The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-09-14

Well Air for Milk Rooms.

Not long ago, reading what was said
in the Country Gentleman about "sub-
earth ducts" and the various other de-
vices for cooling milk rooms, the cost
frequently running up into the hun
dreds, the thought struck me, what bet
ter suh-earth duct does anybody want
to draw cold from i'll summer, OF
warmth in winter, than well? In cell
lars we can go down in summer to only
about 700, while in the well we can go
below GOO. Then why endure the nui-
sance of hanging things in the well to
keep them from spelling, when we can
so easily and cheaply bring the cold air
that is in it either to the milk room OF
any other room in the house? / took
very little credit to myself for having
conceived the idea, but, on the contra
~, wondered how l could have been so
stupid as not to have seen so plain q
thing before.
The mechanism for the purpose re-
quired more invention than | supposed
The first idea was to draw the air of the
well up one tube (plank), to pass back
into the well through another, the fan
to be propelled by weight But of
the numerous fans in use, none seemed
exactly to meet the case; so one had to
be invented to do the most effective
work with the fewest revolutions. This
effect being reached, the question then
arose whether an air-pump, after all,
might not be the better thing. A test
was made with one of sufficient capaci-
| ty to throw barrel of air every six
strokes of the piston, and while it work
ed so easily, with q soft velyet-cushion-
ed piston working against glass, that a
child could work it rapidly with the
thumb and finger, the power required
would be about double what the fan
required to give a brisk current of air
sufficient to change the air in the room
according to size.
BY consulting the tables of specific
gravity at various temperatures it will
be seen that the difference of gravity OF
the cold air of well and the warm up
per air is very slight, and the power
must consequently be very small that
shall overcome it. Then the moment
the air of an upper room becomes as
cold OF very nearly as cold as the air OF
the well, the air in one tube balances
by its equal gravity the air in the other
and very little more power can be re.
quired TO give current of air from the
we'll to the room that would be necessa
~ to move it from one side of any room
to another. Some fancy that by pas
sing the air of the well through mill
room and back to the well the temper
ature of the well will be sensibly raised
This cannot be true if the room b(
tight and made of non-conduclins
material, as it should be, and the vel
receives but slightly more heat than i
would if the articles placed in the room
to be cooled were suspended in the
well.
The impression prevails that the ali
from well must necessarily be damn
air. On the contrary, a good way t,
dry air would be TO pass it through
well, where its vapor would be con
[ densed on the cold wall. Thus air j
dried by passing over ice, in use in pre-
serving fruit. Indeed, il is question
whether fruit-preserving room, espec
tally for apples, might not be better KEEP
cool in this way than any other, Will
= 1t could be done at mere nominal ex
pense. The purity of the air, wher
that is necessary, would certainly be il
its favor, and if il should become at al
contaminated by passing through tn
q room, nothing is easier than to chang
q it in very few minutes at any tim
for external air, by closing the tub
leading to the well and allowing the al
S of the room to escape through anothe
J. aperture.
o This is not written so much for III
thousands who have ice, as for the tel
> of thousands who have not. Still tn
:, solves difficulty ice men have had j
l. transferring the cold, so to speak, I
/. the milk room, without the trouble
, constantly transferring the ice, with i
IL eternal slop, to the room. The cold a
from a cool niche in the ice house coul
o thus be poured into the milk room in
v constant stream, as much and as lit
:. = of it as may be desired, the air return
~ ing to the ice-house as to the well so
1t to economic the ice.-ICountry Gent