View report page

4
During the last month, my attention was directed to the condition of a work-room, in
Plummer's-row, Fieldgate-street, in which 23 persons were engaged at slop-work.
No means whatever were provided to get rid of the foul air of this room ; and instead
of each individual having at least 500 cubic feet of air, 112 feet only was the allowance
to each worker.* At night several gas-lights were used, which must have added considerably
to the poisonous effects of the atmosphere of this room. When I entered
this close apartment, I could scarcely breathe, and I requested one of the workwomen
to open a window, but on her doing so, the rush of cold air into this heated apartment
was so great, that she was obliged almost immediately to close it. The stifling
effect of such a contaminated atmosphere cannot be described—it must be felt for any
person to have a conception of it. Persons compelled to remain any length of time
in such a polluted atmosphere, soon lose their health, and become subjects of scrofulous
disease, which disease is frequently transmitted to their children, and is continued
through several generations. If the public at large were fully sensible of the
importance of ventilation, which means the carrying away the impurities generated
and given off by respiration and artificial heat, more efficient means for that purpose
would be adopted in every instance, where several persons are assembled in one
room.
It is frequently but erroneously considered, that holes made in the ceiling, and
communicating with the exterior of the building, are sufficient for the purposes of
ventilation; but these openings, for the most part, afford inlets only for the cold
fresh air, and thus render the apartment, during the winter season, so intolerably
cold, that persons remaining in it soon become the victims of disease of the respiratory
organs; hence, a cause of large mortality in some public institutions.
system of ventilation can be perfect, unless sufficient means are adopted for carrying
out of the apartment the air which has been breathed, and the deleterious gases
which are generated by artificial heat, and by the admission of a sufficient quantity
of pure air. The former, or egress openings, must be placed at the top of the room,
commnnicating with a shaft, provided with heat, (a gas light will answer the
purpose) so as to occasion a draught or current outwards, and must have a valve
to prevent the foul air from passing back into the apartment ; it must also have a
cowl or some other covering, to keep out the rain. The latter, or ingress openings
for fresh air, must be placed near to the bottom of the room, not along the floor, in
consequence of the coldness which is thereby occasioned to the feet, (except in
churches, where the fresh air can be admitted along the aisles, which should be
covered with hair cloth, so that the air may be admitted in small streams, and become
uniformly distributed over the whole building), but just above the skirting board, or
at a distance of about two feet from the floor. The admission of the requisite
quantities of fresh air could be regulated by a damper.
A simple mode of ventilating a building, is by running up a foul air shaft
alongside the chimnies, and by making communications into it from every room, by air
tubes placed across the ceilings, with openings into the room. The grand object to be
attained in effectually ventilating rooms, is to produce a slow but constant movement
in the air. Ventilation through open windows is too rapid and sudden, and the
inconvenience of this mode is so great, that persons sitting near them, almost
* Dimensions of the room:—Height, 8ft., width, 9ft., length, 3ft. 6in. Cubic space of
room if entirely empty, 2529ft. Tables, chairs, and slop-work, were in the room, diminishing
to some extent the quantity of air.