596 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



and below. It may be entered, if convenient, directly from the 

 cellar of the house, through double doors, and a veranda floor 

 will often make a good outer roof. All requisite ventilation is 

 easily secured by means of tin pipes which can be closed by 

 plugs when desired. At the time of filling, the ice can be let 

 down through hatches in the two roofs, which are then to be 

 tightly battened down. Such an ice-house has the additional 

 advantage of being readily converted into a cold larder for the 

 farm or the family, by placing the ice entirely upon one side, 

 enclosing it by a thin partition of zinc or sheet iron. 



These brief hints, hastily thrown together, are offered with no 

 pretence of having exhausted the subject, but with the desire of 

 suggesting modes in which, by forethought and ingenuity, and 

 without great expense, the " homes of the people,'* may be im- 

 proved in those things which promote health and enjoyment. 



[This article was illustrated by diagrams of a double sash, an 

 'ce-house, &c.] 



Secretary Meigs observed, during the late severe cold weather, 

 that the double windows of the parlor of his eldest son Henry 

 Meigs, jr., on the corner of the Seventh Avenue and Thirteenth 

 street, exposed to the northwest, have never shown frost or ice 

 on them, either on the outer or inner window; while the rooms 

 with liigh windows were occasionally covered so thickly with 

 frost as to intercept view entirely. 



A gentleman said they were very commonly used in the cotton 

 and other factories of the Eastern States. 



Mr. Stetson wished to ask what were the practical difficulties 

 in the formation of windows with double glass 1 He detailed 

 some interesting experiments in his efforts to regulate the tempe- 

 rature of railway cars in winter. Plates of glass, even very 

 slightly apart, meet the difficulty. 



The Chairman said that it might be noticed that in picture 



