Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-11-28
AnliFICIAI COLD-AIR.

E.iA lF ICIAI COLD-AIR.
Houses to Be Cooled in Summer by Frost
That Comes Through Pipes.
The manufacture of cold is likely to
become large industry. Earlier eff
forts in the production of cold were
toward the manufacture of ice. Later
improvements were in the line of cool
ing-rooms, where products could be
stored without the use of ice. This
method has been in successful opera
tion for some time in large packing
houses. It's less troublesome and less
expensive than ice, but the process in
wolves the use of brine with ammonia
and a large outlay of money for plant.
This process is effective only in large
concerns, and is limited TO the produc-
tion of moderately cold air, with the
Objectionable feature of dampness.
The newest process of refrigerating
produces a dry, cold air that carries
the thermometer many degrees below
freezing point, and this degree of cold
can be produced so cheaply and is so,
thoroughly under control that the
world is promised the luxury of frost
as cheap as heat or light. The concern
in Chicago which controls this process
is located on the West Side in a pre-
tentious building. In one room they
distill the ammonia, reducing the re-
fuse product from the gas house to
pure liquid. This ammonia, known in
the trade as anhydrous ammonia, flows
in pipes to the cooling-rooms. This
pipe enters the rooms and is distrib-
uted about the sides like ordinary
steam pipes. The liquid ammonia is
prevented from entering the pipes in
the rooms, but through a faucet the
gas or vapor which rises from the
liquid ammonia passes into the pipes in
the room. This vapor is what pro-
duces cold, and the degree desired is
regulated by the amount of vapor that
is allowed to pass through the pipes.
The gas or vapor returns to the dist1l-
ing-room with its freezing properties
exhausted, and is made again into an
hydrous ammonia, and is again used
for freezing purposes.
Fruits are stored in a room cooled to
the temperature Of forty degrees.
Meats for use in the near future are in
rooms little cooler, and game and
delicate fishes for winter use are in the
coldest room. In this department the
thermometer registers twenty degrees
below zero. and the game birds and
fishes are frozen as hard and dry as 1t
would be possible to freeze them in the
dry cold air outdoors.
The practical uses to which this
method may be put do not end with
cooling and freeing rooms in large
establishment, for this pure liquid
ammonia may be drawn off and carried
to a residence in receptacle some
thing like a soda fountain, and from
this the gas can be forced through a
pipe in refrigerator and make that
storehouse as cold as may be desired
So far the process has not been used
by families to any extent, but the pro-
duction of the liquid ammonia is a mat
ter of such trifiing cost that a raid
on the good housewives kitchen
is contemplated, and the company
promise that the family refrigerator
shall be furnished with dry, cold air
cheaper than ice and serve the pur-
pose better. Instead of the daily call
of the iceman the cold air fellow will
come around once in eight or ten days
with his little tank of frost-producer,
and after connecting it with the refrig-
orator pipe carry away with him the
old tank of exhausted ammonia.
1t is still further proposed to extend
the usefulness of this process by max
ing it means of cooling residences
Pipes may be laid in the streets just as
gas pipes are now laid, and as tho
liquid ammonia will not freeze it may
be run into residence just as gas LIS.
and during the warm weather, instead
of swelterfng in a hot room the house
holder may turn a faucet and let the
ammonia vapor circulate through the
pipes around the ceiling of the room
No one need suffer in his house or
Office from heat when this point has
been reached any more than he need
now suffer indoors from colds Pipes
for house-cooling plant are now being
laid In Denver, and during the coming
summer the plan will be thoroughly
AAatad thara- Chicago Ifibune. II