No. 144.] 395 



any that can be made for the preservation of ice. The material 

 for such a house, thirteen feet square and twelve high, would cost 

 from $100 to $125, and the labor from $25 to $50. The roof 

 should have wide projecting eaves on all sides; for which purpose 

 a hip roof or one of four equal sides, terminating in a ventilator, 

 would be an improvement, which would require a little modifica- 

 tion of the plan of forming the roof, but only such as any car- 

 penter could readily do. There should be two doors to the ice 

 house, one openin.j outward, the other inward, and both should 

 be doubled, and listed with strips of vulcanized India rubber. 



But the chief feature of novelty in the construction of ice 

 houses, which Mr. Stillman wished to call the attention of the 

 club to was in the interior arrangement. The grand purpose of 

 an ice house he contended should not be to store ice, but to store 

 and preserve perishable commodities, those articles of luxury or 

 of prime necessity that were produced abundantly only during a 

 short season, and were required for the whole year; or animal 

 food that deteriorates rapidly if subjected to the varying tempera- 

 ture and atmosphere of our climate. 



Few of these things can bear the direct influence of the ice or 

 the wetting occasioned by its melting. To avoid this, a plan was 

 introduced a few years since to make the ice house of two stories, 

 the upper one for the ice and the lower one for the conservatory. 

 To keep the lower story cold, dependance was made either upon 

 a metal floor for the ice, or upon metal or plastered sides, against 

 which the melting ice would send its ice cold water. But this 

 produced a damp and vitiated air which was found fatal to fine 

 fruits and many other things. 



To avoid this difficulty was what was now the desirable thing 

 for an ice house, or for the preservation of those delicacies which 

 cost us so much to produce, and yet give us so little time to dis- 

 pose of them. 



Mr. Stillman said he was happy to say that he believed that a 

 plan was derived, and now an application for a patent was pend- 

 ing before the U. S. patent oflfice for the same, which he believed 

 would fully answer the end. 



