HAMILTON SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 19 



Ventilation 



Bead before the Hamilton Scientific Association, 

 November 8th, 1906. 



BY PRESIDENT R. J. HII,!,. 



Every person should be interested in three things — the 

 food he eats, the water he drinks and the air he breathes. 

 Each is of vital importance. One may say that good food is 

 the most important, another that the water we drink is ; a 

 person may live several days without either. Shut off his 

 supply of air and he will die in a few minutes. 



I have no apology to offer for my choice of subject, and 

 shall not deny the value of good food, pure water, and milk 

 without embalmiiig fluid, but shall confine my remarks to the 

 necessity of breathing pure air. I have always considered 

 ventilation one of the most essential things to be considered 

 in the construction of any building, and that without pure 

 air it is impossible to have good health. 



Scientists have agreed to consider pure air as composed 

 of a mixture of about 21 parts of oxygen to 79 parts of nitro- 

 gen, oxygen being the vital part, nitrogen serving only to 

 dilute the oxygen. The air as we find it contains many other 

 substances. A careful analysis of the air has shown it to be 

 a mechanical mixture composed of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Aque- 

 ous Vapor, Carbon Dioxide, Ammonia, Chlorides, Dust, 

 Carbon, Ozone, Argon, and various gases peculiar to the dis- 

 trict where it is obtained. In occupied rooms we may add to 

 these, excess of carbon dioxide, and waste animal matter given 

 off from the lungs, and the surface of the body. 



How to know where impurities exist, how to expel them 

 as fast as formed, and how to supply a sufl&cient quantit}' of 

 fresh air, are problems second to none. In most occupied 

 rooms if the doors and windows were absolutely tight the oc- 



