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67
Although the chief objection to the “plenum” system is that the heated
entering air is made the sole means of warming the school and its occupants in winter,
there are some other objections to the system as applied in the London schools.
For instance, the designer of the system was so obsessed by the “plenum” idea,
that in some of the schools he even went out of his way in order to resort to devices
which obstructed the outflow of air in order to produce a “plus” pressure inside
the building. In these schools there is frequent trouble through inefficient working
of the system whenever the doors are opened in any department, as an outrush of
air takes place, which short circuits the supply to other departments.
It is only in the winter, when heating is necessary, that the chief condition of
objection exists. During the summer months, when the system is working properly,
the physical conditions connected with the air supply are unexceptionable. One
hot afternoon in July this year, two of the mechanically ventilated schools were
visited. At Commercial-street the conditions were most pleasant, an abundant
supply of cool washed air was being delivered to the classrooms, and a feeling of
relief was experienced on gaining the inside of the building from the hot, dusty and
odoriferous street. Proceeding directly on the same afternoon from Commercialstreet
to Old Montague-street, another mechanically ventilated school, the conditions
in the boys’ and girls’ departments were found most oppressive and unsatisfactory,
and it was a relief to escape from the classrooms into the corridors again. In the
infants’ department, however, the atmosphere was very pleasant and satisfactory and
the reason for the stuffiness in the boys’ and girls’ departments was apparent. The
main doors of the infants’ department stood widely open, with the result that more
than its due share of air was being pumped through this department, while the
other departments were short circuited, and starved of their due supply. This
same inattention to the rules was noticed in this school 23 years ago, when the first
observations were recorded.
It will be gathered that, although objections can be urged against the “plenum”
system, it also has its advantages. Emphatically, judged by purely physical
considerations, the system is capable of giving better results than are obtained in
most naturally ventilated schools. The honours boards of the schools concerned
bear testimony to the fact that the educational progress of the children is not affected,
and there are in some of the schools teachers who have worked in them continuously
for upwards of twenty years, who are in first rate physical condition, and in the
best of health.
In every school the opinion of the teachers is divided in regard to the merits of
the system, but there was certainly more objection in Old Montague-street, for
instance, than at Commercial-street. In the latter school, the system is of very
great advantage in view of the generally polluted atmosphere surrounding the school.
In Old Montague-street and Christian-street schools there are original defects
of construction, to which reference has been made in the body of the report, which
make it difficult to keep the system in a reasonable state of effective working. It is
understood that the Old Montague-street school is shortly to be given up.
The conclusion to be drawn is that no case can be made out for the general
“scrapping” at present of the schools worked upon this system.
A dust-allaying oil was applied to some of the floors of nine schools during the
Christmas vacation at the end of 1924, and the experiment was watched on behalf of
the public health department by Dr. J. Nairn Dobbie. The dust in schools comes
mainly from three sources—(a) Dust carried by the air; (b) dust carried in by the
boots and clothing of the school population; (c) dust from the wear and tear of
furniture, fitments, floors, walls, chalk, etc.
The use of
dustless oils
on school
floors.
The amount of dust varies as the weather is wet or dry, as to the presence or
absence of factory and tenement chimneys and the direction of the prevailing wind—
the surface of the surrounding streets, and the nature of their paving—type and