VENTILATION.

On the outside the basement windows there are eight flues through which a supply of pure air is received. These flues average in size three by three feet, and the air is conducted by them. into the sub-basement, thence upward into sixteen brick chambers inclosing the steam coils or radiators. Here a temperature is maintained sufficient to create a circuit through the flues by which the air is distributed to every part of the building. The interior distributing flues are lined with tin, so as to offer the least possible resistance. As the pure air comes into the rooms, corridors, halls, etc., it is everywhere brought in contact with other steam pipes and radiators by which the temperature is increased and the velocity of the current quickened as it ascends the building. In each room there is one flue and register for the admission of pure air, and two of the same size for carrying off the vitiated; those in the wing being eight by twelve inches, and in the main building twelve by sixteen inches.

In the assembly room and the larger school rooms, there are two sets of flues of the same size. In the attic these foul air flues discharge into horizontal brick flues, 2 by 3 feet in size. These large brick flues meet under the cupola and discharge their contents into a perpendicular, galvanized iron tube, 5 feet 2 inches in diameter, which connects with the outer air through various openings in the upper part of the cupola. In the base of this iron tube is a campanile of steam pipe, 20 feet in length, which is heated to the degree of temperature necessary to maintain the current, secure a rapid flow of the foul air at this point, and assist the draft through the horizontal brick flues and below them. The flues are all constructed in the interior partitions, so as to prevent the possibility of their operation being interfered with by cold walls; and the more than ample capacity of the receiving flues for the entrance of pure air from outside the building enables the engineer to furnish an ample supply from the directions opposite to that from which the wind is blowing during a storm. With proper attention, this building will never fail in being properly ventilated.

THE STATE CAPITOL

At Madison furnishes an illustration of the ignorance of architects with reference to the means necessary to furnish a large building with a supply of pure air adequate to the needs of the numbers of persons who are expected to occupy it. A large flue enters the basement, in which is a fan operated by a steam engine. The pure air is forced through this flue and over steam coils of sufficient radiating powers to warm the air, which is then distributed to different parts of the building. Other radiators assist to keep the rooms. at a comfortable temperature in the coldest weather; but there is no certain means of removing the foul air that accumulates. This deficiency necessarily vitiates all the attempts at ventilation, and renders the building unwholesome. When the building was erected, a register and flue connecting with the chimney in each of the offices was constructed six or more feet above the floor; and as the vitiated air, impregnated from bodily exhalations, and heated air robbed of its oxygen by gas lights, rapidly ascends to the ceiling, and carbonized air from the lungs as rapidly descends to the floor, such an arrangement for the egress of impure air was practically valueless. Moreover, for some years, the tops of the chimneys in which these flues are located were sealed, and now but four of them are open. It is impossible, therefore, with the present appliances, to ventilate the first story of the building, where the offices are located.

In the senate and assembly chambers, an attempt has been made to secure ventilation by flues from each into the open chimneys, for the egress of foul air. When the atmospheric conditions are favorable, this arrangement accomplishes the desired result, so far as the capacity of those flues will permit; but they are far from being equal to the demand when the halls are filled with an assemblage of people. And when the atmosphere outside is damp and heavy, or when a strong wind is blowing, the current in the flues frequently becomes reversed, and then the air in the chambers is speedily rendered intolerable. Last winter, a senator from the southern part of the state, who had given some attention to this subject before he was willing to take his seat, secured the placing of two grates in the chimneys of the senate chamber to furnish additional outlet for impure air. But the difficulty with all these outlets for impure

air in the Capitol building is the lack of heat in them, by which alone a sufficient current can be maintained at all times to render the rooms healthful.

It is a fact well known that frequently the health of members fails, during the sessions of the legislature; and that many of those who endure to the end leave the building with a sense of relief, and there is no doubt in the minds of intelligent men who have investigated this subject, that much of the disability experienced there is due to the lack of ventilation. Frequently these rooms are crowded with people for continuous hours; and then, providing all the appliances within them for supplying pure air and removing the impure are operated under the best circumstances possible, they possess but a tithe of the capacity necessary to accomplish the work required. With the almost universally acknowledged necessity which exists for the maintenance of healthful conditions in our public buildings, it is a matter of humiliation that our state capitol should be so imperfect.

