APPENDIX "B."

PLANS FOR SCHOOL HOUSES.

No. 1.

The following plan for a district school room originally appeared in the second volume of the "Ohio School Journal," edited by Dr. Lord, Superintendent of the common schools of Columbus, Ohio. It will be found well adapted to the accommodation of a school numbering not over fifty pupils.

AC-Entries 8 feet square, one for each sex.

B-Library and apparatus room, 8 by 9 feet, which may be used for a recitation room for small sized classes.

T-Teacher's platform, 13 by 5 feet, eight inches high, supplied with a table where he can place his books of reference, &c., and all apparatus while used in teaching a class. Behind this platform, on the wall, should be a blackboard 1.3 feet long by 4 wide.

DDDD-Inside and outside doors.

EEE E-Recitation seats; those on the sides fixed against the wall, those in front of the platform having backs and being movable.

FFF-Free space at least two feet wide, next the wall on three sides of the room.

G-Desk for two pupils, four feet long by 18 inches wide. H-Seat for two pupils, four feet long by 13 inches wide. [The letters G and H are not represented in the cut, but the white parallelograms represent the seats and those with dark lines across them, are the desks.] The seats should be so arranged that the pupils will sit facing the teacher when in his chair on the plat

form.

I-Centre aisle, two feet wide, with one aisle on each side of same width.

The area, on either side and in front of the teacher's platform, is intended for any class exercises in which the pupils stand; and the space next the wall may be used to arrange the greater part of the school as one class in any general exercise requiring it.

Four windows are represented on each side of the house, and two on the end opposite the teacher's stand. The door of the library room opens from one of the entries, and the room is lighted by a window in the front end of the house. The windows should be furnished with outside or inside blinds-the latter are preferable. If these are deemed too costly, curtains should be provided.

The teacher's platform should be furnished with a table and chair, for the use of the teacher. Chairs should also be provided for the accommodation of persons visiting the school.

The stove for warming the room may be placed in front of the teacher's platform, between the movable seats and the front desks, and the pipe should be carried across the room to a chimney or

flue running up between the two windows in the back end of the

room.

A ventilating flue should also be constructed adjoining the smoke flue and communicating with it before it reaches the roof. The heat from the smoke flue will rarify the air in the ventilating flue, materially accelerating the escape of the foul air from the school room, and the smoke and vitiated air will both escape from the same chimney above the roof. This ventilating flue should be brought down to the floor of the school room, and be at least one foot square, with one opening in it near the floor and another near the ceiling, each so arranged that they can be kept open or closed as circumstances may require. The upper sash of the windows should be so arranged that they can be lowered.

Fresh air may be supplied by an opening in the floor under the stove, supplied with a tube leading beneath the floor through the outside wall of the building. This mode of admitting air is preferable to opening a door or window, as no pupil will be exposed to a current of cold air rushing into the room; for the air admitted through the tube beneath the stove comes directly in contact with the hot air about the stove and thus becomes warm before it circulates through the room. This air tube should have a register which may be opened or closed at pleasure.

The ceiling of a school room of the above size should be twelve feet high, so as to allow about 175 cubic feet of air to each pupil supposing the school to number fifty.

As this plan is designed for the accommodation of a school composed of scholars varying in age from four to twenty years, it must not be forgotten that the seats and desks must be of different height and width, and so constructed that both old and young may sit and use their desks at ease.

Seats, of at least four different dimensions, should be provided in every school room composed of scholars of all ages, as above mentioned, as shown in the following scale:

Figure 1, represents one half of the top of a desk, the upper portion of which, except three inches of the most distant, slopes one inch in a foot. The edge of the desk is in the same perpendicular line as the front of the seat. The upper or back portion of the desk has a groove (a) running along the line of the slope, to prevent pencils or other articles from rolling off; an opening (b,) back of the groove, to receive a slate; and an opening (c,) to receive an inkstand. There should be a shelf beneath the desk, for books, &c., as represented by

Figure 2. This also represents the proper inclination of the seat, its back, and the top of the desk.

The above plan represents a house designed for two schools onthe same floor. It is drawn on a scale of one-tenth of an inch sto the foot. The building is 46 by 31 feet outside. There are two doors in the front end opening into the entries E E, which communicate with the school room.

R.-Room for small scholars, 18 by 124 feet, lighted by one large window in front. This room should have a black-board extending entirely across the partition wall between it and the large school