The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-07-04
.ICEb0x IN HIS ATTIC
C00LS WHOLE HOME
Air Reduced to 65 Degrees. and He
Works in Ease While Capital
Pcrspircs.

Washington. July 3--~Dr, Alexander
Graham Bell. inventor of the tele-
phone, has found way to cool a
house and make It comfortable on
the hottest day OF the year Recently
while other Washington people were
sweltering he work. cd in a room which
had been cooled to sa degrees. His
plan. which can be used by anybody
is to store ice in the garnet and con-
duct the cooler air to room below.
Explaining his discovery to the Ma
tional Geographic society, DR.. Bell
declared. Your heat your house in
winter, why not cool 1t in summer :?
We get UP to the Arctic regions and
heat our houses and live. We go
down TO the tropics and die.
Il have found one radical defect in
the construction Of our houses that
absolutely precludes the possibility
cooling them to any great degree
You Will readily understand the diff
Guilty when you remember that cold
air is heavier than warm air. You
can take bucket of cold air. for
example, and carry 1t about in the
summertime and not spill drop,
but If you make a hole in the bottom
of the bucket. of course the cold air
will all run out.
pTkni W NIlitik ttlhl II might DC
possible 10 apply the bucket principle
at least to one room In my Washing
ton home and thus get 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 the top to let
out the heated air OF the room
Now 1t so happens that / have In
the hasamlSnt OF my house a swim
ming tank and 1t occurred to me that
since this tanks holds water II should
certainly hold cold air. So / turned
the water out and made a room OF 1t.
The tank seemed to be damp and the
sides felt wet and slippery.
Il 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 IL intro
dueed air that was much colder than
] wanted to use. then II would be
warming up in the tank and becom-
ing 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 higher
elevation than the tank. and pipe
covered with asbestos was employed
to lead the cold air into the tank.
THE first effect was the drying of
the walls and then 1 felt the level OF
the cold air gradually rising. At last
II came over my head. The tank was
fun and / found myself immersed i'm
cool air l felt so cool and comfort
able that 1t seemed difficult to believe
that Washington stood sizzling out
side. climbed up the ladder In the
tank until my head was above the
surface. and then found myself
breathing a hot, damp, muggy atmos-
phere- l therefore speedily rereated
into the tank. where j was perfectly
cool and comfortable.
Pipes Gold Air i'm House.
Guided by this experience. tried
another experiment in my house. /
put the refrigerator in the attic and
Jed the cold air downward through
pipe covered with asbestos into one
OF the rooms of the house. The doors
We're kept shut and the windows were
opened at the top. The tempSfature
IN that room was perfectly comfort
able, about 65 degrees.
Some time ago the newspapers
were speaking of an fee plant that
had been installed In the White
House. and congratulated the presi-
dent. then Mr.. Taft, upon a tempera-
ture OF only so degrees when the
thermometer showed 100 degrees out
side Under similar conditions / en-
Joyed In my house a temperature Of
50 degrees (the ideal temperature).
with n delicious feeling OF freshn eSs