Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-07-03
A WAY TO KEEP COOL
Refrigerator Property Arranged VIII
Reduce Temperature of n Room

You heat your house in winter: why
not cool it in summer"
This idea occurred to DR.. Alexander
Graham Bell when the Washington
weather became extremely sizzling.
Former President Taft, when he was
in the White House. had refrigerating
device put in the offices, which since
has fallen into disuse. but DR.. Bell be-
leves he procured better results by his
homemade" cooling arrangement in
his Connecticut avenue residence
In a communication to the National
Geographic society DR.. Bell describes
how he tricked the thermometer out of
some IS degrees-and you can try this
out on your own home. if you are
handy" about the house:
we go up to the Arctic regions and
heat our houses and live" he explains
We go down to the tropics and die
Il have found one radical defect in the
construction of our houses that abso-
lutely precludes the possibility of cool
ing them to any great degree. You will
readily understand the difficulty when
you remember that cold air is heavier
than warm air You can take a bucket
of cold air. for example. and carry it
about in the summer time and not spill
a drop; but if you make a hole in the
bottom of your bucket. then. of course,
the cold air will all run out
I began TO think that it might be
possible to apply the bucket principle
to at least one room in my Washington
nome, and thus secure a place of retreat
in the summertime. 1t seemed to be
advisable to close up all openings near
the bottom of the room to prevent the
aSn 80 1oII
at the top to let out the heated air of
the room.
Now, it so happens that I have in
the basement of my house a swimming
tank and it occurred to me that since
this tank holds water it should GER
tainly hold cold air: so / turned the
water out to study the situation. The
tank seemed to be damp and the sides
felt wet and Shiny.
Il reflected. however, that the conden-
sation OF moisture resulted from the
fact that the sides of the tank were
cooler than the air admitted Water
vapor will not condense on anything that
is warmer than itself and 1t occurred
to me that il introduced air that was
much colder than l wanted to use, then
it would be warming UP in the tank and
becoming dryer all the time. 1t would
not deposit moisture on the sides and
would actually absorb the moisture
there.
Il therefore provided a REFRIGERATOR
in which were placed large blocks of
ice covered with salt. This was placed
in another room at a higher elevation
than the tank, and a 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 I felt the level of the
cold air gradually rising At last it
came over my head The tank was
full. and l found myself immersed In
cool air I felt so cool and comfort
able that it seemed difficult to believe
that Washington stood sizzling outside.
/ climbed UP the ladder in the swimming
tank until my head \was above the sur
face, and then found myself breathing
a hot, damp, muggy atmosphere.
therefore speedily retreated into the
tank, where l was perfectly cool and
comfortable.
Guided by this experience, I tried
another experiment in my house. I 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 comfortable about
65 degrees.
Some time ago the papers were speak
ing of an ice plant that had been in
stalled in the White House and congratu-
lated the President, then Mr. Taft.
upon a temperature of only so degrees
when the thermometer showed 100 de-
grees outside. Under similar conditions
] enjoyed in my house a temperature
of 65 degrees (the ideal temperature),
with delicious feeling of freshness in
the air"