Use of Ozone in Ventilation. 273 
Successful installations have also been made in the oflices of The Brown 
Shoe Co. and in the system for ventilating the great basement of the Grand 
Leader department store. Usually in the basement of a large department 
store the ventilation is very bad, but none of that is to be noticed in this 
place. The air that enters from the outside is partially ozonized, passes 
over one set of heating coils. through a humidifier, and then over another set 
of heating coils and out into the room. The odor of ozone can barely be 
detected by a sensitive nose. The people employed there are unaware that 
ozone is being used but they also have no complaint to make about the 
ventilation. 
That there is a great field for improvement in the ventilation of most 
of our crowded buildings almost no one will deny. But that ozone would 
give relief is strongly doubtedly by a great many people. The reason for 
the doubt has been that, while a little ozone is a good thing, a great deal 
of ozone is too much of a good thing. In most installations the trouble 
has been that not little enough ozone has been used. Like perfumery 
the best effect is secured by the use of almost vanishingly small quantities. 
If the ozone treated air is allowed to come in contact with water, as in a 
humidifier, most of the ozone is decomposed. During the decomposition 
the opportunity to oxidize any organic matter present would be very great 
so that a very high percentage of bacteria and bad odors would be removed 
and destroyed. 
Ozone, moreover, has a tendency to cling to the clothes and to the skin 
which are the source of many of the bad odors. The writer has noticed 
the smell of ozone clinging to his fingers and clothes for a couple of hours 
after working with the substance. Such an accumulation of ozone near 
the origin of the deleterious substances would be especially effective in pre- 
venting them from getting out into the air. Before these ideas are accepted 
generally, however, very carefully controlled experimental work must be 
done. It is believed by many who have gone into the matter carefully and 
without prejudice that ozone can be successfully used to solve a large 
number of the problems of ventilation provided constant care is taken 
to allow for its peculiar properties and the resulting limitations placed on 
its use. 
