Fresh Air in Houses.

Otago Witness, Issue 2504, 19 March 1902, Page 64

Fresh Air in Houses.

Writing on fresh-air supply in the Illustrated London News, Dr Andrew Wilson says: If we wish to empty a room of air we must open dcors and windows ; then we get draughts — and draughts imply cold and chill, and subsequent illness. We make no provision for that which science says should be represented in every house — namely, means for the gradual inflow of fresh air always into our rooms, and equally for the gradual outflow of the impure air — an impurity engendered by ourselves, seeing that with every -breath we give out we are adding "waste matter, and therefore impure matter to the atmosphere.

AIL attempts to ventilate our houses by whnt is called 1" natural ventilation maybe described ac failures. It is here a question of draughts produced by opening a window here or a door there. Certainly, one may sweep all the air out of a room in this way, but ordinary p:op!e will not survive the draughts created. If we parallel tlie case with our water supply, we do not requne a water spout or a torrent ; we merely want as much water as we nc:el, and we get it by the system of supply which is in vogue. It is so with the air question. I repeat, that at which we should aim is the graduil, constant renewal of pure air in our homes, and the equally constant removal of the vitiated atmosphere. Were this result attainable, we should suffer less from colds and lung troubles than we do, and life, as a consequence, would be rendered healthier, and therefore happier, all round.

There is only one way in which such a result will ever accrue. We must have systems of "aitinVial" ventilation inaugurated in our midst. We must move the air, and to accomplish this end we require machinery, in th? shipe, "=ay. of fans, which will oxtiaet foul sir. and bring fresh air into our abodes. The idea that each house should bs so piovkled may be regarded as lmpracticriu'le. >So it i.s. But one may foretell, by aid of a scientific faith, the advent of a time when a supply of fresh air inuy be a legitimate subject of commercial enterprise, as is the pioviding to-day of water and gas Pipes laid on into each house and every room from a central pumping station ; air warmsd in winter and cooled in summer supplied to us at any rate we desire, and all legulated by the turning of a tap — this is my dietun of the future ventilation.