View report page

44
No. 3 Substance.
On a hard wood floor at the end of 19 weeks no appreciable
dust had been raised during the whole period of observation.
On a soft wood floor at the end of 13 weeks the restraining
influence was practically unimpaired and was better than floor
washing after two days.
The effects of oiling floors with substances Nos. 2 and 3 in view
of these observations may be described as excellent. Their general
application to school-room floors twice or three times a year must
mean an immense improvement in the hygienic conditions of the
school-room, and be associated with a general raising of the standard
of cleanliness. Furniture, walls, windows, and even ceilings will
inevitably remain cleaner for a longer period when the air is dirtied
to so much lesser a degree, while the work of maintaining the schools
in a cleanly condition would be most materially reduced. It remains
only to consider the cost entailed in carrying out systematically
throughout all the schools, the treatment of floors by this means.
The dust allaying substances, Nos. 2 and 3 of the experiments,
are proprietary articles, and their manufacturers recommend that the
floors be dressed three times in the course of the year, in order to
secure the best results. In the case of both substances, the
quantities used during the first application, owing to absorption, are
much greater than the amount used during the second, and the
quantities used during the second greater than that of the third, the
ratios being approximately 4, 3 and 2.
From this it follows that the cost of adopting this system of
floor treatment will be greater in the first than in subsequent years.
In the following table I have set out an estimate of the
quantities, and of the cost of treating all the floors of Public
Elementary Schools in Willesden with Nos. 2 and 3 substances
respectively for one year.