House and Garden 
PREVENTING FROZEN WATER-PIPES 
CIR JAMES CRITCHTON 
^ BROWNE has offered a sug¬ 
gestion for the cure of frozen water- 
pipes. Speaking at a congress of plun b- 
ers, he pointed out that water-pipes 
would never burst if protected by a 
vacuum. In the experiments at the 
Royal Institute upon liquid air and 
liquid oxygen, fluids were dealt with at 
a temperature of i8o degrees below 
freezing point. At such a temperature 
it would have been impossible to work 
with the fluids under ordinary condi¬ 
tions, but in tubes or beakers with 
vacuum jackets they were handled with 
the utmost facility, and poured from one 
to another without any difficulty, be¬ 
cause the temperature could not pass 
through the vacuum. “Why,” asked 
Sir James, “could not plumbers in\ent 
a vacuum pipe A space even an eig hth 
of an inch of a high vacuum would be 
sufficient. Enclose the pipe to be pro¬ 
tected in an outer tube, exhaust the air 
from the intervening space, and hermet¬ 
ically seal the enclosing tube at the 
ends; then no changes of temperature 
could affect the protected pipe.” Crit¬ 
icising this suggestion, a correspondent 
says the idea is not new% as he suggested 
it ten years ago. He has done more; he 
has tried to utilize it, but found that as 
the inner pipe must be supported 
throughout its length, these points of 
contact form conductors. A simpler 
plan, he says, is to enclose the pipe in a 
bituminous cylinder, w hich, w hen 
slightly warmed, can be curved or bent, 
thus adapting both tubes simultaneously 
to any necessary curves, as well as of 
affording better facilities for jointing 
and connecting.— St. Louis Globe-Demo¬ 
crat. 
THE GIFT OF TEE DUG D’AUMALE TO 
THE INSTITUTE 
IV/T LIMBOURG, one of the testa- 
'*-^-*-* mentary executors of the late 
Due d’Aumale, gives some estimate of 
the value of the Chantilly collection. 
Since 1886, for books, manuscripts, and 
various works of art added to the Conde 
Museum, at Chantilly, the Duke had 
expended ;^25o,ooo. The total value 
of the entire collection is estimated by 
experts to be worth ^3,000,000. There 
is a bequest of ^205,000 for additions to 
the buildings, and ^40,000 is left for 
immediate maintenance.— N. T. Times. 
will tellj/'ou 
A 
all about the things you need to know when planning to build or 
remodel a Country House,—whether a cottage, villa or mansion; the 
care oF a flower-bed, the Garden or Lawn. 
Beautifully printed and illustrated, with sane and sensible sug¬ 
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Decorating and furnishing,—Gardening, etc, by the best modern 
authorities. Regular subscription price $3.00 a year. 
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