Opening the windows

Source A: an original contemporary non-fiction-style account.

Our office argument about windows began every spring. I wanted fresh air; the colleague nearest the window wanted to keep feeling her fingers. From my desk in the centre, opening it seemed a simple improvement. From hers, the same improvement arrived as a cold stream across the keyboard. We spent several mornings accusing one another, politely, of unreasonable sensitivity.

Eventually we moved a thermometer, adjusted the opening and agreed on short periods of ventilation. This solution was less satisfying than proving myself right, but more effective. I had been calling my own comfortable position the normal condition of the room. Her objection sounded less irrational once I sat in her chair. A shared space contains more than one climate, and fairness sometimes begins with moving your body a few metres before delivering another opinion about everybody else's needs.

Source B: an original letter in a nineteenth-century voice. This is a period-voice simulation, not an archival document.

Sir, may I protest against the practice of keeping every window in the reading room firmly shut? Yesterday the air was so close that remaining attentive required more effort than the book itself. When I asked whether one upper window might be opened, I was told that some members disliked a draught. Their preference is evidently treated as a rule for the entire company.

I do not propose that elderly readers should be placed in a current of cold air, nor that ventilation requires throwing every sash upwards. A little judgement in seating and opening would serve us better than permanent closure. Those who arrive first and secure the sheltered places should not suppose they have thereby measured the comfort of everyone else. The room exists for common use. Its air ought not to be governed solely by the person most determined to keep a hand upon the latch.

Refer to the whole of both sources. Compare the writers’ perspectives on managing comfort in shared rooms and how they convey those perspectives. Support your comparison with evidence from both sources.