84 
ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
Since, then, it is upon ice we must depend for the preservation of perishable pror 
erty, let us address ourselves to the characteristics of this agent, and learn how bes 
and most economically to employ it. 
Everybody knows that cold air is heavier than warm air. In short, cold and hea 
are opposite terms, and cold air and hot air differ from each other not only in the mat 
ter of temperature but are directly opposed in all their characteristics and habits 
Hot air ascends, cold air descends. Hot air expands, cold air contracts and so 01 
through all characteristics and properties are they opposed each to the other. Am 
when I have said that cold air falls, I have by necessary implication stated where thi 
ice should be located to best cool anv given space or room. 
Take, for illustration, this room. Where would you put the ice to quickest coo 
this opera house ? Knowing as you do that air coming in contact with ice immediate! 
falls , where is the best place for it? Would you put it under the floor? Would voi 
put it back on this stage, and behind these scenes ? Would you pile it at the sides o 
at the ends of the room ? If not, why not ? Why, because cold air falls, you know th« 
ice should be placed overhead, and nowhere else. It falls, as I have said because i 
is heavier than the surrounding atmosphere, and is carried down by gravitation th( 
same as a stone or other heavy body, and this law of gravitation is forever acting and 
always direct and always perpendicularly. Everything moved by gravitation move.' 
directly toward the centei of the earth, and cold air can no more descend in othei 
than perpendicular line, than can an apple fall—to use an old illustration—from you) 
neighbor’s orchard into your garden. The natural wish of the economical heart foi 
such a performance will never be realized, whether to slake a thirst for cool air or t( 
satisfy longing for cheap apples. To overcome gravitation, we must employ’otlie' 
force than gravitation. 
But the gentleman who preceded me, and whose earnestness testifies to his sin 
cerity, claims that a block of ice placed anywhere in a room, will change the entir< 
atmosphere of that room, and that ice radiates cold as a stove radiates heat A T ov 
this may be true to an extent, as a drop of water increases the volume of an ocean bul 
for purposes of refrigeration m the one case and navigation in the other the state 
ment is far from the truth. Heat is expansive, sometimes explosive It is a live 
active thing—always seeking means of escape. It propels storms and whirlwinds is 
stirring and contageous, anti, when confined, infects the whole place. Ericsson ran 
an engine with it. But cold is inert, inactive, and it is only by contact, actual contact. 
that its presence is ascertained. This room is supported by iron pillars—you mav 
experiment for yourselves, here and now. That pillar is colder than the surrounding 
atmosphere. Place your hand near to it, and see if it throws off, or radiates cold 
-N^ot at all. Now place youi hand upon it. \ ou see it is cold , and contact with it dis¬ 
closes the fact. Is it so with that lighted stove, which has asserted itself and radiated 
its heat until the two or three near benches are vacated ! 
These homely illustrations help to make clear the difference between heat and 
cold, and to show how the one is self-asserting and aggressive and the other modest 
and letiring. feince then the block of ice cannot be made available save by actual) 
contact, and since after such contact, the chilled air falls perpendicularly from it isp: 
it not clear that the ice should be placed immediately above the room to be cooled. ’ 1 
Until the eaith shall be boin again and all her laws bv the new birth reversed we 
must get our baptism of cold air as we get our showers of rain— from above. 
V1 A n J now that we have properly placed our cooling fuel, and so as to get the full 
blast of the icy flame, what else is necessary to a proper cooling room ^ One tiling 
beside cold air is requisite. It must also be dry , for goods will perish in a damp aft 
mosphere, however cold it may be. You all know that there is an amount of damp-fc 
ness in the air, and that when warm air comes in contact with a cold surface or with 
a column of colder air, water is condensed. See your ice-pitcher in a wrrm day audit 
note the diops condensed on the outside. Kow to prevent this condensation you have! 
only to keep the warm and cold currents of air separated, and this you may readily 
do by admitting the cold air from an aperture in one end or side of your room at a 1 
point lower than the aperture through which the hot air escapes. The cold air will!) 
fall and displace the warmer air, and drive it to the highest points of your room—it 
where should be arranged an opening into your ice-box—when it strikes against thell 
body of the ice, is again chilled and again descends, thus establishing an endless chain! 
oi ciicuit of cold £tud w&rni cuncnts, and without tlicir ever comiiiQf a in contact with# 
condensation of water as a result. This is nature’s perfect way of propelling nature’s 
perfect machine. And called a refrigerator. 
This is the system employed by the Star Union Line, and stands opposed to that;! 
employed by our competitors, who carry their ice in the ends instead of on the roof 
of their cars. 
On the general subject of transportation I will only say that the different lines 
have employed every means to insure the safe and prompt handling of your products 
and are making as quick time as they can afford without largely increasing the cash 
of your tianspoitation. Speed costs money, and since you are a long way from the 
