338 VENTILATION 



Remember that this is the air which we are constantly 

 breathing and which is constantly coming into contact with 

 our food as it is being prepared in the kitchen or served upon 

 our dining table. 



372. Carpets, Drapery, and Bric-a-brac Dangerous. Car- 

 pets are exceedingly difficult to keep free from dust. Ordi- 

 nary sweeping removes but little of the fine dust from the car- 

 peted floor; much of the fine dust lodges in the carpet or passes 

 through it. One has but to recall the condition of the floor 

 as it appears after the carpet has been taken up for the annual 

 or semi-annual cleaning, in a house where the floors have been 

 cleaned by sweeping with broom or carpet sweeper, to be con- 

 vinced that ordinary sweeping is unsanitary. If the floors are 

 to be kept clean by sweeping they should be oiled, painted 

 or waxed and then covered with rugs which are easily removed 

 and beaten. Such floors may be kept in a sanitary condition. 

 Drapery and bric-a-brac on the walls are dust catchers and 

 exceedingly difficult to clean. The more thoughtful people of 

 today are discarding bric-a-brac from 

 their houses and using fewer draperies 

 than formerly. The fewer dust catchers 

 there are in any living room or any 

 sleeping room, the easier it is to care 

 for it and the more sanitary it may be 

 kept. 



373. Vacuum Cleaning. In recent 

 Fia. 239. years many devices for VACUUM CLEANING 



have been put upon the market. They 



range from simple, inexpensive devices, operated by hand, 

 Figs. 239 and 240, for use in private dwellings, to large, ex- 

 pensive plants, operated by electric motors or steam engines 

 for the cleaning of the largest hotels, railroad stations, office 

 buildings, school buildings, and stores. They all operate by 

 producing a partial vacuum. In most large types a tube or 

 pipe leads from the machine to the CLEANING TOOL. This 

 cleaning tool fits closely to the carpet or other surface which is 



