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Article VENTILATION. ← Page 2 of 4 →
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Ventilation.
now more especially to those avenues which branch off from the Stock Bridge to the Quayside —there is an atmosphere in which oxygen and nitrogen form but a veiy small proportion . The sun never penetrates these localities ; they are uniformly damp , I may say wet ; a peculiar slimy
mud adheres to everything about , even the walls on either side for at least a yard upwards ; and the smell—the peculiar smell!—not exactly the " concentrated essence of sink , " but a dilution of street sweepings , sewer exhalations , and deconTposing—what in the vernacular is called " clarts !"
And yet our merchants have their offices in some of these places ! Tt is not surprising that many of them die before attaining the meridian of life . It has been said that , for longevity , these
localities will hold their position amongst the best in the town . That may be . But why ? Among the poorer classes the delicate all die off in infancy or youth . Naturally of a hardier constitution than those who are the offspring of the delicate as well as the strong , when thej do become
acclimatised—and nature is very accommodating to the healthy—they not unfrequently become octogenarians , or centenarians . But how many fall in youth and in manhood ? Perhaps they do not average twenty-five years taken altogether ! As illustrating the anomalies of natureI remember
, reading in the Builder , many years ago—to the editor of which publication I am indebted for more than my interest in ventilation , and to whose pages , during the preparation of this paper , I have had occasion to recur—of a woman who resided
in London , and fell into ill-health : her medical adviser ordered her into the . country for change of air . She went . But she grew gradually worse day by day . After careful consultation , it was found that in London the front door of her house opened upon the gully-hole of a drain , the
ammonia from which was indispensable to her comfort and her health . Of course—as the tales have itshe lived there ever afterwards . But is that a good reason why every front door should be placed opposite a gully-hole ?
LondonParisLiverpoolEdinburghNew-, , , , castle , and other par excellence architectural towns , in modern' times , have adopted the objectionable plan of building their houses in a quadrangular form , enclosing a space in the middle . The objection to this is , that a free current of air cannot traverse from end to end of the space so
enclosed . The new parts of Sunderland furnish the best street-ventilating plan that I have yet seen . Both back aud front are open . There are no archways , enclosing yards , midden-steads , privies , and filthy back lanes : the eye extends from one end to the other . And next to
ventilation , light is a capital thing . I feel it my duty to draw attention , at this point , to the fact that in this town—more especially in the higher portions of it—the drains are all nntrapped , and consequently become ventilators
of nuisance , smells , and disease ; and that the streets , being badly swept , give out a large amount of ammonia , owing to the overfilling of the manure-carts . Go over Northumberlandstreet and neighbourhood any morning before ten o'clock , and you will find litter from stables
spread over a few thousand yards , sufficient to create an epidemic . And when the horse fairs are held in the town , why , it is not only dangerous in more senses than one , but immoral . Open spaces in towns must greatly facilitate ventilation ; and where these are planted with trees ,
shrubs , and flowers , as the squares of London are , they must be of great benefit to the neighbourhoods ; for trees absorb carbonic acid , and give out oxygen . Once upon a time , before Newcastle was deluged with smoke , the green grass and the tall poplars of the Forth were an attraction to the inhabitants .
Now , a large railway station occupies its site . To whom did it belong ? I mean the Forthwith the grass and the trees . It belonged to the people of Newcastle ; and if I am not misinformed , the corporation who sold the people ' s land said , when they did so , that they would provide another place equally useful and equally beautiful ; but have they done so ? Where is it ? Is it on the Leazes or
on the Moor ? No ; and the freemen—unkind both to man and beast—won't allow a tree to be planted or a shrub to be grown there ! They have hundreds of acres , all of which are surrounded with trees—a proof that trees will grow in the vicinity of Newcastle ; and except the water-rush ,
nothing but third-rate grass vegetates on these fine and extensive lands . Professor Johnston says , "Every green leaf that waves on field or tree , sucks in , during the sunshine , carbonic acid from the air . It is as indispensable to the life of a plant as oxygen is to the life of the animal /'
But are there trees within Newcastle to do this ? Once the garden of the north , with its bowing branches falling into the Tyne , it has become a withered Eden . The hawthorn , sturdy plant as it is , cannot produce its "May ; " the poplar withers up like a birch rod ; the Durham birch ,
which will grow anywhere , has ceased to live ; and the American poplar is waned and crusted before it is three years old . Our apple and pear treeswhere are they ? Our corn-fields—what have they become ? With coals , and iron , and salts , and alkalies , we shall have become impoverished in oxygen , health , size , vigour , and strength .
