Original Patent Application No. 370011 Accomplished in Manuscript "To all to whom these presents shall come.a petition praying for the grant of Letters Patent for an alleged new and useful improvement in Heating and Ventilating Prisons or other Buildings.
1887Best.-Nr. 21386Washington: H. Peters 1887. Very Good. Washington: H. Peters 1887. Folio 30.5cm.; ribbon-bound engraved self-wrappers wax-sealed and accomplished in manuscript; 8ll. of photo-engraved plans printed on versos only followed by 3pp. text printed in double columns on rectos only. Previous mail folds extremities a bit chipped and toned ribbons slightly frayed else Very Good internally clean and sound. Signed by Acting Secretary of State D.L. Hawkins and Commissioner of Patents Burton J. Hall. Detailed patent application submitted by the Superintendent of the Chicago Bridewell Prison on September 13 1887. Charles E. Felton ca. 1832-1909 was the prison's longest serving overseer having held the position from its opening in 1872 until his retirement in 1890. Formerly a printer in Buffalo New York Felton entered the field of prison administration through the usual political platforms though he assumed his position in Chicago not through the usual channels but based on his previous experience serving as director of the Erie PA correctional facility. A Democrat and avid duck hunter with a rather unfocussed eye on the mayoralty of Chicago Felton was especially interested in enforcing labor in his prisons as a means of reducing costs and galvanizing individual reformation a position he clung to even past his retirement. The present patent submitted with steel manufacturer Herbert B. Streeter 1833-1919 offered substantial air circulation improvements for prisons "or other structures where the tiers of cells or dormitories have an open hall or corridor without separation by floors or otherwise." Previously the Chicago House of Corrections had just one small ventilating flue leaving the air "absolutely foul and poisonous." The plans depicted here show two foul air flues and one steam-coil heating device per cell as well as additional open air gratings for increased circulation. Though it is unclear whether the patent was ever approved Felton in an address delivered before the Prison Congress four years later complained that the increase in crime rates could be blamed in part on "the comfortable quarters" offered prospective convicted criminals. Also to blame "the present views of the public and acts of legislatures as to systems of prison labor and its ease to the prisoner.the quality of food; their the prisoners' easy access to visitation and the readiness with which a sympathetic public accepts as true the complaints of the prisoners" "Inter Ocean" newspaper October 14 1891. This patent submitted to improve the comfortable prison cells Felton so bemoaned an important document for students and historians of prison reform architecture and engineering. H. Peters unknown
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