Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/494

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��Popular Science Monthly

��from the floor iii)\v.u(l and helps to keep the lower part of the room cool.

In winter, if it is desired to keep the heat in the house, the door between the cook-room and the kitchen can be kept open and the ventilator and grating closed when not needed to carry off odors. The separate and well-ventilated cook-room will insure a dining-room which is cool and free from odors. The fuel-room, filled from outside, is right at hand, ol)\'iating the necessity of carrying in fuel every day.

The bathroom is readily accessible from all parts of the house, and can be used for washing up by the men in the family coming from barn or fields with- out going through other rooms. The closet on the rear gallery is intended for boots, rubber coats, etc. As this house was designed to meet conditions pre- vailing in the South, no provision was made for a washing room for the farmhands, who, as a rule, have their own quarters.

Instead of open fire- places for heating pur- poses, the drawings tor this house provide for a hot-air furnace in- stalled in a pit beneath the bathroom. The cost of installation would not greatly exceed that of the two chimneys, with two open fire- places each, which would be necessary to heat all the rooms. The upkeep would be less and the effi- ciency and comfort far in excess of that afforded by open fireplaces. If the situa- tion is low, with water near the surface, the house can be raised iiighcr fn^n the ground and the pit carried down but 3 ft. or so. It should be built of concrete and made waterproof. Space for fuel storage is provided under the rear gal- lery, and there is a \egetal)le cell.ir under the kitchen.

There is less front gallery to this housij than in nujst southern farmhouses. The reason for this is that, while galleries add to the coolness of a house in summer, they keep the winter sun out, making the house damp, told, and cheerless.

���Storage for Fuel Is Provided Under

the Rear Gallery and a Vegetable

Cellar Is Under the Kitchen

��Extensive galleries add to the nouse- keeper's work. If a house has wide eaves and good roof ventilation and is placed so that it is partly shaded by trees, the same beneficial effect afforded by galler- ies is had in the summertime, while in winter the sun will penetrate each room at some time of the day. The summer temperature within a house is largely influenced by the presence of near-by trees, which, even if they do not shade the building, prevent or lessen radiation from the ground. The plan, howe\'er, does provide a comfortable front gallery, and the sleeping porch can also be used as an outside sitting room. Two sleeping compartments can be pro\ided on this porch by using a movable partition or screen.

The sleeping porch should be screened in for summer use and glassed in during the winter, at least on the side most expo.sed to cold winds anil stormy weather. Canvas cur- tains on rollers to en- close the sides during a storm will answer the same purpose. The floor should be laid w i t h n a r r o w spruce boards, using white lead and oil to fill in the cracks.

��"^SJ^

��To Improve Machinist's Cement

THE red lead used in machinist's cement may be diluted with an equal bulk of silica or other inert sub- stance to make it less powdery on drying. The best way to avoid brittle- ncss and drj-ness, however, is to add rubber to the oil according to the follow- ing recipe:

l.inseed oil 6 parts by weight

Rubber or gutta- percha I part by weight

Dissolve the rubber or gutta-percha in sufficient carbon disulphide to gi\-e it the C(tnsist(.'nc\' of molasses; mix with oil, and lea\i' exposed to the air for about 24 hours. Then mix the oil thus pre- paretl with the red lead to form a putty.

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