Principles of Pneumatics-Purity of the Upper Atmosphere. 209 by mechanical, or, perhaps, this should the fires in those at one end, to supply the be called chemical means. I wish to direct attention to a process more simple still. Instead of endeavoring to purify a contaminated atmosphere, I would, by mechanical agency, bring, where most needed, one already pure. Millions of men are compelled not only to work during the day, but to sleep during the night, in infected air, though there may be, within a few hundred feet of their apartments, an inexhaustible supply of the pure uncontaminated article to be had, if not for the asking, for the bringing, by very simple means. Air is known to be cooler, and believed-perhaps I might say known-to be purer the higher we ascend from the earth. Miasma, the great infecting substance, is known, by experience, to be more dangerous during night than the day. It is known, that men may remain, during the day, in a malarious district with impunity, provided they sleep at night in a salubrious atmosphere. vacuum, it is drawn down and through the rooms from those at the other, as, in cold weather, it is drawn whistling through the key-holes and other small apertures of our rooms while blazing fires are in the chimneys. Now let your sleeping apartments be made air-tight, and any common lathed and plastered room may be made close enough for this purpose. Let it be connected with one end of a tube, the other of which shall extend into the air to such an altitude as will reach a pure current. By means of fire, or some other propelling power, the air may be forced out of the room opposite the end where it enters through the tube, giving a pure circulation at such times as may be desired. The height to which the ventilating tube will have to be carried to reach a salubrious region must depend on experience, but I have no doubt, in most localities, it would be found at the upper extremity of such a mast as could be raised at a trifling expense. It is said to have been noticed, when the cholera was in Montreal, that meat became putrid in less time than usual; but some hung upon one of the steeples of the city escaped the rapid change. In some of the great plagues which have desolated most of the large cities of the world, their violence became mitigated in those subjects who occupied the upper stories of the houses. The well-known principles of pneumatics teach us, that air may be forced through a tube, of any length, from one point to another. We see this operation constantly performed by steam and other power. In the English coal mines, pure air is forced through them, from above ground, sometimes for miles, by the power of steam. In like manner, air is forced through tubes, to supply those working in diving bells. I learn, But suppose that neither by masts from the Génie. Industriel, through that nor towers nor other contrivance, we excellent paper, The Scientific Ameri- can penetrate the regions of purity, can, that the Northern Hospital of we know that in the neighborhood of France is ventilated in the following most miasmatic districts and large manner: "The air is taken from a towns are salubrious places, where the tower on the top of the building, so as air is healthy near the earth, and which to be always pure, and in summer cool. can be reached by horizontal tubes of It is sent inside in a quantity invariably sufficient extent. To perpendicular tubes, equal, and of the same power, by nu- the main objection is the uncertainty of merous apertures in the centre of the reaching an unadulterated region. To rooms, which it passes along from one horizontal, the expense only is to be consiend to the other, and issues by eighteen dered, purity can always be known. The orifices, without its action being neutral- expense would depend upon the distance ized by opening one or all the win- the air would have to be carried and dows." And we see it every day, by population to be supplied. The simplest human muscles, forced through the pipes material would answer for ventilating of hand and blacksmith's bellows. tubes, such as that of which our comSometimes fire is used as the most con- mon stone jugs are made, glass, and many venient propelling agent. The large other cheap substances. Even a comapartments of the British parliament- mon tunnel, or covered ditch, coated house are supplied with fresh air by this with a proper cement, with solid tubes agent, through ventilating chimneys. to span or pass through or under water, As it is expelled by the rarefaction of would, I have no doubt, dispense with any cost ten, twenty, or even forty times this sum per mile, in many places, it would be the best investment that could be made. When once laid, the tubes would need no repairs during the generation that might perform the task. As the air usually needs be forced through them during but a few months in the year, and at night only, the propelling power could cost but little. I have been considering the expense of bringing air from a distance of miles. If it can be reached by perpendicular tubes the expense may be considered of but small account compared to the benefits expected. other, except connecting tubes at each population of five or ten thousand should end. Such water as might percolate through the cement and collect at the lowest points could be let off in the daytime, or received through the valves of covered wells to be sunk at such places. And when we consider that the ditch, as a tube itself, or to receive a glass or other tubes, need be only of such depth as to secure it from injury, and give an equable temperature to the air; that