Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/388

 :}0i> COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA AUCIIITECTURE. it may thaw will find its way off tlirough the under stratum of faggots, without the admission of air. Ice Ikos been kept in larpje quantities in this manner both in England and America, throughout the year. The best situation for such an ice stack is under the shade of trees, or under a slied roof, closed on the south side, and open on the north. 737. An utiderground Ice-house may either be a large cellar, with hollow walls, lioUow floor, hollow roof, and double doors ; or, it may be a separate structure, in the form of an inverted hollow cone, with a drain and trap at the bottom, and double doors Oil one side at the toj). When a cellar is employed as an ice-house, a proper drain and trap should be provided in the lower floor, for carrying off such water as may be produced by the melting of the ice, without the risk of introducing air. When the ice is about to be put in, the floor and sides of the cellar are thickly coated over with strong wheat straw, or reeds, as a powerful non-conducting medium. Double, treble, or quadruple doors are always requisite to an ice-house of tliis description, according to the use whi-.-h is to be made of the space between the doors. Where these spaces are to be used as pantries, four doors are requisite ; and two should never be opened at once. The space between the outer door and the second door should always be kept filled with straw, and that of barley is found better than the stiffer straw of wheat, rye, or oats. The space between the second door and the third should, if possible, be kept filled with straw also ; but the space between the third door and the fourth should be of sufficient width to admit of its being fitted up with shelves, on which the articles to be preserved fresh are to be placed. From time to time, the door of the ice-house may be opened, in order to reduce the temperatui-e of this space, and to freshen the air. In some cases there is a movable shelf or table placed over the ice, immediately within the inner door, as a substitute for the shelves in the passage. AVhcn an ice-cellar cannot be formed under or adjoining a dwelling, it may be constructed above ground, even on wet soils, covered with a mound of earth, and that mound further protected by trees, evergreen shrubs, or, what is equal to any thing as a non-conductor, and at any rate far superior to deciduous trees, ivy. The common form of out-door ice-houses, is, as we have before observed, an inverted cone, and the supposed advantage of tliis form is, that, as part of the ice thaws, the remainaer slides down the sides of the cone, and still keeps in one compact body. This is no doubt true ; but the advantage by no means compensates for the difficulty of constructing an ice-house in the conical form. A plain square room, with double side-walls, say a foot apart, a double arch over, and a double floor under, which can be built with the same ease as any common cellar, will, all other circumstances being alike favourable, keep the ice as long as any conical form whatever. Where there is a doubt of being able to exclude the heat, treble walls, roof, and floor may be resorted to ; and the entrance, which should always be three or four yards in length, instead of being straight, may be made crooked, with a door at each turn. The space between at least two of the doors should always be filled with straw ; and, to render the removal of this straw easy, when jiassing from the outer door to the ice-house, it might be ])ut into two or more canvass bags, like immense cushions, which might be hooked to the ceiling and the sides, so as to close up every interstice. The space between the second and third doors may alwa)'s be widened, and fitted up, as before described, with shelves for holding articles which retjuire to be kept cool, but not to the same degree as if they were placed in the ice-house. It ought always to be recollected that any perfectly dry cellar may be made an ice-house, by employing faggots as well as straw, in the manner we have described as i>roper for preserving a stack of ice above ground. The French preserve ice in frames of wood- work suspended in cellars or pits, in the form of inverted cones, suri'ouiuling the whole with a thick covering of straw. Both the French and Italians also form ice-houses in dry, chalky, or calcareous soils, deep under ground, where neither drains nor straw are necessary, with the exception of as much of the latter as will close up a long circuitous opening. In England, many persons are deterred from forming an ice-house, by the idea that the form of an inverted cone is essentially necessary to it ; that it must be under ground ; and that ice is oidy useful for making ice-creams and cooling wines : but an ice-house may be made any where ; and, as a place for preserving meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables, there is not a more iisefid appendage to a coimtry house. iMg. 747 is a section, and fig. 748 a ground plan, of an ice-house on the inverted cone principle, but of an improved construction. This form, as usually employed in English country seats, very freijuently fails in keeping the ice, from not having double walls, and double or treble doors, or from imperfect drainage ; but the plan now submitted is free from these defects, and will keep ice throughout the year, in any climate, if covered with a sufficient thickness of earth or straw. In this Design, a is the -well or cellar for the ice ; h, a drain from its bottom, for can-ying off such water as may be produced by the gradual thawing of the ice ; c, a trap in this drain, to