88 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 15, 1886. 
as a preventive of cracking, with good results in each instance. W. 
Iggulden. 
ICE HOUSES. 
We almost invariably receive applications for building ice houses 
in winter ; but obviously summer is the best time for making the 
necessary preparations, so that everything is in readiness for storing 
ice when it is produced. This has been suggested by a gardener who 
asks for a few hints on the subject, and the annexed plans and 
explanations by Mr. (x. Abbey may possibly be of some service to 
him and others, who contemplate making structural provision for 
the storage of ice. The plan can, of course, be modified to suit local 
positions and circumstances. 
Ice being now as much a necessity as a luxury, it is not remark¬ 
able that extravagant means are frequently adopted to secure a supply 
of it for the many domestic purposes both of summer and autumn. 
By digging a pit in the ground, not coolness is sought but freedom 
from the variable influence of the atmosphere, and uniformity of 
temperature around the ice. This plan, however, is not, I think, the 
best that can be devised, and I shall accordingly proceed to desciibe 
the one which might advantageously be substituted for it. 
The essentials of keeping ice seem to me to be—1st, A perfectly 
dry site ; 2nd, Dryness and non-conducting power in the surrounding 
substance ; 3rd, Exclusion of air. The first will be secured by the 
perfect drainage of the ground forming the site, which should com¬ 
mand a good fall and outlet for drains, as the top of a hill rather 
than a hollow. 
Now, I propose to make the ice house a decent building ; there is 
no need, therefore, to bury it in an out-of-the-way place, but a natur¬ 
ally dry site may be chosen in a commanding position, where it will 
either be visible at a distance, or afford a prospect, or combine both. 
It may be fully exposed to the sun instead of being in a shaded spot, 
sunk to the depth of 6 feet or less, but, if the drainage cannot he 
made very efficient, not sunk at all, made in the form a parallelogram 
with the ends running north and south, and the entrance at the north 
end. If an excavation be made it should be 36 feet long, 22 feet 
wide, 7 feet deep at the south end, and 5 ftet at the north, the sides 
being 1 foot lower than the centre, so that the excavation falls 2 feet 
from noith to south, and 1 foot from centre to sides. If no excavation 
be made, then merely take out the soil to make a firm bottom, giving 
the inclines above named— i.e., from the north to the south end 2 feet, 
and from the centre to the sides 1 foot. 
Fig 6 is the ground plan of such a structure ; a is the ice house 
within which the ground has been excavated to a firm bottom. The 
drain b is brought to a small cesspool within the ice house, which 
must be covered with a stone into which is let a 9-inch ordinary 
stench-trap. The stone should have a dish from the sides to the 
trap of 4 inches, and channels cut for drains to deliver water on the 
trap, so that the water from the mel ing ice may always pass it before 
going to the drain b. c, The trap, will require a stone 2 feet square 
and 8 or 9 inches thick, and should have a dish of 4 inches, and 
channels made for drains that are to convey the water of the melting 
ice. The stone to cover the cesspool need not be more than 1 foot 
square and deep in side measurement, and should be surrounded by 
bricks laid in cement. It should be laid on the cesspool in a bed of 
cement, and when set should rise 3 inches above the level of the 
excavation. The trap being in the centre of the house or midway at¬ 
one end, it follows that it would, were we not to lower the excavation, 
be 1 foot higher than the side drains d, d ; let the excavation, there¬ 
fore, be made 15 inches deeper at that point, and slope to that depth, 
beginning 6 feet from the trap in the interior and falling to the trap 
evenly. In this case the side drains will have 3 inches fall from the 
sides to the trap. 
Let the floor be formed of bricks, beginning wiih a brick-on-edge 
all round, and next to this 3-inch drain tiles, which should be laid 
about 1 inch in the ground, or so that they are level with the bricks 
on tbe other side laid on the flat. The whole of the space within 
the drains should be laid with bricks on the flat, and when this is 
done a floor should be made sloping from the centre to the sides, and 
from the interior to the trap, having the bricks level with the drain 
tilts and trap. Into this will fall all water originating within the 
house, and thence into the main drain b. The side drain will come 
to the trap by the channels made in the stone. The floor should now 
be run with cement, removing the drain tiles and putting a board to 
keep the bricks in the proper position until the process is complete 
and the cement 6et, then the tiles should be relaid, and those on the 
trap should be run in cement and cut so as to sait the stone. When 
this is done no water can escape but to the sides, and thence away 
by the drains, but as bricks are porous it is well to brush the floor 
thrice over with cement brought to the consistency of paint. After 
this is thoroughly set place brinks on the flat, each brick isolated, with 
3 inches between each course, and the same between the ends, which 
will leave spaces of 3 inches between each course, both lengthwise 
and crosswise. The light spaces are the isolated bricks on the-tlat, 
and the shaded parts the spaces. These bricks should be laid in 
cement, and be bevel-pointed round to keep them firm. These bricks 
will keep the ice off the floor, and will allow the water to run off. 
e, e, e, Are 9-inch walls, which should have foundations below the 
floor of the ice house, and a course below asphalted, and one above 
the asphalted course laid in cement. Along the spaces /, /, a diain 
should belaid, and join the drain b where that crosses the spaces. 