it can follow the undulations of the earth's surface; and that covering with the earth would make the joints of the tubes air tight, the expense would be inconsiderable for the benefits that would be obtained in many towns and rich miasmatic districts, by the use of pure air thus brought from adjacent hills. When brought for the use of towns, in one common tube, the air could be distributed to the various dwellings in the way so common in the distribution of water. Each dwelling could have its own power to compel the circulation of the pure fluid, through its apartments; or by other pipes, connecting with one common reservoir or main tube, one power could be used for the whole town. The air approaching the town by a common trunk could be made to ramify so as to furnish every house requiring it, and then, by connecting with another, common to all, would make its exit by the force of a common power. In districts with a scattered population, a large common trunk for conducting, and small pipes for distributing the fluid through the neighborhood, might be used for all, but the power could not be common. To those who look on difficulties as impossibilities, judgment of condemnation has, no doubt, been pronounced by such as may have read thus far. But the considerate who will deliberately hear and investigate before condemning, will fairly consider the legitimate question, properly propounded, in all enterprises,Will it pay?" Will the advantages to be derived authorize the trouble and expense? No certain estimate of expenses can be made; but from what has been said, they would be inconsiderable. The nearest data in my power is the expense of under-draining wet lands by the use of tiles. In England they lay pipes one and a half inch bore three feet below the surface for less than sixty dollars per mile. If ventilating pipes of sufficient bore to serve a Individuals relying on fire for the moving power need expend no more for fuel than would be usual for warming their rooms in winter. In the French hospital before mentioned the most economical means-such as the use of hot water, stones, etc.-are used to warm the six wards of the establishment, costing during the winter $2,805, while the cost for ventilation during summer is but $935. Indeed, of so little account is the expense of ventilation for the "whole year," that it is estimated to "cost nothing," inasmuch as the steam engine used pays for itself in the performance of other services. Much more can we hope that steam or water-power, sufficient to ventilate the sleeping apartments of a large town during night and for a few months only, would cost almost nothing, as it could be used for mechanical purposes during the day without interruption. It is hardly necessary to notice that the ventilating fires could be placed in one of a suit of rooms, or the inmates so shielded as to protect them from uncomfortable heat in warm weather. If the expense of procuring the invaluable commodity be uncertain, but must be small, the benefits, when obtained, are likewise uncertain, but must be great. Great as is the value of pure air, it cannot be reduced to dollars and cents any more than health can be reduced to a money value. But we can make some estimate of its importance by considering its influence on property. Besides their profits to the stockholders, we estimate the worth of rail-roads by the enhanced value they give to contiguous property, and this is, to a country, the great and main element of wealth in those improvements. For every dollar they are valuable to their owners, they Artificial Ventilation-Preservation of Health. 211 are of ten to those who use them. Many the temperature could receive any modimillions worth of real estate, both in fication desired. A spiral tube passing town and country, would be doubled in through the water at the bottom of a value, could they be made secure against well, with ice added, if necessary, would the annual and occasional visitations of lower it, or through fire or other warm epidemics engendered by bad air. One medium, raise it sufficiently for all purtenth of the sums paid by those living poses of comfort or health. The same in such infected districts, for their annual fire might warm as well as expel the air migrations in search of salubrious air, from an apartment. This kind of venwould bring it to their permanent homes. tilation would be most used in warm laFor want of a few mouthfuls of pure titudes where insects are so annoying air, large tracts of the most fertile portions and sometimes dangerous to existence. of the globe now lie waste under the The air-tight sleeping apartments necesviewless poison that broods over their sary to exclude impure air would cut off teeming surfaces. these troublesome intruders. Artificial ventilation would protect, not only against periodical contaminations of the air, but those epidemics which run to and fro the earth on the trackless air, with woe and desolation in their train, might often be defied. Surrounded by the pure air brought from above, on the distant hills, the prudent citizen could, like Noah in his ark, be in security, while consternation reigned without. Besides the general preservation of health, the use of air in the way above indicated, might be made for other purposes hardly less valuable. It might be made a most efficient agent in the restoration, as well as preservation of health. In the way directly noticed, a patient could have his room, in summer as well as winter, of any desired temperature, could have a dry or moist atmosphere, and for the cure of many diseases, foreign particles might be added, carrying