Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1919-07-14
SIZZLING DAYS
ARE MADE COOL
BY DR.. A. G. BELL

WASHINGTON, July 14.-"YoU
heat your house in winter; why not
cool it in summer"
This idea occurred to DR. Alexan-
de- Graham Bell, when the Wash
ington weather became so extremely
sizzling.
Former President Taft, when he
was in the White House, had g re-
frigerating device put in the offices,
which since has fallen into disuse.
but DR.. Bell believes he procured
better results by his "honle-made"
cooling arrangement in his Connect
cut avenue residence.
In communication to the Nation,
al Geographic Society, DR. oeIl de-
saihes how he tricked the therMom-
etcr out of some 35 degrees and you
can Try this out on your own home,
if YOU are "handy" about the house:
We go up to Arctic regions ana
neat our houses and i've he ca
plains. eve go down to the tropics
and die.
q have found one radical deFrct
in the construction of orr houses
that absolutely precludes the posi-
blity of cooling them to any great
deG1ee. You will readily understand
he difficulty when you gememuer
that cold air is heavier than warm
SIR. You can take a bucket IF :old
air FOR example, and carry il about
in the summertime and not spill! a
drop but if you make a hole in the
bottom of your bucket then of course
the Geld air will run out.
81 began to think it might be pos
sible to apply the bucket principle to
at least one room in my Washington
home, and thus secure a place of re-
treat in the summertime. 1t seemed
to be advisable to close up all open
ings near the bottom of the room to
prevent the escape of cold air and
open the windows at tn top to let out
the heated air of the room.
Now it so happens that have in
the basement of my house a swim
ming tank, and it occurred to me that
since this tanks holds water, it should
certainly hold air; so l turned the wa
ter out to study the situation. The
tank seemed to be damp and the
sides felt wet and Shiny.
Il reflected, however, that the
condensation of the moisture resulted
from the fact that both sides OF the
tank were cooler than the air ad-
fHoed, Water vapac will not con-
dense on anything that is warmer
than itself, and it occurred to me
that if | introduced air that was very
much colder than | wanted to use.
then 1T would be warming up in the
tank and becoming dryer all the tine.
1t would not deposit Moisture on the
sides and would actually absorb tire
moisture there
Il therefore provided refrige-
rator, in which were placed large
blocks of ice covered with salt. This
was placed in another roo1a at
higher elevation than the tank and
pipe covered with asbestos paper was
employed to lead the cold air into
the tank.
The first effect was the drying Of
the walls, and then | felt the vel of
the cold air gradually rising At last
it came over my head. The tank was
full and | found myself immersed in
cool air. | felt so cool and comfort
able that it seemed difficult to believe
that Washington stood sizzling out
side. | climbed up the ladder in the
swimming tank until my head was
above the surface, and then found
myself breathing a hot, damp, muggy
atmosphere. therefore speedily re-
treated into the tank, where l was
perfectly cool and comfortable.
Guided by this experience, l tried
another experiment in my house. |
put the refrigerator in the attic and
led the cold air downward through a
pipe covered with asbestos into one
of the rooms of the house The doors
were kept shut and the windows were
opened at the top. The temperature
in that room was perfectly comforta-
BILE, about IS degrees.
"Some time ago the papers were
speaking of an ice plant that had
been installed in the White House
and congratulated the President, then
Mr.. Taft, upon a temperature of
only 80 degrees when the thermom-
eter showed 100 degrees outside. I'm
er similar conditions l enjoyed in my
house a temperature of 65 degrees
(the ideal temperature), with a delic-
ious feeling of freshness in the ali"