No. 144.] 381 



Inches. Average of years. 



London, 24.87 30 



St. Bernard Alps, 68.81 12 



Rome, 30. 80 40 



Barnavul in Russian Asia, 9.54 4 



Pekin, 25.68 4 



Lowest Temperatures. 



San Francisco, February, 33^ Fahrenheit. 



Astoria, do 31° do 



Great Salt Lake, do 7° do 



Fort Ripley, December, 36° below zero. 



Paul Stillman commenced the discussion of the first question 

 of the day, " Building ice houses," and with suitable drawings to 

 illustrate, he remarked, designed by A. S Lyman, a mechanic 

 at the Novelty Works, for which he has applied for a patent. It 

 is to be built above ground, and the sides and roof formed ten 

 inches thick, by a succession of four sets of studs lathed ar.d 

 plastered, so as to make a wall of air tight chambers — outside of 

 this a coat of ordinary siding with shingled roof. At the bottom 

 of siding an open space of an inch is left to carry a current of air 

 up and under the shingles, out of the ridge. The ice is to be 

 placed in a cube of not less than ten feet square, upon a tight 

 floor, six feet above the ground floor. The ice is held away from 

 the sides of the building by studs, so as to leave a space all around, 

 and so arranged that the cold air from the ice will fall down 

 upon one side, between the plastered wall and the wall* of the re- 

 frigerating room, where, as it becomes rarified, it will pass under 

 the floor and up the other side, out through a ventilator in the 

 roof. In this room, also ventilated, fresh provisions can be kept 

 any length of time; the air is cold and dry. 



Another plan is to place the ice on the ground floor, and sur- 

 round it with a refiigeratiug room two to four feet wide all 

 around. Charcoal should always be kept in contact with the air 

 of the meat room, to absorb all effluvia. 



0. S. Fowler has tried the plastered walls, and finds them to 

 answer most perfectly. 



