Vol. LXVI. No. 3004 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 24, 1907. 
WEEKLY. *1.00 PE It YEAR. 
BUILDING A STABLE AND ICEHOUSE . 
The Use of Concrete . 
I wish to construct a cow stable with dairy, a root cellar, 
and icehouse. I wish to make these of cement, and upon 
the side of a hill. The cow stable and dairy would be, 
perhaps, 80 feet by 20. Alongside of that 1 wish to put 111 
a root cellar, and thought of making it 15 by 110; and then, 
still further to the west, an ice house, capable of bolding 
100 tons. My land slopes sharply to south and west. It 
<vas my intention to excavate so that the cow stable would 
face to the east, and at the southerly end I would build the 
dairy. Adjoining to the west I purpose to construct the root 
cellar. I would not have so high a roof as the cow stable 
and it would not be difficult, in fact, on account of the 
slope of the ground, to build it entirely underground, stave 
the southerly end. the entrance. Would that be advisable? 
To the west I want to put up the icehouse, and as the 
ground again fal's sharply, I could make it entirely under 
ground (or nearly so), save for the entrance to the south, 
using the earth excavated for the purpose of rhe construction 
of the buildings to cover up the roofs of the icehouse and 
root cellar, if such be a desirable mode of construction. 
I was anxious to know whether 
(assuming that the wall of the 
cow stable would be at least one 
foot thick, of cement) it would 
do to build the root cellar im¬ 
mediately adjoining, increasing, 
perhaps, the thickness of what 
would otherwise he the wall of 
the cow stable to 18 inches, and 
using the same wall for both 
buildings or would I get better 
results if I permitted two or 
more feet of earth to intervene 
between the two walls? A 
similar question arises as to the 
connection or separation be¬ 
tween the ice house and the 
root cellar. 
A prominent firm of dealers in 
cement recommends strongly 
the building of icehouses of ce¬ 
ment, provided only the walls 
are double, and, according 
to their directions, they should 
be sealed, top and bottom, so 
as to have a dead air space. 
Other directions for building 
icehouses, read by me, state 
that the air should be allowed 
to circulate between the dou¬ 
ble walls, in that case of wood, 
packed with sawdust. Does 
a different rule apply to ce¬ 
ment? What is the cubic ca¬ 
pacity of a ton of ice? In 
other words, what are the num¬ 
ber of cubic feet required to 
store away 100 tons? The 
stony condition of my farm, 
and my distance from the rail¬ 
road station, combine to make 
concrete about as inexpensive a 
method of construction as I can 
use. The trucking of the lum¬ 
ber is a very heavy expense. I 
wish to avoid this. t. s. o. 
Nothing is said to indicate where the hay and bed¬ 
ding for the dairy stable is to be provided for. We 
have assumed, in answering his questions that it is to 
be provided for by space above the cow stable, and 
have drawn a door plan (Fig. 313), representing one 
solution of his problem. This floor plan contemplates 
two rows of cows instead of one in the south, exposed 
end, of the building, and a root cellar, a cool room 
and dairy room separated by a hallway from the cow 
stable, in the back portion of the building and there¬ 
fore in the bank. The plan further contemplates the 
placing of the icehouse'above the cool room, and the 
root cellar so that, without moving the ice, a cool 
room adjacent to the dairy room can be provided, all 
under one roof. A driveway into the barn on the 
second floor is indicated on the uphill side, which 
would permit roots to be unloaded through the floor 
into the root cellar, hay and grain to be put into the 
barn above, and the ice into the ice-chamber, or the 
ice can be tilled in from the outside if that is more 
desirable. With the icehouse over the cool room and 
root cellar a feed room can be provided over the dairy 
room, if that is desired. With such a plan the barn 
on the north end and on the east side would be en¬ 
tirely below ground for the first story to the south 
side of the driveway. The cow stable would be above 
ground so as to have easy access and abundance of 
light, and the hallway and dairy room would be above 
ground far enough to give an abundance of light. The 
whole structure as planned would have dimensions 32 
feet wide by 70 feet long, the root cellar being 13 by 
22 inside. If less number of cows are desired the 
building may be proportionately shortened. 
