296 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



with the windows and doors open the temperature at the President's bed (twenty- 

 five feet away) is maintained steadily at 75° day and night. When the cold air 

 machine was introduced, it was intended to keep the windows and doors closed ; 

 and under these conditions the machine would create and maintain a temperature 

 of 60° in the hottest weather without using the auxiliary ice-air chamber now 

 used, which was the suggestion of Professor Newcomb and Major Powell, to meet 

 the requirements of cooling the room with the doors and witidows open. The 

 closing of them gave the room an air of gloom. An extra ice-chamber fan and 

 engine has been put up in a room opening into the hall near the first apparatus, 

 to be used in case of accident, and to cool the corridors of rooms adjoining the 

 President's. — Scientific American. 



Professor Lowe recently gave a practical illustration of his cooling system at 

 Norristown, of which we give the following account : 



The apparatus of the company's office consists of a tin tube something over 

 a foot in diameter, which opens into the outer air on the south side of the build- 

 ing. Thence it runs into the basement where it is conveyed into a sort of box or 

 wheel house, containing and wholly inclosing a fan, which is revolved by a small 

 engine. From the fan the pipe is conducted into a large wooden chest containing 

 ice, and from the chest it is carried to a room on the first floor of a capacity of 

 nearly 9,000 cubic feet, about the size of the President's chamber. By the mo- 

 tion of the fan the current is drawn in from the outer air, and driven through the 

 ice chest to the room above. An entrance to the latter is effected by the simple 

 process of passing the end of the pipe through a perforated board placed under 

 the sash of a window. 



At half past five o'clock the professor commenced operations. He took a 

 '* hygrometer " or instrument for measuring at once tbe heat and dampness of the 

 air. When''the fan commenced to revolve, the heat of the room, as indicated by 

 the dry thermometer, was 83°, it having been cooled by a previous experiment in 

 the morning. A stream of cold air poured in through the tube, and in four minutes 

 the mercury fell to 77°. In eight minutes it reached 75°, and the hygrometer 

 showed that the air, which at the beginning of the experiment had contained 

 eight grains of moisture to the cubic foot, now contained only four and a half. 

 As it grew colder it became more dry. Walking up into the pattern shop. Prof. 

 Lowe found a carpenter planing cedar boards, and ordered him to put some of 

 the shavings into a basket and set it in one of the compartments of the cooling 

 chambers. Instantly a pungent and agreeable scent of cedar diffused itself through 

 the room. 



" Sitting here," said Mr. Lowe, " I can carry you through all the glens and 

 groves of the country. All that I want is a it\N pine boughs, cedar branches and 

 slips of mountain foliage. You can enjoy the temperature and odors of them 

 all." 



