VII. LIGHTING. Though the lighting of schools has not received the stress in regulations and statutes that hygienists claim it deserves, the aspects of the matter regarded in different States have been to a considerable extent the same, thus making a tabular presentation of some value. Light ratio. Students of school hygiene have, as a rule, decided on 1 to 5 as the proper ratio of window area to floor area, and legislative enactments and administrative rules have usually followed this minimum. The standards in different States, so far as established, are exhibited below: 1 to 4-Virginia. 1 to 5-Indiana (if light is from the north), Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio (study, class, and recitation rooms, and laboratories), Pennsylvania, Vermont (1 to 4 recommended). 1 to 6-Indiana, Texas. 1 to 7-Louisiana, Montana (all schools). 1 to 10-Ohio (play, toilet, and recreation rooms). It is not infrequent to find "actual glass area" mentioned instead of "window area." North Dakota permits the use of reflecting lenses to offset a deficiency in actual lighting area; New Jersey will allow a 10 per cent deficiency to be corrected by the use of prism glass in the upper sash. Direction of light.-Under the head of "Direction of light" a number of possible rules may be taken up. Children must not sit facing a window (Delaware, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas). A stronger provision is for light from the left, or left and rear only (New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia). Montana's law for light is from left and rear. Indiana is the only State which has gone to the logical limit in protecting the eyes of both pupils and teachers by permitting light only from the left, except for left-handed students. This exception is without force obviously, since nowhere have left-handers been segregated. Minnesota and Texas have also gone some distance toward unilateral lighting, but in Minnesota exception is made of those unusual classrooms over 24 feet wide. Texas demands that the main light come from the left in all 1-room schools, and in larger schools as nearly as architectural demands and the systems of ventilation will permit. The Minnesota Department of Education is the only body that has referred in regulations to the points of the compass from which light should come. This solitary instance in itself is evidence of the disagreement that still obtains among those who have thought and written so much on this particular subject. The Minnesota regulation is: Buildings shall be so placed that each room, except such as may be herein specified, shall receive sunlight during some part of the day. Laboratories, manual training rooms, rooms for mechanical and freehand drawing, and other rooms not continuously used for recitation and study, may be lighted from the north. Light from the east is most desirable. Light from the west holds second place. Light from the north as well as from the south should be avoided in school rooms and study rooms. Height of windows.-Closely allied to direction of light and light ratio is the height of the windows. Hygienic considerations apply especially to the height of their tops. Minnesota, South Dakota, and Vermont require that the windows shall approach as near the ceiling as possible under the usual architectural limitations. Indiana and Montana make the permissible difference in height of ceiling and of windows not over 1 foot. Ohio makes it 8 inches, Texas reduces it to 6. It is apparent, nevertheless, that however close windows may come to the ceiling, a low ceiling in a broad room will prevent proper lighting. Hence we find in Ohio that the height of the window head above the floor must always be 40 per cent of the width of the room, if lighting is unilateral. And in Texas no part of a study hall or classroom is to be further from the window than twice the height of the window from the floor, except where adequate skylights are provided. The height of the window sill from the floor may also be of hygienic significance if the room is ventilated by windows. No maximum distance from the floor is given in any State, but the minimum is 4 feet in Indiana and Vermont, 3 in Texas. Interior color scheme.-The color of walls, ceilings, and window shades is deserving of far more attention than it has so far received. Indiana directs that the shades shall be of some neutral color, "as blue, gray, slate, buff, or green." In Vermont they are to be gray or buff, two for each window, hung in the center, so that either the lower or the upper half may be shaded. Minnesota has nothing on color, but has declared that translucent rather than opaque shades shall be used. Indiana takes ground for a neutral color for walls and ceilings also, such as "gray, slate, buff, or green." Vermont requires light gray, buff, or greenish walls. Miscellaneous.-Among the miscellaneous provisions there are some interesting clauses from the Ohio statutes on exposure and artificial lighting. No room containing windows for lighting any schoolroom shall be nearer than 30 feet to any opposite building, structure, or property line, nor may windows used for lighting schoolrooms open on courts, unless the wall of the court opposite such windows is at a distance equal to the height from the lowest window sill to the top of the wall of the building. This insures that direct light may come from an angle not over 45° from the horizontal. A similar condition is secured as to areaways for lighting basement windows, by requiring that the width of the area shall be equal to the height from the lowest window sill to the adjoining grade line. In Indiana, whenever any external object interferes with the proper lighting of a schoolroom, prism glass is to be used for the proper projection and diffusion of the light. New Jersey and South Dakota have