Abstract
A VERY common source of trouble with respect to ventilation is the absence of any arrangement for the supply of air to fires. So long as a fire draws on the general atmosphere of the room it is supposed to warm for its supply of oxygen, there must be the “draughts” so often complained of, and people are warm on the side next the fire, and cold on the other. I should suppose this is what happens in Mr. Fletcher's case, described in his letter in NATURE (pp. 553–4). If so, there is simply a sort of “tug-of-war” between the longer chimney-flue and the shorter ventilation flue, with the additional advantage on the side of the former that the column of air ascending the chimney is necessarily much warmer than that which should ascend the ventilation flue. If however, Mr. Fletcher will have a couple of holes bored in his floor, one on each side of the fireplace, so as to supply air directly to the fire, the “pull” of the fire on the air of the room will cease, the room will be warmer, and his ventilation flue should work satisfactorily. I warm thoroughly a room with considerably over 2000 square feet of floor area by means of three small stoves. When first used the stoves were inefficient, as there was a draught all round each towards it. A common rain-water pipe “bend,” inserted in the floor immediately in front of the aperture of each stove for admitting the air-supply, stopped the draughts, and at least doubled the efficiency of the stoves as warmers. With the help of Tobin tubes there is now a gentle current of warmer air from each stove. The heated and vitiated air escapes through ventilators fixed in the ridge of the roof.
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WILKINSON, W. Ventilation. Nature 33, 199 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/033199d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/033199d0
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