Thefe are more generally ufed in warm countries, 
than in England,, but particularly in Italy, where the 
meaneft perfon who rents a hotife, is not without a 
a vault or cellar for keeping of ice ; but as the ufe of 
ice in England is much greater of late than it was 
formerly, io the number of Ice-houfes has been 
greatly increafed ; and although the mention of thefe- 
may, at iirft fight, feeni foreign to my 1 abject, yet 
if it is confidered, that thefe buildings are generally 
erefled in gardens, and as often put tinder the care 
of gardeners, it may not be amifs for me to give fome 
general directions for the choice of the fituation and 
itruCture of the building, as alfo for the management 
of the ice. 
In the choice of a fituation for an Ice-houfe, the prin- 
cipal regard fliould be, that of a dry fpot of ground, 
for wherever there is moifttire, the ice will melt ; 
therefore in all ftrong lands, which detain the wet, 
there cannot be too much care taken to make drains 
all round the building to carry off all moifture ; for 
when this is lodged near the building, it will occafion 
a damp there, which will always be prejudicial to the 
keeping of the ice. 
The next confideration muft be, to have the place 
fo elevated, that there may be defcent enough to carry 
off whatever wet may happen near the building, or 
from the ice melting ; alfo, that the place be as 
much expofed to the fun and air as poffible, and not 
placed under the drip, or in the (hade of trees, as hath 
been too often praftifed, under a falfe notion, that if 
it fliould be expofed to the fun, the ice will melt away 
in fummer, which never can be the cafe where there 
is fufficient care taken to exclude the outward air 
(which muft always be regarded in the building of 
thefe houfes) for the heat of the fun can never pene- 
trate through the double arches of the building, fo 
as to add any warmth to the air •, but when the build- 
ing is entirely open to the fun and wind, all damps 
and vapours will thereby be removed from about the 
building, which can never be kept too dry, or free 
from moift vapours. As to the figure of the building, 
that may be according to the fancy of the owner; but 
for the well into which the ice is to be put, a circular 
figure is the moft convenient *, the depth of the well, 
as alfo the diameter of it, muft be proportioned to 
the quantity of ice wanted, but it is always beft to 
have enough ; for when the houfe is well built, it 
will keep the ice for two or three years ; and there 
will be this advantage in having it large enough to 
contain ice for two years conlumption, that if a mild 
winter fliould happen, when there is not ice to be had, 
there will be a ftock to fupply the want. 
If the quantity wanting is not great, a well of fix feet 
diameter, and eight feet deep, will be large enough ; 
but for large confumption, it fhould not be lefs than 
nine or ten feet diameter, and as many deep : where 
the fituation is either dry chalk, gravel, or fand, 
the pit may be entirely below the furface of the 
ground ; but in ftrong loam, clay, or moift ground, 
it will be the beft way to raife it fo high above 
the furface, as that there may be no danger from 
the wet. 
At the bottom of the well there ffiould be a fpace 
left, about two feet deep, to receive any moifture 
which may drain from the ice, and a fmall under- 
ground drain fliould be laid from this, to carry off the 
wet ; over this fpace of two feet, fhould be placed a 
ftrong grate of wood, to let the moifture fall down, 
which may at any time happen, from melting of the 
Ice. The fides of this well muft be bricked up with 
a wall, at lead two bricks and a half thick ; but if 
it is yet thicker, it will be better, becaufe the thicker 
the walls are made, the lefs danger there will be 
of the well being affected by any external caufe. When 
the well is brought within three feet of the furface, 
there muft be another outer arch or wall begun, which 
muft be carried up to the' height of the top of the in- 
tended arch of the well ; and if there is a fecond arch 
turned over from this well, it will add to the good- 
nefs of the houfe ; but this muft be fubmitted to the 
perfon who builds, if he will be at the expence ; but 
if not, then the plate into which the roof is to be 
framed, muft be laid on this outer wall, which fliould 
be carried high enough above the inner arch, to ad- 
mit of a door-way in, to get out the ice. If the' build- 
ing is to be covered with Sates or tiles, there fhould 
be a thicknefs of Reeds laid under, to keep out the 
fun and external air ; if thefe Reeds are laid two feet 
thick, and plaftered over with lime and hair, there will 
be no danger of the heat getting through it. 
The external wall heed not be built circular, but of 
any other figure, either fquare, hexangular, or octan- 
gular ; and where this (lands much in fight may be fo 
contrived as to make it a good objed. I have feen 
an Ice-houfe built in fuch a manner as to have a hand- 
fome alcove feat in the front, and behind this feat was 
contrived a paffage to get out and put in the ice ; and 
by having the entrance behind, to the north aiped, a 
fmall paffage being next the feat, through which a 
perfon might enter to take out the ice, and a large 
door being contrived with a porch, wide enough for 
a fmall cart to back in, to (hoot down the ice upon 
the floor near the mouth of the well, where it may 
be well broken, before it is put down. The aperture 
of this mouth of the well need not be more than two 
feet and a half diameter, Which will be large enough 
to put down the ice, and if it was greater, It would 
be inconvenient ; there fliould be a ftone fitted to 
flop this aperture, which muft be clofed up as fecure 
as poffible, after the ice is put in, and all the vacant 
fpace above and between this and the outer door, mult 
be filled clofe with Barley Straw, to exclude the air ; 
fo the door to enter for taking out the ice fhould be on 
the oppoflte fide, immediately behind the alcove feat, 
as was before-mentioned ; and this door fliould be no 
larger than is abfolutely neeeffary for the coming at 
the ice, and muft be ftrong and clofe to exclude the 
air ; and at five or fix feet diftance from this another 
door fhould be contrived, which fhould be clofely 
fhut before the inner door is opened, whenever the 
ice is taken out. 
The building being finifhed, ffiould have time to dry 
before the ice is put into it ; for when the walls are 
green, the damp of them frequently melts the ice. At 
the bottom of the well, upon the wooden grate, 
fliould be laid fome fmall faggots ; and if upon thefe 
a layer of Reeds is placed imooth for the ice to lie 
upon, it will be better than Straw, which is com- 
monly ufed ; and in the choice of the ice, the thinner 
it is, the better it may be broken to powder ; for the 
fmaller it is broken, the better it will unite when put 
into the well : in putting of it in, there muft be care 
taken to ram it clofe, as alfo to allow a vacancy 
all round next the wall, of about two inches ; this 
is to give paffage to any moifture, which may be oc- 
cafioned by the melting of fome of the ice on the 
top, which, if pent up, will melt the ice downward ; 
when the ice is put into the well, if there is a little 
falt-petre mixed at every ten inches or a foot thick- 
nefs, it will caufe the ice to join more clofely into a 
folid mafs. The inftruftions here given, being care- 
fully obferved, will be fufficient to guide perfons 
wholly ignorant in thefe matters. 
JET D’EAU is a French word, which fignifies a 
fountain that calls up water to any conliderable height 
in the air. 
Monk Mariotte, in his Treatife of Hydroftatics, fays. 
That a jet d’Eau will never rife fo high as its referva- 
tory, but always falls fhort of it by a fpace which is 
in a fubduplicate ratio of that height ; and this he 
proves by feveral experiments •, that though Jets 
ought to rife to the height of the refervatories, yet 
the friftion of the fides of the ajutages, and the 
refiftance of the air, are the caufes that in jets that 
have very high refervatories, the height of the 
Jets does not come up to that of the refervatcry by a 
great deal. 
He adds, That if a greater branches out in many 
fmaller ones, or is diftributed through feveral Jets, the 
fquare of the diameter of the main pipe muft be pro- 
portioned 
