The experimental plant of the New York State Commission on Ventilation

Abstract

The physiological investigations of the last twenty years have indicated that the ordinarily observed results produced by the air of crowded unventilated rooms are due to thermal rather than chemical conditions, high room temperatures producing serious physiological derangements, while the chemical constituents of the air of such rooms appear not to exert any measurable effects. For the further study of the reactions of the body to moderately high room temperatures, and for a more exhaustive investigation of possibly undetected chemical influences, the New York State Commission on Ventilation has equipped an experimental plant in rooms courteously placed at its disposal by the trustees of the College of the City of New York.

Since the effects to be observed would naturally be slight, it was necessary to provide a plant on a large enough scale for the observation of a number of subjects over considerable periods of time. On the other hand, since we were dealing not with calorimeter experiments but merely with the effects of ordinary atmospheric conditions upon the human body, it was not essential that these atmospheric conditions should be regulated within closer limits than those attainable under the best practical conditions.

The observation room of the plant is ten feet by fourteen feet and ten feet high and is insulated with two inches of cork board and a half inch coating of cement with a smooth white cement finish. A skylight at the top is fitted with three sashes and the room is entered through three doors with air chambers between. The subjects may be observed from the apparatus room through a window. Air may be supplied to the observation room through one or more of four 12-inch openings in a 12 × 18 inch vertical duct and may be exhausted from a similar duct at the other end of the same side of the room. The air flow is measured at the inlet by a meter specially designed for the purpose.