Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1907-03-28
A WOMAN'S IDEA
The Evolution of an Ice Box
Into A Refrigerator.

Ny wife complained that our ice
box wouldn't keep food any time at
al, and that her ice bill was way
above what it ought to be.
We had been using an old style re-
frigerator. You know the kind, that
lock good and substantial all right
but wouldn't keep food sweet any
time at all, and what an appetite
for ice that refrigerator hadl
1t started me thinking. Pure air
in a close room, without ventilation,
/ remembered, wouldn't stay very
long. That was it, Our refriger-
ator was all closed up. There wasn't
a particle of ventilation in the
whole chest. The ice chamber was
zine-lined vault, cold-but the cold
stayed right there-got damp and
close.
The food chambers were the same
the walls of the box might be cold
from the ice but the warmer air
from the meats and vegetables in
the food chamber made beads of
sweat on the walls. No wonder it
was always damp and the milk turn
ed sour. the vegetables decayed, and
the butter smelled of onions, and all
the odors stayed right in the ice box
to spoil new food as it was put in.
My wife suggested making 'open-
ings in the refigerator--one on either
side-to create a draft and to carry
out the bad air just as in room.
That's how the "Odorless" venti-
lating principle started.
Even the crude homemade i'm
provement resulted in keeping our
food longer and sweeter.
took my idea Eto an architect,
who Immediately saw its possibil-
tiles. He,had his craftsman work
out plan for a refrigerator that
was ventilated-but one in which
the air would pass completely
through each chamber without
short circulation or mixing. We all
know that cold air is heavier than
warm, and that it will fall to the bot
tom Of a room or receptacle, and in
dropping will leave a vacuum at the
top into which new air is drawn;
and the new air; as it-becomes cold
and drops. forces the first lot
further along.
In the new refrigerator, air was
admitted through a vent over the
ice and chilled. 1t dropped through
a fiue into the provision chamber,
right underneath the ice compart-
ment.
The cold air which has dropped
to the bottom first is forced through
the only passage there is-that's
across and upward-past the foods
in the provision chamber. 1t be- I
comes warmer as it rises, and with !
the continual chain of cold air push !
ing it forward, the foul air is fore
ed out. Soyou see, the new refrig-
orator not only changed the air con-
tinuously, but chilled it thoroughly /
before it went into the provision =
chamber. Not much chance to mix "
odors in refrigerator where the r
air kept getting colder and swinging /
around from the ice down to the "
bottom Of the refrigerator, and r
then up past the food.
Another thing we discovered was L
that the air was always dry. You
know that moisture cannot live in
low temperature. Ice draws out all
the moisture from the air, making
it perfectly dry and sweet. Germs
can't live in dry, pure air-they
need moisture and odors TO feed o.
upon-so perfectly chilled air :.
must be dry and pure. The new re- {
frigerator was more sanitary than
any we ever saw.
Wewere able to cool the air and
send it through the proper COM -
partments, To facilitate it's easy {
passage the shelves were made of q
strong wire, open as far as possible, =
and prepared against rust.
The drain pipe was led from the -
ice compartment through the back
of the box, down to a patent tran
to let out the water and to prevent \
warm air entering. In the "Odor- =
less" drain pipe from the food l
compartments is unnecessary, for
there's no moisture to drain off. -
To perfectly ,insulate 1.-THE walls I