South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-07-02
WANT To KEEP
COOL? HERE s
A NOVEL PLAN
Washington Resident Finds
Scientific Way of Com
forting Home.

WASHINGTON, D. c., July -
You heat your house in winter;
why not cool il in summer"
This idea occurred to Or. AleXan-
der Graham Bell when the Washing
ton weather became extremely siz-
cling
Former Pres't Taft. when he was
in the White House. had a refrigerat-
ing device put in the Offices which
since has fallen into disuse. but DIR.
bell believes ne procured better re-
suits by his home made" cooling
arrangement in his Connecticut ~.
residence.
In a communication 10 the Nation
81 Geographic society Or. Bell de-
/ scribes how he tricked the thermom-
+ eter out OF some 50 degrees-and
YOU can try this out on your own
home, If YOU are handy about the
| house
We go up 10 the Arctic regions
! and heat our houses and live" he
explains. We go down 10 the trOp-
les and die.
] Defect in House Building
II have found one radical defect
, i'm the construction OF our houses
/ that absolutely precludes the possi-
/ bility Of cooling them TO any great
/ degree. You will readily understand
/ the difficulty when you remember
/ that cold air is heavier than warm.
! You can take a bucket Of cold air,
| for example and carry it about in
| the summertime and not spill a
/ drop. but if you make a hole in the
J bottom of your bucket. then, OF
\ course. the cold air will all run out.
Il began TO think that it might be
I possible to apply the bucket princi
/ pie TO at least one room i'm my Wash
( ington home and thus secure "A place
! OF retreat in the summer time IL
seemed to be advisable TO close Up all
openings near the bottom o. the
room TO prevent the escape of cold
air and open the windows at the top
to let out the heated air of the room
swimming Tank Solves Scheme.
Now. it so happens that | have in
\ the basement Of my house a swim
ming tank. and IL occurred 10 me
that since this tank holds water, II
should certainly hold cold air: so
turned the water out TO study the
situation The tank seemed 20 be
damp and the sides felt wet and
Shiny
4 reflected however, that the con
denSation Of moisture resulted from
the fact that the sides OF the tank
were cooler than the air admitted
Water vapor will not condense OF
anything that is warmer than itself
and it occurred TO me that if | in
troduced air that was very much
colder than l wanted use, then il
would be warming up in the tank
and becoming dryer all the time. Il
would not desposit moisture on tn,
sides and would actually absorb tht
moisture there.
Installs Refrigerator.
Il therefore provided refriger
ator. in which were placed larg,
blocks Of ice covered with salt. This
was placed in another room at Z
higher elevation than the tank, anC
pipe covered with asbestos pape
was employed 60 lead the cold all
into the tank.
The first effect was the drying o
the walls. and then l felt the leve
OF the cold air gradually rising A
last it came over my head. The tanl
was full and l found myself i'm
mersed in cool air l felt so cool anC
comfortable that il seemed Difficult
10 believe that Washington stood
sizzling outside. / climbed up tn,
ladder in the swimming tank unit
my head was above the surface, anC
then found myself breathing a hot
damp. muggy atmosphere l there
fore speedily retreated into the tank
where 1 was perfectly cool and com
Portable.
Guided by this experience. trie,
another experiment in my house.
put the refrigerator in the attic an,
led the cool airs downward through
a pipe covered with asbestos int,
one Of the rooms OF the house Tn,
doors were kept shut and the win
dows were opened at the top. TIL,
temperature in that room was per
fectly comfortable. about So degrees
some time ago the papers wer
speaking of an ice plant that IA,
/ DGtn lnSldlAeu III AlE " lAANt MUS
and congratulated the president
then Mr.. Taft. upon = temperatur
of only so degrees when the ther
mometer showed 100 degrees out
side. Under similar conditions I en-
ioyed in my house "A temperature o
SO degrees (the ideal temperature
with a delicious feeling of FRESHNESS
in the air