ICE-HOUSES. 



505 



house in a most simple way, and at a 

 very trifling expense. Around the house 

 he has a small flat level field, which he 

 takes care to overflow in winter before 

 the cold weather comes. It then freezes, 

 and furnishes the necessary supply at the 

 door." 



From the circumstance of the ice-house 

 being shut up as soon as it is filled, and 

 seldom examined until a supply is re- 

 quired, we can know little of the opera- 

 tions going on, or of the changes the snow 

 or ice may be subjected to, in the very 

 best constructed houses that we can with 

 our present knowledge build. Heat and 

 moisture, we are well aware, tend to the 

 melting of the ice ; and it is probable that 

 vapour, formed and confined in a closely 

 shut up place, may also have its bad 

 effects. Should it be ascertained that the 

 latter is the case, then recourse must be 

 had to moderate ventilation for its escape. 

 This is a matter which deserves our serious 

 consideration, as well also as the propriety 

 or impropriety of sinking our ice-houses 

 under the ground surface. A great deal 

 of the success of keeping ice depends on 

 the temperature at which it has been 

 frozen. The ice of the Polar seas, that of 

 the lakes in Canada, and such as is formed 

 in equally low temperatures, keeps much 

 better than that formed in Britain. Even 

 with ourselves, indeed, that formed in 

 severe winters keeps much better than 

 that of mild ones. In some years it keeps 

 till the return of the icy season, while in 

 others it is all melted by the beginning of 

 September, although kept in the same 

 house, and managed in the very same 

 manner. 



Ice-houses, we believe, will no longer 

 be built under ground, but on the sur- 

 face ; and we question much whether 

 wooden structures will not be found the 

 best. The sides may be built on the 

 principle of hollow walls, the uprights 

 being of 9-inch battens set edgewise, 

 and boarded up on both sides, leaving a 

 vacuum of 9 inches between ; or this space 

 may be filled up with dry straw or saw- 

 dust, finely sifted coal-ashes, or any other 

 non-conducting material. The roof should 

 be thatched with straw, reeds, or heather, 

 at least 2 feet in thickness, and the sides 

 covered with the rugged bark of trees or 

 with moss, or panelled off in ornamental 

 patterns with straight rods of hazel, larch, 



VOL. I. 



or otherwise, in imitation of rustic work. 

 The late Mr Cobbett, thirty years ago, 

 stated plainly, in his "Cottage Economy," 

 the cause why ice will not keep in under- 

 ground wells. "In England," he says, 

 " these receptacles of frozen water are 

 generally under ground, and always, if 

 possible, under the shade of trees, — the 

 opinion being that the main thing, if not 

 the only thing, is to keep away the heat. 

 The heat is to be kept away, certainly ; 

 but moisture is the great enemy of ice ; 

 and how is this to be kept away under 

 ground, or under the shade of trees? 

 Abundant experience has proved that no 

 thickness of wall, that no cement of any 

 kind, will effectually resist moisture. 

 Drops will, at all times, be seen hanging 

 on the under side of an arch of any thick- 

 ness, and made of any materials, if it have 

 earth over it, and even when it has the 

 floor of a house over it ; and whenever 

 the moisture enters, the ice will speedily 

 melt." This may arise from two causes — 

 filtration or condensation. " Ice-houses 

 should, therefore, be in all their parts as 

 dry as possible ; and they should be so 

 constructed as to insure the running 

 away of the meltings as quickly as pos- 

 sible. The ice-house should stand on a 

 place quite open to the sun and air. The 

 next thing is to protect the ice against 

 damp from beneath. It should, there- 

 fore, stand on some spot from which 

 water would run in every direction ; and 

 if the natural ground present no such 

 spot, it is no very great job to make it. 

 Then comes the materials of which the 

 house is to consist. These, for the reasons 

 before mentioned, must not be bricks, 

 stone, mortar, or earth, for these are all 

 affected by the atmosphere ; they will be- 

 come damp at certain times, and damp- 

 ness is the great destroyer of ice. The 

 materials are wood and straw. Wood will 

 not do ; for, though not liable to become 

 damp, it imbibes heat fast enough ; and, 

 besides, it cannot be put together so as to 

 shut out air sufficiently. Straw is wholly 

 free from the quality of becoming damp, 

 except from water actually put upon it ; 

 and it can, at the same time, be placed on 

 a roof, and on sides, to such a degree of 

 thickness as to exclude the air in a manner 

 the most perfect. The ice-house, there- 

 fore, ought to be made of posts, plates, 

 rafters, lathes, and straw. The best form 



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