VENTILATION IX OPEN FIREPLACES. G3 



sions, there may be some escape of warmer upper air at the top 

 of the windows, if their fitting is correspondingly defective. 

 These, however, are mere accidents ; they are not a part of the 

 vaunted chimney-hole ventilation, but interferences with it. 



There is another experiment that illustrates the absence of 

 ventilation in such rooms where gas is burning. It is that of 

 suspending a canary in a cage near the roof. But this is 

 cruel ; it kills the bird. It would be a more satisfactory 

 experiment to substitute for the canary-bird any wingless 

 biped who, after reading the above, still maintains that our 

 fire-holes are effective ventilators. 



Not only are the fire-holes worthless and mischievous ventila- 

 tors themselves, but they render efficient ventilation by any 

 other means practically impossible. The " Arnott's ventila- 

 tor" that we sometimes see applied to the upper part of chim- 

 neys, is marred in its action by the greedy " draught" below. 



The tall chimney-shaft with a fire burning immediately 

 below it dominates all the atmospheric movement in the house, 

 unless another and more powerful upcast shaft be somewhere 

 else in communication with the apartments. But in this case 

 the original or ordinary chimney would be converted into a 

 downcast shaft pouring air downward into the room, instead of 

 carrying it away upward. I need not describe the sort of venti- 

 lation thus obtainable while the fire is burning and smoking. 



Effective sanitary ventilation should supply gentle and uni- 

 formly diffused currents of air of moderate and equal tempera- 

 ture throughout the house. We talk a great deal about the 

 climate here and the climate there ; and when we grow old, 

 and can afford it, we move to Bournemouth, Torquay, Men- 

 ton, Nice, Algiers, etc., for better climates, forgetting all the 

 while that the climate in which we practically live is not that 

 out-of-doors, but the indoor climate of our dwellings, the 

 which, in a properly constructed house, may be regulated to 

 correspond to that of any latitude we may choose. I maintain 

 that the very first step toward the best attainable approxima- 

 tion to this in our existing houses is to brick up, cement up, 

 or otherwise completely stop up, all our existing fire-holes, and 

 abolish all our existing fires. 



But what next ? The reply to this will be found in the next 

 chapter. 



