New-York tribune., 1896-09-27

ARTIFICIAL, REFRIGERATION FOR
APARTMENT-HOUSES.

UupINGs-How THE PLANT WORKS.
Ever since New Workers. by the thousands
,ook 10 living in apartment-houses they have
been confronting a problem which. i'm the main,
,s vet ,insoved. Perhaps the difficulty, when
named may sound trifling to he thus dignihed.
but I, has been capable of producing so large an
amount Of Inconvenience that II has earned
right to the title. 1t concerns ice ana the Ice
man-chie1y the latter-and. incidentally the
means usually provided for distributing the Ice
among the various families In the house Aho
IN the first place. II is situation whlch mas 'o
10 accented disadvantages and all. because ice
Is n commodity necessary to comfort. ABOUT
,,a other things there might be hesitation;
about this there can he none. Clearly the ice
man has had a monopoly OF AFFAIRS ana ne mas
rsually behaved as II he realized the Importance
~ his position For some inexplicabie reason
he Is opposed to coming with anything ike resu-
,ar,ty in the matter Of time. IT ne appears AZ
. o'clock i'm the afternoon on MONDAY he VIII
-, ,mnrohably call at 10 In the morning on
1pesday. and at noon on Wednesday. owing
% this peculiarity. It is quite impossible to be
nr,epared for his visits. and the householder or
~. cook must he ready to rush to the dumb
waiter AT any moment upon the imperative sum-
mons from below The task of pulling up the
TOO u the cake is a large one. is anything hut
rrh+ The process is exceedingly sloppy, leav-
,s a trail of water from the lower hall, on the
a,,r,hwaiter shelves, and through the private
,,u NJ the tenant for whose refrigerator II is
aos,ined. The ice is frequently too heavy and
clumsy for a woman to handle. and several times
. sorvan. has been hurt Ivy its falling upon her
while she was trying to lift 1t into the box' 10
obyiate this trouble the iceman Is sometimes
ordered TO deliver the required amount In small
.r nieces That it is then easier to manage is
~. onl>, thing that can be said in favor of this
,hod for by il the ice is wasted in great guam
,,,;es owing TO the rapidity with which the rag
ments melt.
Something like the foregoing proceeding
varied slightly according to the arrangement anu
convenience Of the apartment t-house, mas peeh
going on daily now for several years Probanly
few of the people who have submitted 10 IL
with more or less complaint have ever supposed
that i, could be replaced by anything else ms
however has been accomplished IN at least TWO
of the largest and handsomest houses in the city
ens will be in operation in third, which is to
open In a few days
THE NEW SYSTEM.
The new system is essentially modern anc
scientific No ice is required anywhere but the
refrigerator of every apartment in the building
is supplied with artificial cold carried through
mines Aside from the immense advantage OF
being free from the ice-handling annoyance
there IS the further one of having a constant
and uniform low temperature. Under the Ola
conditions it was possible. so long as the ice
box was well filed to maintain the desired cold,
bu, as soon as the supply dwindled the tenn
perature Of the refrigerator rose. and there was
daily anxiety as to whether the ice would
refrigerating machine could produce tempera-
ture of many degrees below zero. if it were de-
sirable but so intense a cold would be only an
Inconvenience From II degrees to ~ degrees
Fahrenheit is about the usual temperature
maintained in the brine which circulates through
the pipes These ascend from the great brine
tank in the cellar, and convey the cold huid to
every apartment When the top door OF one OF
the refrigerators. which are made especially Tor
the purpose. is opened. a tank is seen, Which
FITS exactly into the upper section rms Is part
ly filled with coils of pipe. At one SIDE OF the
tank and above 1t. are two pipes, which COM
municate with those in the interior of the tank
One Of them. the larger. is the riser. when Is
constantly feeding the brine into the tank. The
other is the return pipe. which is carrying the
fluid back again into the cellar, after 1t has per-
formed It's work to be chilled anew. The riser
and return" meet at the top of the house, at
which point the brine really begins its return
trip. Thus continual circulation is kept up
and the same degree of temperature being pre-
served In the cellar that of the various refrig-
orators does not change at all as the hours go
bv. So cold is the brine tank in each that it Is
covered. often to the depth of an inch or more
with frost and snowlike crystals. 1t thus at
tracts and congeals every particle of moisture
from the air in tn, box. and precludes any possi-
bility Of the dampness mustness so common
In an ordinary icebox. The pipes. where they
are exposed, are also thickly incrusted, until
they are two three times their real size
Everywhere. except inside the refrigerator 1t is
necessary to cover them heavily with prepared
substance to prevent their being warmed by the
outside air The covering usually consists OF
tar. hair-felt. twine and canvas.
The coils in the brine-tank do not occupy all
the space within it, ample room being left to
place any substance which it is desired TO freeze.
Water for drinking purposes may be chilled
sufficiently by placing IL In one of the lower COM
partments where II will easily go as low as 40
degrees the ordinary temperature OF water with
plenty Of ice in IT, II 1t is preferred TO have ice
actually in the water. carafe partly full may
be placed in the brine-tank and taken out In
few minutes, with its contents changed into
lump OF ice.
All articles Of food to be KEEP, merely cool. such
as meats. butter. milk and eggs. must be put
into one Of the two or three lower divisions Of
the box where the cold is not so great 1t is re-
markably interesting to the machine which
accomplishes this work in operation. The same
thing and indeed several variations of the same
principle. have been in use for long time in the
cold storage warehouses. in the artificial Ice
factories and in the indoor skating Kinks The
size of the plant necessary to supply refrigeration
to an apartment house is, of course compare
lively small. One which VIII produce hVe TONS
OF refrigeration in twenty-four hours. regarded
as the equivalent Of making two and a haif tons
OF ice, is powerful enough for the work TO be
done.