350 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



a specially-constructed house, we may, I believe, obtain a 

 perfectly controllable indoor climate, with a range of varia- 

 tion not exceeding four or five degrees between the warmest 

 and the coldest part of the house, or eight or nine degrees 

 between summer and winter, and this may be combinbd 

 with an abundant supply of fresh air everywhere, all filtered 

 from the grosser portions of its irritant dust, which is posi- 

 tively poisonous to delicate lungs, and damaging to all. 

 The cost of fuel would be far less than with existing arrange- 

 ments, and the labor of attending to the one or two fires 

 and the valves would also be less than that now required 

 in the carrying of coal-scuttles, the removal of ashes, the 

 cleaning of fireplaces, and the curtains and furniture they 

 befoul by their escaping dust and smoke. 



It is obvious that such a system of ventilation may even 

 be applied to existing houses by mending the ill-fitting 

 windows, shutting up the existing fire-holes, and using the 

 chimneys as upcast shafts in the manner above described. 

 This may be done in the winter, when the problem is easiest, 

 and the demand for artificial climate the most urgent; but 

 I question the possibility of summer ventilation and tem- 

 pering of climate in anything short of a specially-built house 

 or a materially altered existing dwelling. There are doubt- 

 less some exceptions to this, where the house happens to be 

 specially suitable and easily adapted, but in ordinary houses 

 we must be content with the ordinary devices of summer 

 ventilation by doors and windows, plus the upper openings 

 of the rooms into the chimneys expanded to their full 

 capacity, and thus doing, even in summer, far better venti- 

 lating work than the existing fire-holes opening in the wrong 

 place. 



I thus expound my own scheme, not because I believe it 

 to be perfect, but, on the contrary, as a suggestive project 

 to be practically amended and adapted by others better 

 able than myself to carry out the details. The feature that 

 I think is novel and important is that of consciously and 

 avowedly applying to domestic ventilation the principles 

 that have been so successfully carried out in the far more 

 difficult problem of subterranean ventilation. 



The dishonesty of the majority of the modern builders 