If it is desired to have all the compartments named 
single story and the ice on the ground floor, we would 
suggest that it might be better to adopt the same 
general floor plan, but to widen the back end of the 
building so as to drop the icehouse in between the 
dairy room and cool room, and the root cellar so 
that one side of the icehouse could be brought against 
the cool room, and it would probably be better to make 
the floor of the dairy room and cool room far enough 
below the bottom of the icehouse so that the drain¬ 
age from the icehouse and cold air from it can be 
taken into the cool room. The wall of the root cellar 
may be made common to the stable and the cellar and 
this portion of the wall need not be hollow, as the 
necessary warmth would be provided for by contact 
with the stable, so the wall between the root cellar 
and the cool room need not be hollow, but if the 
icehouse is dropped down so as to stand between the 
root cellar and the cool room, the icehouse wall would 
have to be hollow all around except on the side 
adjacent to the cool room, which would need to be 
solid for its cooling effect on the room. 
PRINCIPLE OF WALL INSULATION—We are 
convinced that to provide simply a hollow wall with a 
closed dead air chamber in the wall will not be a 
sufficient insulation for economic storing of ice. Air 
is a good insulating medium only when it cannot cir¬ 
culate, on the principle of convection currents. The 
masonry of concrete walls is an excellent conductor 
of heat, so that even though closed dead air chambers 
are provided in the hollow walls the good conduction 
of the outside layer of the wall in the case of the ice¬ 
house so warms the air lying against it that it becomes 
lighter, while the cold air lying against the icehouse 
side forces the warm air to the top of the air cham¬ 
ber, the cooled air falling to the bottom. The result 
is that a continuous circulation is set up, the warm 
air coming against the icehouse wall at the top, helping 
to melt the ice, while the cooled air falls to the bot¬ 
tom, coming against the heated wall on the outside, to 
be warmed and rise again. The air thus acts as a 
continual and effective carrier of heat from the good 
conducting outside warmed wall to the good conduct¬ 
ing inside cold wall. In illustration of the lack of in¬ 
sulation of a dead air chamber it may be said that it 
has been found necessary in shipping liquid air to 
enclose it in a double walled flask so constructed that 
a perfect vacuum between 
the two walls may be form¬ 
ed, by exhausting the air. 
When this is not done the 
conduction of the air is so 
great that the liquid air evap¬ 
orates too rapidly to permit 
of shipment. 
If, therefore, cement is to 
be used for icehouses, as I 
think it may well be, provi¬ 
sion must be made to pre¬ 
vent the circulation of the 
air in the air chambers. This 
can best be done by filling 
the hollow space with wood 
shavings, sawdust or min¬ 
eral wool; something which 
is itself a poor conductor 
and which subdivides the air 
into small volumes and so 
entangles it that convection 
currents cannot be establish¬ 
ed to any appreciable extent. 
There is a difficulty, how¬ 
ever, in the use of wood 
shavings or sawdust to fill 
dead air spaces in the walls 
of icehouses, growing out of 
the fact that concrete, as or¬ 
dinarily constructed, is not 
capillarily impervious to wa¬ 
ter ; indeed, ordinary ce¬ 
ment concrete is a good 
capillary medium, water be¬ 
ing drawn into it strongly 
from damp soil. Because of 
this fact the moisture from the icehouse would be 
likely to make the wood shavings or sawdust suffi¬ 
ciently damp to permit them in course of time to 
mold and decay. This difficulty, however, may be 
overcome if the dry wood shavings or sawdust are 
first saturated with a thin grade of coal tar, using 
only so much of the tar as the shavings or sawdust 
can readily take up without at all draining away. 
By this means each particle would become non-absorb¬ 
ent of water, and incapable of supporting fungous 
growth. With the air spaces filled with this mate¬ 
rial the air would be entangled, and the packing 
would be permanent and indefinitely effective. In the 
storing of ice it would be necessary to provide as 
much as a cubic foot of space for every 50 pounds 
of ice in order to provide for lack of close packing 
and the weight of ice being less than that of water. 
On this basis a chamber 16 by 20, 13 feet high, will 
store 100 tons. The plan shown on next page, Fig. 31.3, 
may be modified if conditions render it advisable to 
attempt some alterations. f. h. king. 
A DAIRY GENTLEMAN OF GUERNSEY PEDIGREE. Fig. 312. 
