PLAN OF DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE, BY MR. G. B. EMERSON. 545 country town in New York or New England, from whose woods and ineadows a hundred kinds of flowers might not be transplanted, of beauty enough to form the chief ornament of a German or English garden, which are now neglected only because they are common and wild. Garden flowers need not be excluded; and if either these or the former are cultivated, the great object, to present something to refine and inform the taste, will be, in some degree, accomplished. If proper inclosed play-grounds are provided, the master may often be present at the sports, and thus become acquainted with the character, of his pupils. If children are compelled to resort to the highway for their amusements, we ought not to wonder that they should be contaminated by the vices, brawlings, and profanities, which belong to frequenters of highways. Size.--The room should be sufficiently large to allow every pupil, 1. to sit comfortably at his desk; 2. to leave it without disturbing any one else; 3. to see explanations on his lessons, and to recite without being incommoded or incommoding others; 4. to breathe a wholesome atmosphere. If the first three objects are fully provided for, the space on the floor will be sufficient. But to secure the advantage of an adequate supply of air, the room must be not less than 10, and, if possible, 12 or 14, feet high. Arrangement.-For the accommodation of 56 scholars, so as to give ample room for moving, for recitations, and for air, the dimensions of the house should be 38 feet by 25, and 10 feet in height within. This will allow an entry of 14 feet by 71, lighted by a window, to be furnished with wooden pegs for the accommodation of clothes; a wood-room, 10 feet by 7, to serve also as an entry for girls at recess, or as a recitation room; a space behind the desks 8 feet wide, for fireplace, passage, and recitations, with permanent seats against the wall 10 or 11 inches wide; a platform, 7 feet wide, for the teacher, with the library, blackboards, globes, and other apparatus for teaching; the remaining space to be occupied by the desks and seats of the schol ars. For every additional 8 scholars the room may be lengthened 2 feet. The desks and seats for scholars should be of different dimensions. A desk for two may be 3 or 4 feet long. If the younger children are placed nearest the master's desk, the desks in the front range may be 13 inches wide, the two next 14, the two next 15, and the two most remote 16, with the height, respectively, of 24, 25, 26, and 27 inches. The seats should vary in like manner. Those in the front range should be 10 inches wide, in the two next 10, in the two next 11, in the two last 11 or 12; and 13, 14, 15, and 16 inches, respectively, high. All edges and corners are to be carefully rounded. It is very desirable that the north end of the school-house be occupied by the master's desk; that this end be a dead wall; that the front be towards the south; and that the desks be so placed that the pupils, as they sit at them, shall look towards the north. The advantages of this arrangement are, 1. that the scholars will obtain more correct ideas upon the elements of geography, as all maps suppose the reader to be looking northward; 2. the north wall, having no windows, will exclude the severest cold of winter; 3. the scholars will, in this case, look towards a dead wall, and thus avoid the great evil of facing a glare of light; or, if a window or two be allowed in the north wall, the light coming from that quarter is less vivid, and, therefore, less dangerous, than that which comes from any other; 4. the door, being on the south, will open towards the winds which prevail in summer, and from the cold winds of winter. If, from necessity, the house must front northward, the master's desk should be still in the north end of the room, and the scholars, when seated, look in that direction. The end of the room occupied by the master should be fitted with shelves for a library and for philosophical apparatus and collections of natural curios ities, such as rocks, minerals, plants, and shells, for globes and for blackboards. The books, apparatus, and collections should be concealed and protected by doors, which may be made perfectly plain and without panels, so as to be painted black and serve as blackboards. They may be conveniently divided by pilasters into three portions, the middle one for books, the others for apparatus and collections. On one of the pilasters may be the clock; on the other a barometer and thermometer; on shelves in the corners, the globes, and over the library in the center, the study card. One of the pilasters may form part of the ventilating tube. The master's platform may be raised eight inches. For all these purposes, the space in front of the ranges of scholars' desks, should be not less than seven or eight feet wide; ten or twelve would be much better. The sides and front of this space hould be furnished with seats ten or eleven inches wide, for recitation. By means of a large movable blackboard, this space may be, in case of need, converted into two, so that two classes may recite at a time. In a school intended to accommodate more than 64 pupils, there ought also to be a space for recitation in the south end of the room, separable by movable blackboards into two. The entry should be lighted by a window, and be furnished with wooden or iron pins for the accommodation of hats, bonnets, and