healing on its wings to diseased humanity. Dr. Cartwright, in the last December number of this Review, tells us how important the vapor of sugar boilers is in some fatal diseases. Instead of sending invalids thousands of miles from their comfortable homes to inhale the saccharine vapor amidst the discomforts of a sugar-house, a few canes, sent even to the coldest latitudes, with a very simple contrivance, added to the ventilating pipes before mentioned,might be made to infuse their healing particles, in graduated quantities, through the most luxurious apartments. Science would also come in for its share of benefits. It would test the power of various fluids to disinfect the air in its passage through them. By experience we could soon know to what height the air is usually contaminated with impurities, what pestilence walketh in darkness, and the destruction that wasteth at noonday, and many other secrets of the viewless and mysterious air. There can be no doubt but that more than half the ills which flesh is heir to are born of adulterations of the inoderous air. There is a plan by which this great source of human calamity may be greatly mitigated if not entirely exterminated; and though new, it does not rest on speculation. That air can be, and is moved from one place to another, is as certain as that water can be made to change its position; that it can be moved without being contaminated by the surrounding impure air is equally certain; and, I apprehend, no one will doubt that, whether breathed in a bedroom, on the hills, or two or three hundred feet from the earth, it is equally inoffensive to our lungs, and healthy to our systems. We form large companies with heavy capitals to supply our cities with gas, to send to the hills for pure water and distribute them through pipe to our houses. With much less expense the more necessary air might be brought to our rooms to be used like water by the turn of a faucet. We bore the solid earth It is manifest, this forced ventilation many hundred feet for water of a quamight be made to minister greatly to lity to suit our fancy, and by tubes conthe comfort, nay, the luxury of our race. duct it uncontaminated through interThe ventilating pipes should be laid so vening currents to our dwellings. With deep in the earth as to obtain an equable half the expense, and to half the numtemperature winter and summer. By ber of feet, we might tube the empty air passing them through proper mediums to those regions which would furnish a fluid whose purity is of as much, if not more importance, to our healthy existence, than unadulterated meat and drink. But the tell-tale impurities of food and drink usually give warning to the senses, the taint of corruption or adulteration is made manifest in their use, while the subtle poison may lurk concealed in the invisible and inodorous air, as the unconscious subject regularly, as the pulsations of his heart, inhales disease and death. We no doubt appreciate meat and drink the more because their use gives a sensible enjoyment or pain, while the tasteless air gives no indication of its quality. Knowing how most discoveries and improvements have surpassed the expectations of the most sanguine; how the propulsion of water-craft by steam power was considered a humbug from the time of Watt to the 7th of August, 1807, when those who went to deride remained to admire the facility with which the Clermont started on the first steam voyage up the Hudson river; how rail-roads, even after many miles, in the United States, had been put in operation, were pronounced failures by the croaking public, and how the theories of almost all projectors have, in the end, fallen short of practical results, no plausible improvement should be abandoned without a fair trial. I believe it was Theodore Hook who, when asked, on entering a university, if he was prepared to subscribe the thirtynine articles, replied, "Forty, if you please." So it seems we would be nearer right to expect more from the improvements of the day than what is required of us. For there is much yet to be known of which our philosophy has not dreamed. ART. III-THE CITY OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY. As incidents in the history of individual life form the basis of observational philosophy, so the histories of particular cities become the groundwork of the most accurate general system of mercantile investigation, or, as Saunderson expresses it, of "Merchandry." produced commercial wants-commercial wants, a city. In the year 1800 the population was... 66 The 600 4,000 21,000 50,000 The city of Louisville, in the State of Kentucky, is situated on the Ohio River, opposite the falls of the river, on a plain well suited to the purpose, about seventy feet above the level of the river, lon. The cities of America are distinguish- 85° 30' west; lat. 38° 3′ north. ed in a remarkable particular, in con- soil is sandy, extremely fertile, and restnection with the light they throw upon ing upon a substratum of rich clay. It the philosophy of trade and commerce, is laid out with considerable regularity, from the cities of Europe, growing out of the principal streets running parallel with the fact, that they are, almost without the river, and being intersected by others exception, the children of commercial at right angles. It has a present populanecessity. Cities in Europe have fre- tion of 51,726:quently grown up from other causes. The residence of kings, the salubrity of certain localities, and other romantic considerations, enter into the elements, and of course form a part of the history of European towns. But the history of an