Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/389

 MODEL DESIGNS FOR FARM HOUSES. 36i prevent the external air from communicating with that of the ic&-house ; and rf, a lead pipe from this trap, connected with one 747 of Siebe's rotatory pumps at e. The object of this pump is to allow of making use, during the heat of summer, of the very cold water produced by tlic thawing of the 1 ice, either for cooling wines, or, after filtering it, for drinking. There are five doors to this ice- house, at /, p, /(, I, and A- ; and v, vacuity, /, one foot wide, between the two walls, surrounding the cellar, and covering the inner division of the passage, m. 'I'liis passage may be fitted up with shelves, as a place for keeping ve- 748 10 ft. getublcs, and vai-ious other articles of food (raw or cooked), fresh during summer. The natural level of the ground is shown at n n ; and the whole superstructure nuiy be covered, in Britain, to the depth of two or three feet with earth, planted with ivy, and surrounded with trees. In warmer climates the depth of eai-th ought to be increased to eight or ten feet. The size of the well ought also to be enlarged, and it might be well to liave even a third vacuity round it. The space between the doors t and k should be filled up by a barley-straw cushion, and it would be well to have similar cushions against the doors g and h, at least during summer. The two recesses, o and p, are here shown only two feet in depth ; but, by making the walls behind them of brick, that depth may be increased at pleasure. It may also be observed, that, in situations where brick is cheaper than stone, all the walls in this Design may be built, in Dearn's manner, hollow ; and that the side walls of the ice-well need not be more than the length of a brick in thickness, the one wall being tied into the other. It may be further observed, that, if it should be inconvenient to cover the building with earth, a covering of straw or reeds, or even planting ivy against the outside walls, and surrounding the whole with a few trees, will be equally efficient in keeping out the heat. If trees cannot be planted, on account of the soil, or of shutting out any view, a slight roof elevated on props of any sort will have the same effect. One of the most effective ice-houses which we have ever seen was covered in this manner, by a wire trellis and Ayrshire roses, mixed with lioneysuckles, clematis, and ^ irginian creeper. Ice-houses, we are persuaded, would become much more general, were coimtry gentlemen fully aware of the fact, that they might be built square just as well as round, and be equally effective at less expense, above the surface than vmder it. A square ice-house above ground, or sunk three feet into it, may have treble hollow floors fonued of bricks on edge, covered with foot tiles or flag-stones ; and its side walls may be treble also, of brick on edge, in Silverlock's manner. To form the roof, a nine-inch semicircular arch may be first thro^ra on these walls, and on this arch three vacuities built of bricks on edge and tiles : there may be five doors, as in fig. 74S ; and the whole may be covered with a cone of earth, or thatch, four feet thick, and clothed with giant ivy. In filling an ice-house, the ice, being collected and laid down outside of the exterior door, is there broken into small pieces, and reduced to a powder composed of particles not larger than those of sand or salt. It is then carried into the house and thrown down into the ice-well, in which a man is placed with a rammer to beat, and ram it closely ; occasionally sprinkling it with a little water to consolidate the whole. An improved metliod consists in using M-ater saturated with salt, by dissolving ten pounds of «jlt in ten gallons of cold water, and pouring it on the ice through a common garden watering pot every two feet of thickness, as the house is filling, and finishing with a double quantity (>f the salt water. " The ice, in hcuscs filled in this manner, m ill ^