cloaks; and there should be a woodcloset large enough to contain two or three cords of wood, which may, if it is preferred, be used as a recitation room. Movable Blackboard. By making the ceiling of the entry and wood-closet only seven feet high, two commodious rooms for recitation may be formed above them, lighted from the window over the front door, and accessible by stairs from within the school-room. Warming. In a suitable position, pointed out in the plates, near the door, let a common brick fireplace be built. Let this be inclosed, on the back and on each side, by a casing of brick, leaving, between the fireplace and the casing, a space of four or five inches, which will be heated through the back and jambs. Into this space let the air be admitted from beneath by a box 24 inches wide and 6 or 8 deep, leading from the external atmosphere by an opening beneath the front door, or at some other convenient place. The brick casing should be continued up as high as six or eight inches above the top of the fireplace, where it may open into the room by lateral orifices, to be commanded by iron doors, through which the heated air will enter the room. If these are lower, part of the warm air will find its way into the fireplace. The brick chimney should Fireplace. A. Horizontal section. B. Perpendicular section. c. Brick walls, 4 inches thick. d. Air space between the walls. e. Solid fronts of masonry. f. Air box for supply of fresh air, extending beneath the floor to the front door. g. Openings on the sides of the fire. place, for the heated air to pass into the room. h. Front of the fireplace and mantelpiece, i. Iron smoke flue, 8 inches diameter. j. Space between the fireplace and wall. tition wall. . Floor. Par PLAN OF DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE, BY MR. G. B. EMERSON. 547 rise at least two or three feet above the hollow back, and may be surmounted by a flat iron, soap-stone, or brick top, with an opening for a smoke-pipe, which may be thence conducted to any part of the room. The smoke-pipe should rise a foot, then pass to one side, and then over a passage, to the opposite extremity of the room, where it should ascend perpendicularly, and issue above the roof. The fireplace should be provided with iron doors, by which it may be completely closed. The advantages of this double fireplace are, 1. the fire, being made against brick, imparts to the air of the apartment none of the deleterious qualities which are produced by a common iron stove, but gives the pleasant heat of an open fireplace; 2. none of the heat of the fuel will be lost, as the smoke-pipe may be extended far enough to communicate nearly all the heat contained in the smoke; 3. the current of air heated within the hollow back, and constantly pouring into the room, will diffuse an equable heat throughout every part; 4. the pressure of the air of the room will be constantly outward, little cold will enter by cracks and windows, and the fireplace will have no tendency to smoke; 5. by means of the iron doors, the fire may be completely controlled, increased or diminished at pleasure, with the advantages of an air-tight stove. For that purpose, there must be a valve or slide near the bottom of one of the doors. If, instead of this fireplace, a common stove be adopted, it should be placed above the air-passage, which may be commanded by a valve or register in the floor, so as to admit or exclude air. Ventilation.-A room warmed by such a fireplace as that just described, may be easily ventilated. If a current of air is constantly pouring in, a current of the same size will rush out wherever it can find an outlet, and with it will carry the impurities wherewith the air of. an occupied room is always charged. For the first part of the morning, the open fireplace may suffice. But this, though a very effectual, is not an economical ventilator; and when the issue through this is closed, some other must be provided. The most effective ventilator for throwing out foul air, is one opening into a tube which incloses the smokeflue at the point where it passes through the roof. Warm air naturally rises. If a portion of the smoke-flue be inclosed by a tin tube, it will warm the air within this tube, and give it a tendency to rise. If, then, a wooden tube, opening near the floor, be made to communicate, by its upper extremity, with the tin tube, an upward current will take place in it, which will always act whenever the smoke-flue is warm. [Scale 8 feet to an inch.] Ventilating Apparatus. It is better, but not absolutely essential, that the opening into the wooden tube be near the floor. The carbonic acid thrown out by the A. Air box, 1 foot square, or 24 inches by 6, lungs rises, with the warm breath, covered by the pilaster, and opening at the floor, and the perspirable matter from the 15 inches in diameter, being a continuation of in the base of the pilaster. B. Round iron tube skin, with the warm, invisible va- the air box, through the center of which passes por, to the top of the room. There C. The smoke flue, 8 inches in diameter. D both soon cool, and sink towards Caps to keep out the rain. the floor; and both carbonic air and the vapor bearing the perspirable matter are pretty rapidly and equally dif fused through every part of the room. Seats and Desks.-Instead of a seat and desk for each pupil, Mr. Emerson recommends that two seats should be contiguous. In his drawings, the desk is perfectly level like a table, and the back to the seat is perpendicular. |