Outside the spaces is h, another drain, that is intended to keep away 
all water from the enclosed space, and is the only drain, except b, 
that is to be below the excavations. It should have a syphon just 
clear of the house to keep back any air that may find its way up b, 
and keep it from the drains in the spaces/,/', which should have 
syphons at their junction with b. i, i, is an area which will require a 
wall,/,/, all round to keep up the soil—4£ inches thick if an exca¬ 
vation be made not more than 2 feet, and 9 inches thick if one deeper 
than 2 feet, 7c, 7c , Tc, 7c, are 6-inch iron pipes that have one end 
opening in the space/at the bottom, and the other brought to the 
external air, and should there be provided with a screw valve that is 
driven on an indiarubber washer, and so as to exclude air or admit it 
at will. I, l, l, are tongued and grooved doors made of sound well- 
seasoned oak or elm. They should have oaken frames, with an mdia- 
rubbei band all round, so that there will be little possibility of an 
passing. The fastenings of the doors ought to be brass, as iron 
corrodes and gets out of order, m is a porch having a stone floor or 
other hard material that will do for breaking ice on when filling, and 
as a storage of any straw or straw shutters that may be required tor 
stopping up the spaces between the doors l, l, l ; m is also provided 
with a door in halves. With the exception of the outer door of the 
porch the door should neither be painted nor varnished. 
Fig. 7 is section through A b, and shows n, the ice house, o, 9-inch 
space between the two 9-inch walls. It is provided with a 12-mch 
iron pipe, p, with two branches, each 6 inches in diameter, the ends 
of which are brought to the external air 6 inches clear of all sub¬ 
stances, and closed or opened at will with air-proof valves. _ T he pipes 
at the bottom of the space are drain tiles, and those immediately above 
them are those named in fig. 6, 7c (they not occurring in the section 
A b, are introduced to show their utility). The space o is, of course, 
filled with air, and therefore at the period when ice forms the external 
air will be considerably below freezing-point, whilst that of the space 
o will be above it. From the structure being 6 feet below the surface 
it derives considerable heat from it, and will not be influenced readily 
by atmospheric changes. In the memorable winter of I860 61 the 
temperature of the earth at 1 foot was never lower than 36°, that of 
the atmosphere falling to 3°. In a space of this kind we shall have a 
temperature at midwinter of not less than 43° to 45° ; and as the ice 
in n will melt according to the temperature of the air it is surrounded 
by, and as it must derive its heat from o, we can by displacing the 
air in it by opening the valves of p let out air at 43°, and by those of 
7c replace it with that at, it may be, 20°. In any case, at the time of 
filling the ice house, n, we should have in o a temperature below 
freezing, the parts surrounding beiDg thoroughly frozen by the cold¬ 
ness of the air of o. Were o earth it would have a temperature of 
40° to 43°, and the ice in n wou'd be melted by the air heated by the 
higher-temperatured surrounding material, of which the heat will 
keep increasing, until in July it will be from 55° to 60°, afterwards 
gradually declining to the winter minimum of 43’ to 45°. In our 
case, o, or the air in it, can also be warmed by the temperature of 
the surrounding substance ; hence arises the necessity of enclosing it 
with a non-conductor. I propose, therefore, that we fill q, q, with 
very dry sawdust (kiln-dried, if possible, but not browned very much), 
and put in hard, it not being possible to make it too tight. The 
sawdust should be isolated from the ground at the bottom of q, 
making over the drain a half circle of “ culvert ” tiles to keep damp 
from rising and wetting the sawdust. 
Above the ground line it will be seen that our arrangements as 
regards the exterior are of wood ; in fact, we construct over the ice a 
summer-house, only we fill the interior with ice, and have seats, r, r, 
all round outside under cover of the roof ; s, s is lined with deal 
battens, 4 inches by 3 inches, and covered with half-inch boards 
doubled ; first one thickness close, and then the other upon them, so 
that the last boards will cover the joints of the first. The sides and 
roof are done alike, and to give a neat appearance the sides may have 
fixed on the outside larch poles sawn up the middle, from which the 
bark is removed, and when dry varnished. The seats may be formed 
of like material, also the floor t over open area u. The supports for 
the projecting roof are larch poles barked and varnished, the bases of 
which are slightly elevated on stones and dowelled in. The roof 
should be thatched with heather a foot to 18 inches thick, and if this 
be done neatly we have a structure anything but unornamental, and 
invaluable for shelter from storm or heat and as a resting place. 
But let us return to the interior. The roof of the ice well is of 
