The New York Rapid-transit Subway

Proceedings.] CORRESPONDENCE ON NEW YORK SUBWAY. Transit Company to make a study of the sanitary condition of the Dr. Soper, air and ventilation of subways in Europe, a task which occupied about 3 months in the summer of 1907. During this final investi- gation, practically all the large subways in Europe were visited. The principal results of the inquiry were the following. The air of the New York subway did not differ much from the air of most subways, as far as he was aware, except as to temperature and dust. The temperature was high because of the extraordinarily large amount of heat generated by the consumption of electrical energy; the heat from the bodies of the passengers had practically nothing to do with it. The most objectionable feature of the heat was less the actual elevation of temperature than the fact that the subway remained warm continually while the city streets became relatively cool during the nights and mornings of summer. It was at such times that the greatest inconvenience was experienced from the heat. In winter the heat given off by the trains was advantageous, since, if low temperatures occurred they would, with the strong draughts, render the air uncomfortable. The hottest week during the period of the writer’s investigation was that of the 4th- 10th August, 1905. The average daily temperature in the subway during that week was 83 -4° F.; in the streets 78-2°; difference 5-2°. Averages for 18 weeks were given in Fig. 24. The relative humidity was slight. The actual weight, or tension, of aqueous vapour was practically the same in the New York subway as in the air of the streets under which the subway ran. Since the temperature was higher in the subway, the humidity there was less noticeable, this