The Minneapolis journal., 1902-08-13
LIGHT OF ARIZONA
A Government Employe to Whom
Ideas "Come Easy"
A FEW THOUGHTS FOR WARM DAYS
Valuable Hints for Determining
Which Is the Cool Side OF
.' n House.

In these days of August weather it is
refreshing to turn from redhot pavement
or a front porch where the thermometer
has lost all sense Of shame, to such pub
lication as that which has just been issued
from the state experiment station of Ari-
zona, under the title, '"The Cool Side of
House in Arizona" The government re-
quires the state experiment stations to
issue certain number of bulletins each
year in return for certain number Of
thousands of dollars forthcoming from the
national treasury. Some of the bulletins
bear internal evidence of having been pro-
duced to order-the order OF the govern
ment-and some of them are besprinkled
with tabular statements and saturated
with uninteresting English until the read
er wonders what they were ever begun
for.
The author of '"The Cool Side OF House
in Arizona" Introduces his remarks by
saying that 1t is obvious that the uncoIn-
Portable heating of buildings during warm
weather by tie direct rays of the sun
depends upon various things. This is
quite frequently the case in other places
than Arizona. He says, too, with lucid
ity, that small house is heated more
readily by the sun than a large one of
similar shape. Following up this state
ment he says with dignity and force:
This is so because although in the larger
building there is more wall surface exposed
to the sun, we'll as more volume to be
heated, still, in the larger building, the
volume Is greater in proportion to the wall
surface than 1t is in the smaller, since the
wall surface varies as the square of the di-
mensions, and the volume as the cube of the
dimensions
Doubtless there are good many read
ers of T b Q j O u r n who never real
| lied this before, and on a hot August
evening, when the pitch is trying out OF
the sides of the refrigerator and the
smoking asphaltum Is running down the
street, it is some consolation to know
that the heat in the house depends, some
what at least, upon the square of the
dimensions of the walls. Such a thought
is of itself cooling.
| The professor continues his remarks, al
government expense, by saying that if all
the sides of house, including the top
side, which is presumably the roof, were
of the same size, these sides would not al
receive the same abount of heat from the
sun because the sun does. not shine or
them all alike. That is to say, the sur
shines on one part part of the time
and on another part part of the time, ami
on the roof all the time. This may easily
be proven by going on the roof. Or, l.
the day be generously warm, one can lol
on the north star side during the time
the sun is sizzling on the south side.
Again. the professor of the Arizona sta
tion declares with frankness that is
refreshing in these days when English II
sometimes cloak, rather than vehicle
of thought, that the amount of hea
varies at different times of the year.
Running all Through the bulletin is {
limpid stream of righteousness. 1t flow,
hither and thither in gentle, meander
ing style that leaves one in a constan
condition of delightful doubt whether t,
admire most the freshness or the green
ness Of 1t all. Take, for example, this
| fowerlet, plucked at random from the sid,
| of this pellucid rivulet:
| Before proceeding with the calculation
! which follow, leading finally to deduction O
the best shape for house in order that /
may receive the smallest amount of hea
| from the sunshine beating down upon it