Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 181, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1919 — ICEBOX IN ATTIC COOLS HIS HOME [ARTICLE]

ICEBOX IN ATTIC COOLS HIS HOME

Dr. Bell Turns Trained Mind to Keeping ComfortatJte in Hot Weather. '■ , * BIG VICTORY FOR SCIENCE Air Reduced to 65 Degrees and Inventor Works in Ease While Capital Perspires—Pipes Cold Air in Home. Washington.—Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, has found a way to cool a house and make it comfortable on the hottest day of the year. Recently while other ■Washington people were sweltering he, worked in a room which had been cooled to 65'degrees. His plan, which can be used by anybody, is to store ice in the garret and conduct the cooler air to rooms belows Explaining his discovery to the National Geographic society. Doctor'Bell declared: “You heat your house In winter, why not cool it in summer? We get up to the arctic regions and heat our houses and live. We go down to the tropics and die. “I 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 air is heavier %han 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 the bucket, of course the cold air will all run out. His Tank-Room Felt Cool. “I began to think that it might be possible .to apply the bucket principle at least to one room in my Washington home and thus get a place of retreat in the summer time. It seemed to be advisable to close up all openings 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 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 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. • "I reflected, however, that the Condensation 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 introduced air that was much colder than I wanted to use, then it would be warming up in the tank and becoming dryer all the time. It would not deposit moisture on the sides and would actually absorb the moisturethere. “I 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 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 I found myself immersed in cool air. I felt so cool and comfortable that it seemed difficult to believe that Washington stood sizzling outside. I climbed up the ladder in the tank until my head was above the surface, and then found myself breathing a hot, damp, muggy atmosphere. I therefore speedily retreated into the tank, where I was perfectly cool and comfortable. Pipes Cold Air in House. “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 newspapers

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 thermometer showed 100 degrees outside. Uijder similar conditions I enjoyed ih my house a temperature of 65 degrese (the Ideal temperature), with a delicious feeling of freshness in the air.”