful rays. Gas and electric radiators do not produce stuffiness bccause they give off short infrared rays and a small percentage of visible and ultra-violet rays-