In one of our buildings at Stow, at the the end of the main workshop is a sloping trench in the floor which leads out through the wall into an open top square built reservoir. The workshop its in measures exactly the same size as the dope shop when it was measured for the 1918 RAF Survey of the aerodrome but we are not 100% certain it is the dope shop. . Any ideas?
It is the exhaust trench of the dope shop. The trench had a powerfull fan which sucked bad air along the trench to an exhaust stack where it vacated the building, the fan being mounted within the stack. Another high level fan located in the outside wall sucked in clean air.
You can tell a builder from an archaeologist by the size of his trowel. Mine is a small one!
Yes I assume that the dope fumes are heavier than air and that is how it worked. The Dope Shop at Duxford still has the exhaust stack (often mistaken as a church spire as the building was later used as a church), though I have no idea whether the trench is there.
You can tell a builder from an archaeologist by the size of his trowel. Mine is a small one!
Yes, the fumes are heavier than air and sink down to a lower level so the extractor fans are also set low down and the fresh air intakes higher up. One small paint shop that I was responsible for was built with the extractor fans blowing out onto an open area. Over time, a paved road was built directly alongside and, despite NO PARKING signs painted on the external walls by the occupants, individuals persisted in parking their cars next to the fans in the belief that they sucked IN. I leave you to guess the outcome. 'Jacob's car of many colours' springs to mind
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