The age-herald., 1902-03-25
COUNCIL GRANTS FRANCHISE FOR COLD AIR PLANT Company Will Cool Dwellings and Stores During
 Summer
CITY TO KEEP COOL FREE
New City Hall Will Be Equipped With out cost-ordinance Regulating Saloons on Nineteenth
 Street Introduced,

Cold air will be on tap this summer in Birmingham, and by simply turning faucet any degree of cold required can be obtained. At a special meeting of the City Council held last night w. II. Morris and associates were granted a franchise to lay pipes through the streets of the city in connection with plant to furnish cold air to dwellings and business houses.
 The ordinance grants them the right to maintain complete refrlgeratlng system by means of cold air or other material, to be conducted through a system of pipes, conduits or any other necessary means of conducting the cold air or other material through or under the streets, avenues, alleys and other public highways within said citys limits.
 Granted for Thirty Years.
 The franchise was granted for thirty years and one of the provisions of the contract is that the new city hall Is to be furnished free of cost with cold air for city purposes, except that portion of the building used for markets and the National Guard. No pavements of the city can be taken up for laying these pipes without the consent of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen.
 The meeting of the Council was short and to those who obtained the franchise doubtless sweet The meeting was not called to order for half an hour after the time fixed for assembling, and during this delay the telephones were kept busy in attempts to get a quorum. When Clerk of Court Murray, who acted as chief operator, got through calling on absent members the following Aldermsn had reached the Council chamber Messrs. Altman, Thach, Kerr, Ward, Linnehan, Harrington, Gray, Moore, Copeland J. R., and Mayor w. M. Drennen. Some Of these were on time and did not respond to a telephone alarm.
 Everything Unanimous.
 The minutes of the last meeting were not read. A motion to dispense with their reading was passed unanimously. This was one point on which everyone was agreed. The franchise was also pass
  was harmonious to a degree. There was an entire absence of small talk and 'hot air" and the only thing done besides pro- vding themselves. with free cold air in the new city hall was the introduction by Alderman Linnehan of an ordinance to prohibit the granting of any liqour H. censes to dealers on the west side of Nine nd TNifth avenues, and an amendment offered by Alderman Gray to include the east side of this street between Third and Fourth avenues. After the introduction of these ordinances a motion to adjourn was also passed unanimously, the board by this time having acquired the unanimous habit.
 To Begin Work Soon.
 MT Morris will begin work on his plant at an early date. Cold air will not be pumped through the pipes as many might suppose, but they will be filled with ann monia which will be kept circulating through them. Those who wish to cool a room, or an ice chest, will simply have to have a coil of pipe or radiator and connect it with the mains in the street. Then by turning a faucet the ammonia flows into the radiator circulates through 1t, cooling the air in the room, and then flows back to the return main which car ries it to the central plant where 1t is cooled and again sent on Its rounds. The process is exactly like hot water heating except that 1t Is ammonia cooling.