Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1895 — WHERE ICE FORKS IN SUMMER. [ARTICLE]

WHERE ICE FORKS IN SUMMER.

A Remarkable Cave in" lowa la ’ Whieli Nature Exhibits a Curious Freak. ■ D 1 On the northeastern bank of the upper lowa river, opposite the city*of Decorah, la., is a remarkable cave. Says Prof. S. E. Meek, in z letter from thatssection of the country: “During the warmer days of sum- - mer ice is formed on its sides anc floor. The rest of the year, when it Is freezing outside/nn te-q 1so rmed i n the TpWlsifefi tHi? cave in July. The temperature ol the outside air was 85 degrees, while* in the cave the temperature was 31 degrees. The walls were covered wpb frost, and there was probably * one-half a ton of ice in the cavd. In a few places where the water was slowly dripping, icicles were being formed. From-the entrance to .the ice the distance is about ninety feet. The entrance was veiled with a cloud I of mist. There was no' perceptible current of air in the cave. “This is the explanation of this phenomenon: Itisawell established law of .nature that the evaporation of any liquid requires heat. To evaporate one gallon of water at 212 degrees requires as much heat as to raise sixty-seven gallons from freez- * ing point to boiling point. If we suppose the water dripping into the cave to have a temperature of 60 degrees. every gallon of it cooled and converted into ice will give 4)ff enough heat to change one gallon from CO to the boiling point and convert into vapor. In other words, one gallon of water evaporated will take enough heat away from five gallons of water to change the latter into ice. Thus every gallon of water evaporated from the outer wall of the cave changes five gallons of water in the cave into ices So the warmer the day and the faster the evaporation; the more ice will ,be ’ r ound in |he cave. On cold days the evaporation is only sufficient to reduce the temperature inside the cave ♦ to some point, above the freezing. So no ice is formed. And the colder ind damper the weather, the higher th'tf temperature in the cave becomes. But on hot. dry days in the summer, when evaporation is going, )n rapidly, one will always find icethere. “When this cave was discovered it was said to have been used by an Indian chief fora cold storage, in which he placed hot-headed warriors )f nations to which 4ie«wqs-4iostTei And/ dlwsting .ng, let them perish from the cold.”