Excellent fuel is so cheap in Britain, owing to the profusion with which
beds of rich coal are scattered among the mineral treasures of this
favoured portion of the earth, that a careless expenditure has arisen;
which, however, instead of securing the comfort and health that might be
expected, has led to plans of warming that often prove destructive to
both. In cold countries, where fuel is more scarce, as in the north of
continental Europe, and where, to retain and preserve the heat once
obtained, the inhabitants use thick walls, double windows, close
joinings, and close stoves or fire-places, which have no communication
with the apartments, but draw their supply of air from without, that
the temperate air of the room may not be wasted,--these means, when
sufficient ventilation is added, prove very favourable to health,
by giving a uniform and temperate warmth, instead of extremes and
fluctuations. But in England, the apartments, with their open chimnies,
may be compared to great aerial funnels, constantly pouring out their
warm air through a large opening, and constantly requiring to be
replenished; and where, from the irregularity of the supply or of the
discharge, the temperature is constantly fluctuating.
By the close stove and apartment fuel is saved to a great extent--they
also produce a uniformity of temperature; first, as regards the
different parts of the room, so that the occupiers may sit anywhere; and
secondly, as regards the different times of the day; for the stove once
heated in the morning, often suffices to maintain a steady warmth until
night; the heat can be carried to any required degree, and ventilation
is easily effected as desired. * * *
Consumption is the disease which carries off a fifth or more of the
persons born in Britain, owing in part, no doubt, to the changeableness
of the climate, but much more to the faulty modes of warming and
ventilating the houses. To judge of the influence of temperature in
producing this disease, we may consider--that miners who live under
ground, and are always, therefore, in the same temperature, are
strangers to it; while their brothers and relations, exposed to the
vicissitudes of the weather above, fall victims--that butchers and
others who live almost constantly in the open air, and are hardened by
the exposure, enjoy nearly equal immunity--that consumption is hardly
known in Russia, where close stoves and houses preserve a uniform
temperature--and that in all countries and situations, whether tropical,
temperate, or polar, the frequency of the disease bears relation to
the frequency of change. We may here remark, also, that it is not
consumption alone which springs from changes of temperature, but a great
proportion of acute diseases, and particularly of our common winter
diseases. In how many cases has the invalid to remark, that if he had
not taken cold in such a place, or on such an occasion, he might yet
have been well. * * *
The following considerations present themselves in this place.--Small
rooms in winter are more dangerous to health than large ones, because
the cold air, entering towards the fire by the doors or windows, reaches
persons before it can be tempered by mixing with the warmer air of the
room--Stoves in halls and staircases are useful, because they warm the
air before it enters the rooms; and they prevent the hurtful chills
often felt on passing through a cold staircase from one warm room to
another. It is important to admit no more cold air into the house than
is just required for the fires, and for ventilation; hence there is
great error in the common practice of leaving all the chimneys that are
not in use, quite open; for each admits as much air as a hole in the
wall would do, or a pane deficient in a window. Perhaps the best mode of
admitting air to feed the fires is through tubes, leading directly from
the outer air to the fire-place, and provided with what are called
throttle-valves, for the regulation of the quantity; or the fresh air
admitted by tubes may be made first to spread in the room, having been
warmed during its passage inwards, by coming near the fire.--In a
perfectly close apartment, ventilation must be expressly provided for by
an opening near the ceiling, to allow the impure air rising from the
respiration of the company to pass away at once; but with an open fire,
the purpose is effected by the frequent change of the whole air of the
room which that construction occasions.
With a view to have the most perfect security against cold blasts and
fluctuation of temperature in rooms intended for invalids, and still to
retain the so much valued appearance of the open fire, a glazed frame or
window may be placed at the entrance of the chimney, so as completely to
prevent the passage of air from the room to the fire. The close room
will then be warmed by the fire through the glass, as a green-house is
warmed by the rays of the sun. It is true, that the heat of combustion
does not pass through glass so readily as the heat of the sun; but the
difference is not important. The glass of such a window must, of course,
be divided into small panes, and supported by a metallic frame work; and
there must be a flap or door in the frame work, for the purpose of
admitting the fuel and stirring the fire. Air must be supplied to the
fire as described above, by a tube leading directly from the external
atmosphere. The ventilation of the room may be effected by an opening
into the chimney near the ceiling; and the temperature may be regulated
with great precision by a valve placed in this opening, and made to obey
the dilatation and contraction of a piece of wire affixed to it, the
exact length of which at any time will depend on the temperature of the
room. The author first imagined such an arrangement of rooms for the
winter residence of a person who was threatened with consumption;
and the happy issue of the case, and of others treated on similar
principles, has led him to doubt, whether many of the patients with
incipient consumption, who are usually sent to warmer climates, and who
die there after hardships on the journey, and mental distress from the
banishment sufficient to shake even strong health, might not be saved,
by judicious treatment in properly warmed and ventilated apartments,
under their own roofs, and in the midst of affectionate kindred.
_Arnott's Elements of Physics._
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