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High School Architecture.

BY T. L. HEATON, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

OUR' letter making inquiry regarding high school organization and the plan for a new building has been received, and its contents carefully considered. I send you sketches of plans and such suggestions as I think may be of value to

Ventilating and heating should be combined in the same system, so that warm fresh air is supplied to the rooms. If hot water or steam coils are placed in the

rooms, they simply warm the air that is there already, but do not in any manner purify it. If cold air is then introduced from outside for ventilation, it must unduly chill some parts of the room before it can come in contact with the coils and be warmed. Warm, fresh air may be supplied to the rooms by a warm air furnace, or by passing fresh air over hot water or steam coils in the basement. Hot, or superheated air should never be used. Of these three methods, the warm air furnace is cheapest in the end; hot water or steam soon rusts out iron pipes. Furnace or furnaces should be of sufficient size to supply a large amount of moderately heated air. At least thirty cubic feet per minute is needed for each occupant of the room. This should enter above the blackboard from a register at least two by three feet;

being lighter than the air of the room it will rise to the ceiling and disperse over the entire room, and make its exit at the foul air duct below.

There should be two fresh air shafts for each furnace. These should come from opposite directions and be supplied with "shut-off," so that the one may be used which gives the best results for the wind prevailing at the time. If there is but one duct and a strong wind is blowing into it, so great is the draught forced thru the heating apparatus, that cold air will be furnished to the rooms. But if there are two ducts, open the one away from the wind, and a sufficient quantity of warm air will be supplied.

The difference in weight between warm air and cold air will generally give enough ventilation with such a furnace. Yet there will always be some days when direction of wind, or other causes, will interfere with air currents. For such occasions a fan (plenum system) should be used to drive the air. This fan can be run by an electric moter at small cost. It will as often be needed in warm weather as in cold. In hot weather the air in the school room is about the same weight as that outside, so that little change will take place on account of gravity. If there is a good breeze, ventilating will be effected by doors and windows, but on a still day the air in crowded rooms will become very impure, even with all the windows open. On such days the fan will force a draught. If the fresh air room in the basement is divided by a burlap screen, kept moist by a perforated water pipe, the air drawn thru this by the fan will be cooled, moistened, and freed from dust. The rooms will thus be supplied with air several degrees lower in temperature than that outside.

The cloak rooms need ventilating as well as warming. Damp wraps should be

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dried and the oders from them carried out of the building. Halls should be warmed from registers in the floor, so that children, especially girls, may dry damp feet or clothing. One of the best warm air heating and ventilating systems is made in San Francisco. It will probably cost from $2000 to $2500 for Plan I or II.

The light should be from the left of the children and from the long side of the room. If on dark days still more light is needed, it should be admitted from the rear. Windows should extend as nearly as possible to the ceiling, and window area should be one-fifth the floor space. In your climate, canvas awnings should be put on all windows facing east, south and west. They shut out the glare of the sun, but permit windows to be opened so as to get the benefit of the breeze that may be blow

ing. Inside blinds, in shutting out the glare of the sun, shut out too much light; at the same time prevent ventilation by open windows. Windows should be supplied with translucent shades, running up and down from about one-third the height of the window. The shade, thus divided, permits the lower portion to be pulled down so as to moderate the light for those near the window, while those sitting farther off get sufficient light from the upper portion of the window. Window shades should never be drawn past an opening of the window, as the wind soon whips the shade to pieces. Translucent shades should be light green. Windows are sometimes put into a building for the architectural effect which are not ordinarily needed for lighting. Such windows should be provided with heavy opaque shades, and draped with

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The Western Journal of Education.

heavy cloth curtains, thus shutting out all the light. On a few very dark days, such windows may be needed for the lighting of the schoolroom. In the sketches here given the barred windows are to be so darkened.

