The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-08-26
"ICe-StOVe" COOIS
a Washington Home
Washington Post


wherein, no matter how hot the wealth
er the occupants may always find cool
ing relief Nor is it structure devoted
TO refrigeration or cold storage. but a
handsome dwelling in one Of the most
desirable residential parts Of the city
1t is located at 1891 Connecticut ave-
nue. northwest, and is the home OF
Prof Alexander Graham Bell, the
father OF the telephone, and designer
of many important Improvements in
Beronautics and an inventor and
scientist whose fame has gone beyond
the Seven Seas In a quiet study i'm
this city home Prof. Bell can defy the
most torrid of days, thanks to re-
cent invention of his through which
the lar is cooled and his house render
ed a veritable oasis in the midst Of a
torrid city.
During the hottest days of the cur
rent summer the thermometer in Prof.
Bells study never registered more than
sixty-one degrees. The invention is
what, for want of a better name, has
been termed an ice stove" Indeed,
It might be termed a stove turned I'M
side down or inside out or wrong end
to, for it cools insteads of heats, and
the furnace man shovels in ice instead
of coal. With its aid Prof. Bell has
been enabled to keep that intellectual
workshop of his at a temperature like
a crisp October day.
The manner of its invention was
most characteristic of the inventor.
This is what Mr.. David Fairchild of
the Department of Agriculture, the
son-in-law of Prof. Bell tells of its
birth:
early in the summer Prof. Bell re-
turned from trip he had been making
around the world. He was full of the
fact that while in India and other
tropical countries he had nowhere
found any attempt on the part of the
inhabitants to protect their dwelling
houses against the intense heat. Ac-
cordingly, he commenced at once upon
his return to address his talents and
experience to some means whereby
the interior of houses might be cooled
in summer to a comfortable tempera-
ture just as they are heated in winter.
OF course, he knew that there were
many devices, complicated and costly,
whereby lRrge structures might be
kept reasonably cool, as in the case Of
the capitol building. But the problem
to which he turned his attention was
that of cooling the ordinary dwelling
in some cheap and simple manner.
THE weather came to his aid for
within a short while commenced that
series of torrid days that marked last
June. This spurred Prof. Bell on, and
in a short time he had designed and
constructed the apparatus which now
so successfully cools his residence,
even in the hottest weather-and he
lost small time in putting it to practi-
cal test. l think he is about as well
satisfied with this latest product of.
his genius as with any of his great
achievements
To the curious man the first sight of
the ice stove gives him a feeling of
disappointment
is that all it is" he thinks, as he
looks upon one Of the great advantages
of the stove. There are numberless
cooling devices, full of complicated
coils and chemicals with a hyphenated
chemist to operate. But any one who
can dump a cake of ice into a box
and turn a switch at the electric light
key can operate this cooling stove of
Prof. Bells.
This is the method of it's construc-
ton, following exactly the stove now
in use in Prof. Bells house: On the
ledge OF the window is set a small
fan, about six inches in diameter. It
is moved by little electric motor at
tached by a wire to an electric light
socket. The fan is inclosed in a cas-
ing Under the lower sash of the
window is set a board in which is a
Observation-Disclosures hole. A short
pipe connects this hole with the casing
of the fan, thus supplying pure air
from outdoors. Another pipe runs from
this fan casing to a large wooden box
In this box, which is about three feet
broad and high and about four feet
long, there are placed cakes of ice.
The lid Of the box fits with air-tight
security. From the opposite side of
the box to that wherein the pipe from /