THE SANITATION OF AIR 31 



Mechanical or forced ventilation finds application where the number 

 of people, excess of heat, or other conditions creating unwholesome 

 atmosphere, can not be overcome by any other method. Theaters and 

 crowded assembly halls, class rooms, hospitals, certain laboratories and 

 workshops, hotel kitchens, public smoking and toilet rooms, generally 

 need a rapid renewal of air. The ventilation of such places should be 

 positive, that is, it should not be dependent to any extent upon weather 

 or temporarily favorable conditions. Of course, when subject to spon- 

 taneous ventilation, such rooms will require less of the artificial kind. 

 Indeed, it is important always to utilize the natural means at hand, 

 and to omit none of the preventive measures that may help to relieve 

 the situation. Buildings should be designed with due regard to airing 

 and to avoid, if possible, the necessity for a mechanical system. The 

 latter should always be considered as a sort of emergency device and 

 reduced to the utmost simplicity consistent with the need. Of course, 

 simplicity must not be secured at the expense of quality or efficiency. 

 The latter depends mostly upon the purity, perfect distribution and the 

 control over the temperature of the air supply. Moderate volumes, 

 well applied, are better and more economical than large quantities 

 indifferently, indiscriminately, almost criminally introduced. When 

 designed and equipped on the right principles, buildings will be less 

 dependent upon the uncertainties of complex machinery, incompetence 

 or indifference of operators, parsimoniousness of owners, and all those 

 contigencies which so often have turned a well-intentioned, but too 

 complicated, apparatus into a dead letter, a lot of junk, or even a 

 nuisance and a menace to health, instead of a means of relief. The 

 undesirability of mechanical devices increases rapidly with their com- 

 plexity and age. Deterioration is bound to set in. The simplest 

 means to accomplish the end is not only the most economical, but it is 

 the best guarantee for successful operation in the long run. 



Building Reform. — The extreme utilization of space which is the 

 common tendency in much of our urban architecture has passed the 

 sanitary danger line. There are too many investors, or speculators, 

 who do not care whether a structure is fit for habitation. Unfortu- 

 nately, architects do not always realize the meaning of the demands 

 put upon them, and that those exaggerated proportions, growing out 

 of the fight for light and air, will make sanitation more difficult and 

 are unfair to the neighbor. When building on a plot of ground, any 

 adjoining property should be given an equal chance for vertical expan- 

 sion, giving leave to any one to do unto you the same, with profit. 

 Some of the flagrant encroachments lately seen upon other men's right 

 to nature's freedom have really been nothing short of criminal. The 

 limitation of the sky scraper is really but a question of fair dealing 

 with one's neighbor. 



