Cooling Rooms

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The warm weather will shortly bo here, and every one will be seeking the refreshing influence of "a cool and shady place, whereunto they can retreat from the blazing sun ; so we will give our readers a few hints concerning the cooling of their houses. The first necessity is a thorough draft. This can always be obtained by opening every door and window in the basement, th top of every window above, and by throwing each door wide open; but above all, be sure that the trap door in the roof is open, and there is plenty of air room from it down the stairs, so that whichever be the direction of the wind, there will be at least one ascending current of air in the house. Another requisite is shade. Our common slat shutters answer well for the windows, but the most cheap and convenient shelter for the roof is to cover it thickly with straw, dried reeds, or rushes. These will resist the influence of the noonday sun, and keep the garret almost as cool as the basement. One of the most simple methods, and at the same time cheapest means of artificially lowering the temperature of a room is to wet a cloth of any size, the larger the better, and suspend it in the place you want cooling ; let the room be well ventilated, and the temperature will sink from ten to twenty degrees in less than half an hour. The above hints will be useful to many, and as a last suggestion we will inform the Kader that, in summer, it is well to keep a solution of chloride of lime in thehouse, and occasionally sprinkle it in the more frequented parts, as the passages and stairs.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 13 Issue 33This article was published with the title “Cooling Rooms” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 13 No. 33 (), p. 257
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican04241858-257

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