During the evening sessions of the legislature the rooms occupied by that body are lighted by a large number of gas-lights. These gas-burners consume the oxygen from the air much more rapidly than the ordinary number of occupants; and, if the means employed to remove the impure air are both inadequate and uncertain during the day time, what must be the condition of the air in those rooms during the evening, when they are lighted and occupied by a large assemblage.

A SUGGESTION.

One of the best plans proposed for removing the impure air from the capitol building is one suggested by Dr. Kempster, the superintendent of the Northern Hospital for the Insane. It is this: Construct two flues, of sufficient capacity, from each of the legislative halls, one near the floor, and the other near the ceiling, uniting them in one at a point above the level of the ceiling, and near the cupola of the rotunda carry the flue through the outer wall of the cupola and upward between the outer and inner walls to the second projection above the gallery connecting the Assembly and Senate chambers. Under that projection, make an opening to admit the impure air within the cupola and openings below the windows which rest on the summit, for the current to pass outward into

space. The volume of heated air that accumulates in the upper part of the cupola, whenever the building is warmed, would create a strong current through these openings and through the flues, by which the air in the legislative chambers might be changed as rapidly as desirable, and our legislators provided with healthful conditions in which to do their work. This plan, based upon calculations as to the volume of air necessary to secure ample ventilation, might be extended to every part of the building at a nominal cost.

THE NORTHERN HOSPITAL

For the Insane, at Oshkosh, is furnished with the most perfect appliances for water supply, sewerage, and ventilation, which we have. hitherto found in any of the public buildings of the state. The buildings were erected after a careful examination of the best structures of the kind in this country. The general plan, and each of the details, were studied with reference to its special adaptability to the purposes for which it was designed; and the arrangements for surrounding the patient with the healing forces of nature, in the best form attainable within a building, are each based upon scientific facts or deductions embodying the best results of experimental knowledge on that subject. The building is the largest in the state, consisting of a series of longitudinal and transverse wings on both sides of a center building; the whole being about 800 feet in length and three stories high, besides attic and basement. In the rear of the center building is located the boiler and engine fan room and gas house.

room,

This sewer is frequently

The main sewer, constructed of brick, elliptical in form, commences outside the building, and empties into the lake 1,700 feet distant, with a fall of nearly twenty feet. cleansed with a powerful stream of water, which prevents the possibility of accumulations. All the water closets, bath rooms, etc., discharge into cesspools located at convenient places in the base

ment.

These cesspools are so constructed as to be perfectly safe, and so covered as to be air-tight. The overflow from them is conducted through vitrified pipe into the main sewer. The volume of water flowing through them is so large that upon opening one of them there was scarcely any odor perceptible. Carried above the

roof for ventilation, and downward into one of these cesspools, and under water for its discharge, with a simple trap shaped like a crook at the lower end, is a five inch iron pipe for the water closet in each ward of the building. The water closet discharges directly into this pipe without any valve, trap or other device; and the contents are carried by water at once into the cesspool. It is the simplest and most effective water closet, because the least liable to permit the return of odor within the building, of any we have ever examined.

THE WATER SUPPLY

Is excellent and abundant. In addition to its stores of rain water, the institution has upon its grounds an artesian well of unlimited capacity. With a powerful steam pump, capable of supplying at once 14 fire-hose with water with a force that sent that number of streams through an ordinary sized nozzle above the roof of the hospita! buildings, the engineer was unable to draw water from this well with sufficient rapidity to effect its supply. An abundance of water is carried to every part of the building.

WARMING AND VENTILATION.

The buildings are warmed by steam and heated air. Through the main building, in which are located the executive department of the institution, officers' rooms, etc., steam coils and radiators are introduced wherever necessary; in the wards the required temperature is obtained by heated air. These buildings allow for each patient 1,200 cubic feet of space, independent of the halls and corridors; and the capacity of the means of ventilation was established on the basis of changing the entire volume of air within the buildings in 15 minutes. Established by scientific tests, this result has been accomplished.

The main flue for supplying the building with fresh air is in the basement opening into the fan room. It is six feet six inches high and ten feet wide. Opposite to the entrance of this flue are two fans, each twelve feet in diameter, the flanges being four feet six inches in length. These fans are propelled by steam power at the rate of fifty revolutions per minute, and carry into the mouth of the main flue 1,000 cubic feet of air at each revolution. Within the basement this main flue divides, one branch conducting