HEATING AND VENTILATION 201 



inviting friendliness and forgiveness, dismissing mistrust 

 and hate. It is a place which makes it easier to tell one's 

 thoughts, and people sitting together before the embers 

 of a dying fire have come to know each other really better 

 than in any other place in the world. 



So it is easy to see why there is a great deal of sentiment 

 about a fireplace, and why it is so pleasant a feature of a 

 living-room. But, however good a fireplace may be for 

 friendship and sentiment, it is not very good for practical 

 heating purposes. It warms you well enough on one side, 

 but on the other (unless there is some other source of heat) 

 you are likely to be cold. Also, from the merely practical 

 standpoint, a fireplace is a great waster of fuel. Most 

 of the heat produced goes up the chimney. Yet even that 

 has its advantages, for the warm and comparatively impure 

 air which rushes up the chimney is replaced by fresh air 

 drawn in from outside. Hence there is plenty of ventila- 

 tion. Too much of it, if anything. 



This suggestion as to waste of fuel indicates one of the 

 principal factors in this problem. It is not difficult to 

 get good ventilation so long as you don't care how much 

 fuel you burn. If you keep letting the heated air out and 

 fresh air in you will get plenty of ventilation, but it will 

 be expensive to keep the house warm enough. So evidently 

 the problem becomes to secure satisfactory ventilation with 

 the least expenditure of fuel. The reason why many houses 

 and other buildings are badly ventilated is that those in 

 charge are thinking more about coal bills than they are 

 about health. They care more about keeping heat in than 

 about letting bad air out, and if you open a window they 

 are apt to say: "Are you trying to heat all outdoors?" 

 By the way, in "airing out" a room, why is it best to open 