The injury arising from living in atmospheres impregnated with smoke , the products of alkali works , and other manufactures , is probably more than we suspect . I well remember that when the old pit-heap used to burn at Monkwearmouth , when the wind blew from the north or north-westthe
, silver plate of the inhabitants of Bishopwearmouth , in one night , would look like dull aluminium gold ! And only last month I happened to be at St . Helen ' s , in Lancashire , when a wind blew fair from
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ventilation.
now more especially to those avenues which branch off from the Stock Bridge to the Quayside —there is an atmosphere in which oxygen and nitrogen form but a veiy small proportion . The sun never penetrates these localities ; they are uniformly damp , I may say wet ; a peculiar slimy
mud adheres to everything about , even the walls on either side for at least a yard upwards ; and the smell—the peculiar smell!—not exactly the " concentrated essence of sink , " but a dilution of street sweepings , sewer exhalations , and deconTposing—what in the vernacular is called " clarts !"
And yet our merchants have their offices in some of these places ! Tt is not surprising that many of them die before attaining the meridian of life . It has been said that , for longevity , these
localities will hold their position amongst the best in the town . That may be . But why ? Among the poorer classes the delicate all die off in infancy or youth . Naturally of a hardier constitution than those who are the offspring of the delicate as well as the strong , when thej do become
acclimatised—and nature is very accommodating to the healthy—they not unfrequently become octogenarians , or centenarians . But how many fall in youth and in manhood ? Perhaps they do not average twenty-five years taken altogether ! As illustrating the anomalies of natureI remember
, reading in the Builder , many years ago—to the editor of which publication I am indebted for more than my interest in ventilation , and to whose pages , during the preparation of this paper , I have had occasion to recur—of a woman who resided
in London , and fell into ill-health : her medical adviser ordered her into the . country for change of air . She went . But she grew gradually worse day by day . After careful consultation , it was found that in London the front door of her house opened upon the gully-hole of a drain , the
ammonia from which was indispensable to her comfort and her health . Of course—as the tales have itshe lived there ever afterwards . But is that a good reason why every front door should be placed opposite a gully-hole ?
LondonParisLiverpoolEdinburghNew-, , , , castle , and other par excellence architectural towns , in modern' times , have adopted the objectionable plan of building their houses in a quadrangular form , enclosing a space in the middle . The objection to this is , that a free current of air cannot traverse from end to end of the space so
enclosed . The new parts of Sunderland furnish the best street-ventilating plan that I have yet seen . Both back aud front are open . There are no archways , enclosing yards , midden-steads , privies , and filthy back lanes : the eye extends from one end to the other . And next to
ventilation , light is a capital thing . I feel it my duty to draw attention , at this point , to the fact that in this town—more especially in the higher portions of it—the drains are all nntrapped , and consequently become ventilators
of nuisance , smells , and disease ; and that the streets , being badly swept , give out a large amount of ammonia , owing to the overfilling of the manure-carts . Go over Northumberlandstreet and neighbourhood any morning before ten o'clock , and you will find litter from stables
spread over a few thousand yards , sufficient to create an epidemic . And when the horse fairs are held in the town , why , it is not only dangerous in more senses than one , but immoral . Open spaces in towns must greatly facilitate ventilation ; and where these are planted with trees ,
shrubs , and flowers , as the squares of London are , they must be of great benefit to the neighbourhoods ; for trees absorb carbonic acid , and give out oxygen . Once upon a time , before Newcastle was deluged with smoke , the green grass and the tall poplars of the Forth were an attraction to the inhabitants .
Now , a large railway station occupies its site . To whom did it belong ? I mean the Forthwith the grass and the trees . It belonged to the people of Newcastle ; and if I am not misinformed , the corporation who sold the people ' s land said , when they did so , that they would provide another place equally useful and equally beautiful ; but have they done so ? Where is it ? Is it on the Leazes or
on the Moor ? No ; and the freemen—unkind both to man and beast—won't allow a tree to be planted or a shrub to be grown there ! They have hundreds of acres , all of which are surrounded with trees—a proof that trees will grow in the vicinity of Newcastle ; and except the water-rush ,
nothing but third-rate grass vegetates on these fine and extensive lands . Professor Johnston says , "Every green leaf that waves on field or tree , sucks in , during the sunshine , carbonic acid from the air . It is as indispensable to the life of a plant as oxygen is to the life of the animal /'
But are there trees within Newcastle to do this ? Once the garden of the north , with its bowing branches falling into the Tyne , it has become a withered Eden . The hawthorn , sturdy plant as it is , cannot produce its "May ; " the poplar withers up like a birch rod ; the Durham birch ,
which will grow anywhere , has ceased to live ; and the American poplar is waned and crusted before it is three years old . Our apple and pear treeswhere are they ? Our corn-fields—what have they become ? With coals , and iron , and salts , and alkalies , we shall have become impoverished in oxygen , health , size , vigour , and strength .
The injury arising from living in atmospheres impregnated with smoke , the products of alkali works , and other manufactures , is probably more than we suspect . I well remember that when the old pit-heap used to burn at Monkwearmouth , when the wind blew from the north or north-westthe
, silver plate of the inhabitants of Bishopwearmouth , in one night , would look like dull aluminium gold ! And only last month I happened to be at St . Helen ' s , in Lancashire , when a wind blew fair from