Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1908 — Ice For Heating. [ARTICLE]

Ice For Heating.

The use of ice for heating purposes is one of the oddities of our modern civilization. Often it happens that a train carrying fruit from the South to the Northern market encounters a cold spell while en route. If the temperature goes below a certain point •the perishable merchandise will be ruined. But it has been ascertained that' such a misfortune may be prevented by covering the fruit car with a coat of >co —a thing easily aceopj: panted by turning a hose upon it and allowing the water to freeze until the whole is enveloped in a glassy and glittering blanket.

It may, Indeed, be appropriately called a blanket, inasmuch as it prevents the radiation of heat from the Interior ofthe car. The ice being a good non-conductor, the warmth is retained and the fruit, or possibly it may be vegetables, goes on its way unspoiled even by zero weather.

Cars used for transporting oranges and other fruit fmm California to the East are often provided nowadays with large cylindrical “ice Htoves,” a* they might be celled, at each end, which, while useful in summer time for refrigeration, are filled with ice during a cold spe’l in winter. When the temperature outside is at zero <y below, the Ice, at thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit is relatively warm and thus the “stoves* described act as heaters.