Walls should never be pure white, but of a light shade of gray, blue, or green, rough finish is better than smooth. Wood work should not be varnished, as reflection from such surface is nearly as bad on the eyes as strong light from windows. School desks, also, should have a dead finish.

I should recommend the assembly room for a small high school. In this room each pupil has a separate desk where he keeps his books and does his studying. From this room classes are sent out to smaller rooms for recitations. At the close of recitation they again return to the assembly room. This passing of classes gives a

a little relaxation and fits them for taking up the next work. If a school is arranged

on the assembly room plan the class rooms may be rather small, as they are needed for recitations only. They should, however, be provided with desks, as written work is often an essential. An assembly room is particularly important in the management of the school. Here the principal may talk to all at once, arouse in them a proper pride in their school, and develop the esprit decorps, which is the most important factor in government. The morning exercises consisting of singing, remarks by the principal, or reading of some choice selection of literature, puts the pupils in proper spirit for the day's work. All general exercises, such as lectures, rhetoricals, and debates, will be conducted in the assembly room. With a school of four or more teachers, the program may be so arranged that one will always have a vacant period to take charge of study in the assembly room. With fewer teachers some of the smaller classes will be heard in the assembly room. As far as possible,

however, this room should be quiet for study. A room forty by fifty-five feet will be sufficient to seat one hundred and sixty pupils, and leave space for reference table and book shelves. Here should be kept all that portion of the library which the

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pupils will consult during school hours. These books are then used only under the eye of the teacher. The assembly room should be fifteen to twenty feet high and face the north, as this gives the best light for study. The windows in this room should extend to the ceiling, as the high light carries farthest. It is doubtful if an assembly room can be successfully used for study in a large high school. Such room, however, may be compactly seated and used for those occasions when it is desirable to bring the whole school together in a body.

The recitation rooms should be so placed as to consume the least time in the passing of classes. For hygienic reasons, as well as for economy of time, it is best to have the assembly room and recitation rooms on the same floor. The walls between the rooms should be so deadened as to prevent the passing of sound. There should be abundance of blackboard in class rooms, and windows so grouped as not to waste blackboard space. Blackboard between windows is useless. Stone slate makes the best black boards, requires no repair, improves with each year of use, will last as long as the brick wall, and costs but little more than imitations. It should have uniformly smooth surface, and be not less that three-eighths of an inch in thickness.

The laboratories may be in the basement or in a small building outside, connected to the main building by a covered walk. There is perhaps less danger of fire if the chemistry laboratory is outside the main building. This danger is, however, largely removed if the laboratory has cement or bitumen floor, and the gas for the laboratory is so arranged that it can be shut off at the close of each day's work. The greatest danger of fire here is that the blue flame of the Bunsen burner is easily overlooked and a jet may be left burning, in time heating the burner,melting off the rubber tube, and then setting fire to adjacent wood-work. The laboratories should be large and tables arranged around the sides next the windows. The chemical laboratory should have raised seats for recitation purposes, and a supply room. A dark room is a great convenience. Each two students should be provided with water, and a small ventilating hood. In addition there should be a large ventilating hood under which to perform experiments producing noxious fumes. The physical laboratory should be supplied with water and gas. The lecture room should have raised seats facing the teachers demonstration table, and contains cases of apparatus not used in the laboratory. This room should have solid inside blinds, or very heavy shades, so that it may be darkened. It should be provided with gas, water and electricity. There should be black boards in the lecture room and chemical laboratory.

With good sewer system the closets may be in

the basement of the building. The vault of the closet should be ventilated with a down draught, and the upper part of the vault connected with a flue containing a small heater. When there is fire in the heater, all the odors will be drawn up the flue. The vault should be made of cement, and either self-flushing, or be flushed noon and night by the janitor.

The central portion of the building being higher than the wings, will admit of two good rooms being built above the office, library and hall. The inner hall is lighted by a skylight. This building will accommodate one hundred and sixty pupils and five or six teachers. Plan II gives nearly the same number of rooms but will