tried to guard against cross shadows by directing that windows be as close together as possible. Indiana confines ceilings within the limits of 12 to 14 feet, and does not permit rooms over 25 feet wide. The window sash shall not have over four lights, and the tops of all windows shall be square. If gas is used in Ohio schools there shall be a minimum of one 3-foot burner Per 15 square feet floor area in auditoriums and gymnasiums. Per 12 square feet floor area in class and recitation rooms. Burners shall be placed 7 feet above the floor line and on fixtures that do not move or swing. If electricity is used there shall be a minimum of 1 candlepower Per 21 square feet floor area in auditoriums and gymnasiums. Per 4 square feet floor area in halls and stairways. Per 2 square feet floor area in class and recitation rooms. Indiana is less precise, but calls for fixtures for artificial lighting to be placed near the ceiling and the rays to be deflected upward by proper shades. 4 5 VIII. HEATING. In this section the apparatus employed for heating will be ignored as far as possible, that the subject of ventilation may be left for consideration at its proper place. The consequence is that provisions affecting heating will be found unusually homogeneous. The primary concern is the temperature of the various rooms. This is to be kept at 70° F. in all sorts of weather in Delaware,1 Idaho, Indiana,3 Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania,R South Dakota," and Vermont.10 The statutes of two of these States speak of the "average" temperature as 70°, but the meaning of "average" is doubtful. Possibly it means at some reasonable height above the floor. The required temperature in Montana applies only to schools in towns with over 1,000 population. In Massachusetts it applies to corridors as well as rooms. Ohio makes a differentiation between rooms." The heating system there must be able to maintain in all corridors, hallways, playrooms, toilet rooms, recreation rooms, assembly rooms, gymnasiums, and manual training rooms a uniform temperature of 65° in zero weather; but all other parts of the building must be kept up to 70°. An exception is made, however, in favor of rooms with one or more open sides, used for open-air schools. Indiana covers emergencies for which no one may be responsible by providing that if the temperature falls to 60° or below without immediate prospect of 70° F. being attained, the school shall be dismissed.12 The North Dakota law merely reads that the fresh air shall be warmed to 70° F.13 The jacketed stove.-The abuses that arose a generation ago from seating pupils adjacent to a direct source of heat have largely been abolished; they went with the unjacketed stove. This insanitary contrivance has been disposed of in many States by modern requirements regarding ventilation which the unjacketed stove can not meet. But in a few cases actual prohibitory legislation or ruling has been judged necessary. Indiana demands a jacket of two sheets not less than three-fourths of 1 inch apart.14 The outer sheet is to 1 Rule State Bd. of Health, Sixteenth Bien. Rep. State Bd. of Health, p. 72. consist of heavy galvanized iron, or other equally durable material, and to be lined with sheet asbestos; the inner jacket shall be of tin or some "equally efficient" metal. The jacket is to extend to the floor and be not less than 3 inches from the stove. Pennsylvania demands merely some sort of a jacket.1 Delaware permits the alternative of jacketing the stove or seating pupils at least 6 feet away from it. In South Dakota no plans will be approved by the State superintendent unless stoves have a metal jacket extending 1 foot or 2 feet above the stove, with arches around the bottom extending 8 or 10 inches from the floor. All ventilating stoves in Ohio schools (and ventilation is required in every school) must have a jacket of galvanized or black iron, extending from a point 4 inches above the stove to the cast-iron tray on which the stove stands. This tray must be 3 inches high and of the same size as the inclosing jacket. North Dakota tries to abolish the unjacketed stove by State aid. Minnesota uses the same force to secure a shield of Russia iron or copper-plated steel, with a lining of asbestos and an inside lining of tin, with an ample air space between. Such a shield must stand 6 inches away from the stove and the lower edge must be not less than 12 inches above the floor.5 Miscellaneous.-Pupils are to be protected from drafts, too, according to a few provisions. Vermont and Massachusetts forbid drafts which result in differences of over 3° in temperature between any points on the breathing zone of the room. All sources of heat must be so jacketed in buildings hereafter constructed in Texas that desks near the source of heat shall not be more than 5° hotter than those on the distant side of the room, and systems of heating either classrooms or study halls shall be equipped with a regulator which will automatically control the temperature of the room to within 2° of any set standard. If windows are relied upon for ventilation in Pennsylvania, they must be equipped with some device to protect pupils from currents of cold air. The Indiana law prohibits direct radiation in study rooms, but it may be used in halls, offices, laboratories, and manual training rooms. The Vermont Board of Health has advised that if the building is of wood, it can be made warm by using heavy building paper or filling in between the sheathing and lath with clean, dry sawdust. Pennsylvania requires a thermometer in every schoolroom or recitation room. 1 School Code, p. 42. Bien. Rep. Supt. Pub. Instr., 1910-12, p. 159. * State Building Code, Part 3, title 10, sec. 1, 3. State Aid to Consolidated, Graded, and Rural Schools. Bull. No. 40, Dept. of Pub. Instr. Law effective July 1, 1913. |