American city is a legible line in the history of trade. An American city, as a general rule, receives its birth, its continual growth and advancing prosperity from the one and common parent of commerce. To this general observation the city of Louisville is no exception. It became a town because of the falls. The falls in the Ohio river arrested the course of navigation, and made a stoppage there necessary. This stoppage 1820.. These are striking results. The first owners of the lands at the falls were John Campbell and John Conally. They were patented to them probably as bounty lands. But the first settlement having anything like a permanent character was made in 1778, by Col. G. R. Clark, a name of some distinction in the early history of Kentucky. Clark's instructions came from the celebrated Patrick Henry, the Gov. of Virginia, and are dated Virginia-Sct. In council, Williamsburg, Jan. 22, 1778. Early Character of Kentucky-Virginia Enactment. A few families were located by him upon Corn Island, opposite Louisville. Some conception of the nature of the danger and singular hardihood of the early settlers of this state may be derived from the fact, that these few families were removed into the heart of an Indian territory, several hundred miles from the nearest point of protection from their countrymen, and when the intervening country was filled with a savage foe. 213 acre each, with convenient streets, and public lots, which shall be, and the same is hereby established a town by the name of Louisville." Thus, we perceive, the city of Louisville in the county of Kentucky became a town by authority of the General Assembly of the State of Virginia. The statute proceeds further to enact "that after the said lands shall be laid off into lots and streets, the said trustees, or any four of them, shall proceed to There is probably no country in the sell the said lots, or so many of them as world where the lovers of local or indivi- they shall judge expedient, at public aucdual adventure-the contests of man tion, for the best price that can be had, with his savage brother in the fierce ex- the time and place of sale being advercitement of the individual death struggle, tised two months at the court-house of with all its thrilling but minute particu- adjacent counties; the purchasers respeclars, can be gratified to the same extent, tively to hold their said lots subject to the both in the number and excitement of condition of building on each a dwellingthe incidents, as in the State of Kentucky. house, sixteen feet by twenty at least, The early settlement of the country was with a brick or stone chimney, to be characterized by conflicts between indi- finished within two years from the day of vidual members of the two distinct sale." The statute proceeded to grant races, or by small parties of each, rather the amount of sale of lots over thirty dolthan by any one general decisive en- lars per acre to purposes of public imgagement by which wars are usually terminated. But the Kentucky war was a war of extermination, more properly carried on by the individual members of the two races, than by any decisive settlement of subsisting disagreements in a general fight. It was a war ever beginning, and never ending. In no country in the world probably have human beings shot down human beings with a more evident gusto and more complete absence of remorseful visitings of conscience. The following passages from an enactment of the General Assembly ofVirginia, passed in May, 1780, for "establishing the town of Louisville at the falls of Ohio," may not be without interest. provement in the town, and to vest in the trustees the judicial power "to settle and determine all disputes concerning the bounds of the said lots; to settle such rules and orders for the regular building thereon as to them shall seem best and most convenient." An important feature of the early geography of Louisville, was the many ponds of standing water, that so materially contributed to give the place the cognomen of the grave-yard. The first and most conspicuous, commencing at the present corner of Market-street, ran to Sixteenth-street. The next in size was known as Grayson's Pond, beginning on Centre-street, and running towards Seventh-street. The fish within this "Whereas sundry inhabitants of the pond, its clear water, its edges covered county of Kentucky have, at a great ex- with firm grassy turf, the many relipense and hazard, settled themselves gious services of baptism performed upon certain lands at the falls of Ohio, in it, and the many promenades around said to be the property (thus reads the act) it, evening and morning, by the élite of of John Conally, and have laid off a con- the city, made it quite a favorite; but it siderable part thereof into half-acre lots has given way in the progress of the for a town, and having settled thereon, city's wealth, and is now obliterated. have preferred petitions to this general Besides these, there were others of less assembly to establish the said town. Be magnitude scattered over the face of the it therefore enacted, that one thousand country, that would well entitle the city, acres of land, being the forfeited property in the language of Mr. Cassedy, to be of said John Conally, adjoining to the called an "archipelago, a sea full of litlands of John Campbell and Richard tle islands." These "have all been Taylor, be and the same is hereby vested carefully drained, or filled up, and now in (sundry trustees) to be by them, or any the city will stand a favorable comparifour of them, laid off into lots of half an son in this regard, so closely connected |