Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were commissioned to travel to New York to meet with the British at the request of Lord William Howe, a British General. As the two traveled to the scheduled meeting to try to resolve the problems that had caused the Revolutionary War, they had to spend a night at an Inn.

The two had to share a room as there was no other space available to the travelers. As they prepared to retire, John Adams began to close the window to the room, Franklin asked him not to and explained his reasoning.

Franklin believed in the benefits of cold, clean air. To close the windows would be allowing them to breath in air which had already been contaminated.

Franklin continued: “People often catch cold from one another when shut up together in small close rooms. It is the frowsy corrupt air from animal substances and perspired matter from our bodies, which, being long confined in beds not lately used, and clothes not lately worn . . . obtains that kind of putridity which infects us, and occasions the cold observed in sleeping in, wearing, or turning over such beds [and] clothes.” He wished the window to be kept open.

Then Ben described his habit of daily ‘air baths’, which meant sitting around in the ‘altogether’ for an hour or two each morning to further let the body absorb the clean air and condition yourself.

Adams however, didn’t like the whole concept. That was one of the reasons John Adams and Thomas Jefferson each refused to travel with Benjamin Franklin whenever possible.