The Washington herald., 1913-07-06
SIMPLE DEVICES FOR KEEPING COOL

enterprise. the principal trouble being
that there was too much leakage" Of
cold on its way through the pipes. II
was not economical Unless some en-
tirely new method Of utilization can be
devised. neither ammonia gas nor cold
brine will ever be piped into houses for
cooling purposes.
More than twenty years ago. in Bos-
ton. the chairs in Q theater were pro-
SO that the individual occupant Of q seat
could turn 1t on or OF at will: but the
plan did not work out very satisfactorily.
It was even seriously proposed to fetch
the sea breeze in from the ocean beach
by pipe line for the cooling Of hotels and
dwellings of people who could afford to
pay for the luxury. but this was never
actually tried
A thoroughly practical method Of cool
ing rooms at small expense has been
devised by DR.. William r. Manning. the
medical ofiicer In charge at the Govern
ment Printing ONCE. 1t consists merely
In suspending vertically q wide sheet of
muslin across a room, the fabric being
kept constantly wet by water from q
pipe perforated at intervals. Extend the
pipe lensthwise Of the room. near the
ceiling, suspending the sheet from 1t, and
you have the idea. the water being sup
piled from q faucet through a rubber
tube to one end Of the pipe. A great
many square feet of wet muslin being
thus exposed. the rapid evaporation Of
the water produces cold. and the temper
AZURE Of the room quickly falls.
Hot Weather Doe. Not Eject.
This simple device is used in the uttIs
emergency hospital at the printing
office In the summer time. and, no mat
ter how hot the weather u. the tenn
perature Of the room can always be kept
at about seventy degrees It has been
employed on larger scale in the great
rooms where hundreds of people work
at the typesetting machines, q muslin
sheet being stretched from one end to
the other, and has given utmost COM
fort to the workpeople. Such a con-
trivance. obviously. may be rigged I'D
anywhere by anybody, but Dr. Manning
suggests that the same result may be
accomplished to some extent by the
ready expedient Of wetting a bed sheet
and hanging il over clothes line
stretched between two opposite walls.
A small hint OF this kind ought to be
of great value in cases where a differ
ence OF a few degrees of temperature
is of utmost importance to the sick
II may be actually a question of life
and death to a baby. But. IL expense
Is not Of absolute importance, an in
valid in hot weather can always be
kept cool by filling a washtub or other
large receptacle with ice and blowing air
over 1t toward the bed with an electric
fan. Some hundreds Of pounds of ice
per diem will be required. perhaps. but
the effect Is admirable. The ice and
"a NJ &c, -,
the patient. lest the latter catch cold
At the same time. II should be under
stood that the air Is not rendered damp
by this means, but Is actually made dry,
the moisture II contains being taken up
by the ice.
An idea now in use to some extent is
that of throwing a spray of cold water
into a room until the air is super
saturated. and then forcing this cooled
air into other rooms. But the applica-
ton of human ingenuity to such prob
lens has evolved no end of contrivances:
and. as a curious inversion OF the idea.
we have methods Of utilizing ice actually
for heating purposes. Carloads of
bananas are protected from cold in
zero weather by throwing streams of
water upon them with a hose and thus
covering them with a thick coat Of ice
The ice keeps the fruit warm by pre-
venting radiation.
Ice for Heating Purposes.
More striking is the expedient Of using
ice directly for heating cars loaded with
fruit and other perishable merchandise.
At each end are four galvanized iron
cylinders. extending from the floor tn
the roof Of the vehicle. and packed
tightly with ice. The normal tempera-
ture of ice being in the neighborhood
Of . degrees II follows that when the
air inside the car tends to fall much
below the freezing point the ice stoves"
check 1t. regulating the thermometer
sufficiently to prevent freezing. The
stoves" though filed with ice. are rela-
lively warm.
Strange though 1t may seem. the prin-
ciples of cold storage are, at least IN
some ways. much better understood by
the Chinese than by ourselves. They
have practiced such methods for thou
sands of years. preserving In this way a
great many kinds of food supplies So
much do they value ice for the purpose
that in the wintertime they collect every
obtainable bit of il. even when II is no
more than half an inch thick. and put
1t away in thick-wailed icehouses of
baked mud. which are far superior to
those We build, because practically heat
proof.
One of the methods they adopt for
keeping perishable fruits Is to pack them
in thick earthen jars In the bottom
of each such receptacle is put a guam
tity of broken Ice. and on top Of it the
fruit in a wicker basket. A wooden
cover. with a strip of felt to keep IL
tight. is placed on top. By such means
results which We should regard as quite
wonderful are obtained. and fresh grapes
are actually kept from year to year-a
thing unknown to ourselves-in wicker
receptacles set among baskets of ice in
deep dug-out cellars.
RENE BACHE
"Sunny Hour" Charts.