The Devils Lake world and inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1915-1920, 1919-07-23
DR.. Bell Turns Trained Mind to
Keeping Comfortable in
Hot Weather.
Big VICTORY FOR SCIENCE
Air Reduced to SIS Degrees and Inver-
tor Works in Ease While Capital
Perspires-Pipes Cold Air
In Home.

ham Bell, inventor of the telephone, !,
has found a way to cool a house and
make it comfortable OF the hottest day
of the year. Recently while other
Washington people were sweltering he
worked in a o which had been
cooled to Is degrees. His plan, which
can be used by anybody, is to store ice
In the garnet and conduct the cooler
air to rooms below.
Explaining his discovery to the Ma
tional Geographic society, Doctor Bell
declared: s"You heat your house in
winter, why not cool it in summer?
We get up to the arctic regions and
heat u houses and live. We go down
to the tropics and die. ,
II have found one radical defect in
the construction Of our houses that
absolutely precludes the possibility Of
cooling them to any great degree. You
will readily understand the difficulty
when you remember that cold ar is
heavier than warm air. You can take
q 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 the bucket. Of course
the cold air will all run out.
His Tank-Reen Felt Cool
II began to think that it.might be
possible to apply the bucket Principle
at least to n Don in my Washing
ton home and thus get a place OF re-
treat In the summer time. It seemed
to be advisable to close up all open
ings a the bottom Of. the reom to
prevent the Escape Of cold air, and
open the windows at the top TO let
out the heated air ef the roo1-
"Now 1t 80. happens that: / have IN
the basement Of my house a SWIM
ming tank and 1t occurred to me that
since this tank holds water It shoala
certainly hold cold air. So I turned
the water out and. made a room of it.
The tank seemed to be damp and the
sides felt wet and slippery.
II 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 on
anything that is warmer, than Itself,
and it occurred to me that if I intro.
duced air that was much colder than
! wanted to use, then it would be
warming up in the tank and becom-
Ing dryer all the time. 1t would not
deposit moisture on the sides and
woulds actually absorb, the moisture
there.
Il therefore provided a refrigerator
h 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 was employed
to lead the cold air into the tank.
"The first effect was the drying OF
the walls andathen I felt the level of
the cold air gradually rising. At hast
1t came over my head. The tank was
full and I found myself immersed in
cool air. I felt SO cool and comfort.
able that it seemed difficult to believe
that Washington stood sizzling out.
side. I climbed up the ladder in the
tank until my head was above thu
surface, and then found myself
breathing a bot, damp, muggy at
mosphere. I therefore speedily retreat
ed into the tank, where I was perfect,
cool and comfortable.
Pipes Cold Air In House.
"Guided by this experience, / trie,
another experiment in my house.
put the refrigerator in the attic an,
led the cold air downward through
pipe covered with asbestos into on
Of the rooms Of the house. The door
were kept shut and the windows wer
opened at the top. The temperatur
IN that room was perfectly comfor
able, about IS degrees.
.some time ago the newspaper
were speaking Of an, ice plant that ha
been installed in the White House, an
congratulated the president, then NJ
TIFF, upon Z temperature Of only s