With candles, if the illumination of the room is
maintained at the same degree as in the case of lamps, the contamination
of the air is very much worse. It is doubtless the case that poisonous
germs are rapidly developed in atmospheres which are called "stuffy;"
and although, in a healthy state of the body, we are able to breathe
them without perceptible harm, yet even then the slight headache and
uneasiness we feel is a symptom which does not suffer itself to be
lightly regarded, whenever, from some cause or other, the general
condition is weak.
The products of combustion from coal gas (which are steam and carbonic
acid mixed with an infinitesimal quantity of sulphur) are,
proportionately, far less injurious to animal life than the products
from an equal illuminating power derived from either oil or candles.
They are, however, it is certain, destructive to germ life; and
therefore, if taken off from the ceiling level, where they always
collect if allowed to do so, no possible inconvenience or danger to
health can be felt by any one in the room. But in our endeavors to take
off the foul air at the ceiling, we encounter our first serious check in
all schemes of ventilation. We draw the elevation and section of the
room, and put in our flues with pretty little black arrows flying out of
the outlets for vitiated air, and other pretty little red arrows flying
in at the inlets; but when we see our scheme in practice, the black
arrows will persist in putting their wings where their points ought to
be; in other words, flying into instead of out of the room.
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