THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



377 



HOME-MADE COOLING VAT. 



Inexpensive Iceless Refrigerator for Country Use. 



Many country homes which cannot have ice 

 must depend on other means for keeping milk, but- 

 ter and farm products cool. Nothing is better and 



When the tank is two days old, carefully re- 

 move the forms. Rub down the walls with a soft 

 brick and paint them with a creamy mixture of ce- 

 ment and water. Five days later the vat may be 

 used. In the coupling of the outlet pipe, place a 

 section of over-flow pipe 19 inches long, which will 

 draw off the warm water at the top of the tank. 

 The overflow pipe should be at least J^- 

 inch greater in diameter than the inlet 

 pipe so as to remove all danger of flood- 

 ing the milk and dairy house. Make a 

 grating of 1-inch slats or gas-pipe to place 

 on the bottom of the vat to provide a 

 circulation of cool water under the milk 

 cans. As an aid in lif tingle cans, fix a 

 hand-rail at a convenient height above 

 the taij^. 



For this vat there will be required 

 \ l /2 yards of crushed rock or screened 

 gravel, -)4 yard of sand and 10 bags of 

 cement at a totalcost of about six dollars. 

 Two. men can build it in one day. Larger 

 cooling tanks should have walls 6 inches 

 thick. Filled with cool water from the 

 spring or well, such a vat will keep the 

 cream sweet and will in many other ways 

 take the place of an ice refrigerator. 



Cooling Vat. Showing Pipe Attachments and Submerged Rack for Milk Cans. 



cleaner than a concrete vat sunk in the ground in 

 the milk house and fed by a spring or with water 

 from the well on its way to the stock watering 

 tanks. The size of the vat is dependent on the 

 needs. For a farm with a small dairy, sufficient 

 space is to be had in a tank 4 feet 2 inches by 7 feet 

 2 inches in the clear, by 23 inches deep and with 

 5-inch walls and bottom. This vat will hold eight 

 regulation shipping cans spaced six inches apart. 



In a corner of the milk house dig the pit for the 

 vat 5 feet wide, 8 feet long and 22 inches deep. If 

 the water is to be fed and removed by iron pipes, 

 these should be laid at once with their ends pro- 

 vided with screw or sleeve couplings 5 inches above 

 the earth bottom of the pit. 



Build a box form without top or bottom 4 feet 

 2 inches wide by 7 feet 2 inches long, outside meas- 

 urements, and 23 inches deep. Mix the concrete 

 mushy wet of 1 bag of Portland cement, 

 2 cubic feet of sand and 4 cubic feet of 

 screened gravel -or crushed rock, or 1 

 part cement to 4 parts pit gravel. Place 

 a cork in the ends of the pipes and lay 

 the 5-inch bottom with a strip of woven 

 wire fencing in the concrete within 2 

 inches of the top. Quickly finish the 

 bottom smooth with a wooden float and 

 a steel trowel and at once set the box 

 form in the pit so as to leave a space of 

 5 inches on all sides. Fill this space with 

 concrete. Around the corners of the 

 tank, near the top and bottom, imbed an 

 old iron rod. Bring the outside walls to 

 full height above floor level by using a width of 

 board along the side and end. Round the edges 

 and finish the top of the walls with a trowel. 



Construction Details 



the Concrete Cooling Vat. 



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