THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
51 
the secondary coils, displacing the warmer and lighter brine 
therein, causing it to flow up into primary coils. This estab¬ 
lishes a continuous gravity circulation which is kept up as 
long as the supply of ice and salt remains in the tank. By 
an arrangement of air ducts the air of the storage room is 
forced by means of a fan driven by gasoline engine, or any 
Plan or Ventilatinq Room 
Adove Coil Room. 
suitable power, to pass over the secondary coils of the Gravity 
Brine System. The fan is only operated at times when cool¬ 
ing or heating is required. 
COMBINATION STORAGE BUILDING. 
The illustrations show a combination winter and summer 
storage building constructed wholly above ground. The 
storage space is divided by a partition into two rooms, one 
small room 30 x 50 feet and one larger room 50 x 80 feet. 
These rooms are both cooled from one battery of pipe coils, 
but the air ducts are provided with gates so that the entire 
refrigerating effort may be applied to the smaller room. The 
refrigerating equipment is of sufficient capacity to maintain 
a temperature of 30° F. in the small room during midsum¬ 
mer, and to maintain the same temperature in both rooms 
during comparatively cold weather, say from November 1st. 
Both rooms may be used for winter storage, and during the 
summer the large room may be shut off and only the small 
room used. If it is not desired to store nursery stock during 
the summer, other goods may be taken for storage if they are 
to be had, or the plant may be shut down during the summer. 
No expense whatever is necessary when the plant is not in 
operation. 
The main part of the storage building, 50 x 110 feet, is 
essentially like many storage cellars of houses now in use, 
consisting of as plain and as cheap a building as can be built, 
and roughly insulated. At one end of the storage building 
is the ice room, which also contains the complete refrigerating 
and mechanical equipment. The ice room is 50 x 25 feet on 
the ground, 30 feet high inside and will hold about 750 tons 
of ice which is more than sufficient to maintain the tempera¬ 
ture as above stated during the year. The room containing 
the secondary coils of the Gravity Brine System is located 
on the ground. Above this room arc located the tanks con¬ 
taining the primary coils and the ventilating room contain¬ 
ing the heater for use during extremely cold weather and at 
such times as it is necessary to warm or dry the storage rooms. 
The gasoline engine or other power used for driving the fan 
for circulating the air through the storage room and for venti¬ 
lating, is also located in the room above the tank and venti¬ 
lating room, where access is had to top of tank for filling 
with ice. On this floor is also provided storage bins for salt. 
In houses the size of the one here illustrated, or larger, an 
ice crushing machine and ice elevator as shown are desirable 
especially as the power is at hand for operating same. In 
smaller plants this may be dispensed with. 
OPERATION OF THE PLANT. 
The operation of the plant is as follows:—Ice is fed to the 
ice crusher, which reduces it to about the size of hen’s eggs; 
from the crusher the ice drops into a bucket (‘levator, which 
lifts it up above the tank containing the primary coils and 
drops it into the tank through a flexible spout. It will be 
Transverse: Section -CD- 
noted that very little labor is necessary with this arrange¬ 
ment. As the ice falls into a tank a small amount of salt is 
sprinkled in. This produces a low temperature in the tank 
which cools the chloride of calcium brine in primary coils 
and causes a circulation as already described. The actual 
cooling of the storage rooms is accomplished by drawing 
the air in through small ducts on the sides of the rooms by 
means of the fan and causing it to pass over the secondary 
coils of the Gravity Brine System in coil room, where it is 
cooled; then forcing it from fan into large duct in center 
where it is evenly distributed to the rooms. When necessary 
to heat the storage rooms, the return air to coil room is caused 
to circulate over the large, jacketed heater in ventilating 
room, or fresh air for ventilation may be drawn over heater for 
ventilating and heating at the same time. When weather 
conditions are right, a large volume of air from the outside 
may be forced into the storage rooms for the purpose of cool¬ 
ing the rooms. Many times greater cooling results may be 
secured in this way than by the opening of doors and windows, 
and the cold air is evenly distributed to the rooms so that 
no freezing or harm can result, as is possible to goods near open 
windows or doors on frosty nights. 
The estimated cost of complete apparatus aside from the 
