Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/348

320 of each pipe, so that it can be removed and easily cleansed at any time.

The entrance is through a double door. This is better arranged with an outside door opening outward and the inner door opening inward. A vestibule of a few feet between these doors is a great convenience and very economical. On a very warm day in summer one can then enter the vestibule and close the door behind him before opening the inside one. There is then no rush of hot air from the outside to raise the temperature of the room, an important consideration where one must enter the storage room several times a day. The mere admission of a current of warm air on a hot day may raise the temperature of the room several degrees, and cause the melting of a ton of ice in the course of the season.

The compartment above, in which the ice is stored is not very different from the inside of the ordinary ice-house. The ice must be packed economically and in regular layer fashion, and then covered with saw dust. There should be a ventilator in the roof. This is essential to the preservation and sweetness of the ice below. The filling door should be placed as high up under the eaves as possible, but not so high that there is no room for a block and tackle arrangement. This will facilitiate the handling of the ice enormously, and almost save the cost of one man in filling it.

With the house once constructed it is merely a matter of individual taste in dividing the storage room into compartments for keeping milk, butter, eggs, meats and small fruits. Any convenience of tables, shelves and bins that suggests itself can be installed later. The floor of this storage room is of cement, so that the spilling of any liquids will not cause damage. To keep the floor clean and sweet an occasional flushing with a hose will suffice. The drain for it should be at one side to permit the water to pass off quickly. But as a rule the room should be kept as dry as possible, since flushing the floor with water may cause an excess of dampness that will take days to evaporate.

The economy and convenience of such a combination house can readily be seen from the illustration. Ice for the house can be taken out from the back in the ordinary way, and that remaining in the compartment will be utilized at all hours for chilling the storage room below. There will be a little waste through melting in hot weather, but not to any extent. To offset this an extra ton of ice should be placed in the compartment each winter, and then the supply will last through the summer.

A combination ice and storage house of this character can be built from $500 Upward, depending upon the size, cost of materials and of labor. A good size is 25′ square, outside measurements, which will give a storage room of at least 20′. If properly built and filled with ice, a temperature of 34° can be maintained in winter, and from 35° to 36° in summer, which is suitable for the preservation of practically all food products.

RY batteries can be brought back to their electrical life for a time by punching holes in the zinc covering after having removed the cardboard filler, and soaking them in warm salt water.