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Heating, Lighting, and Refrigeration: Place

Ice Bags. To preserve small quantities of ice, make two bags of heavy woolen goods, one of which should be 2 or 3 inches wider on all sides than the other. Place the smaller bag inside of the larger and stuff the space between with canvas. A block of ice placed in a bag of this description will be preserved as long as in an ordinary ice box. A small bit of rubber tubing should be inserted at one corner to provide drainage. A Cooling Box. -In tropical regions where ice is scarce, or unobtainable, it is customary to construct a watertight box, say 28 inches square and 10 inches deep, which should be filled with water. A shelf 30 by 30 inches is suspended from this by four posts, 2 by 2 inches and 36 inches long. Common burlap sacks are tacked closely about the sides. Pieces of woolen stuff, such as old woolen underwear, are placed around the edge of the box, with one end in the water and the other hanging outside and resting on the burlap. The whole is suspended in a shady place where the air can circulate freely around and through it, and where the sun will not shine on it. The air passing through the burlap causes evaporation of the water, and the burlap is kept dripping wet by the woolen stuff drawing water from the box as evaporation takes place. This is the principle by which the box is cooled. When the box is first filled the burlap should be thoroughly wet. Afterwards, if filled regularly, it will keer saturated. The box is filled with water. On one side the burlap is allowed to hang free over the suspended shelf. This curtain is the door of the cooler. Butter placed on the shelf will keep perfectly solid. Even where ice is plentiful this is a convenient way to cool hot dishes that you do not wish to put in the refrigerator.

Care of the Refrigerator.-Put a saucer of unslacked lime in the refrigerator to keep it sweet. Place in the ice chest two or three lumps of charcoal as large as an egg, changing them two or three times a month.

They will absorb all odors of cooked food and the like. Keep everything in the refrigerator covered. Have a number of glass fruit jars with screw tops in which to place liquids, and a glass jar for drinking water. This will save cracking off ice.

Few housekeepers take the necessary pains to keep the ice box scrupulously clean. It should be wiped out daily, and when the ice is exhausted, before a new piece is put in, a strong solution of caustic potash or sal soda should be poured through the waste pipes to cleanse and disinfect them.

To Break Ice. - Use an awl or a darning needle and tap it gently with a hammer. Make a row of holes across the ice, which will crack straight through beneath.

To Preserve Ice.--To preserve ice it must be isolated and surrounded with nonconducting material. There must be no access of the outer air to the ice except on top. Cold air is heavier than warm, hence the air which has been cooled by the melting of the ice settles upon its surface and cannot be displaced by the warmer air from above unless the cold air is allowed to escape or is displaced by a current, which must be avoided. The larger and colder a block of ice is, and the less it is exposed to warmth before being placed in the refrigerator, the longer it will keep.

Ice varies in temperature all the way from below zero to 30° F. before melting. Hence the fact that a piece of ice is not all melted by exposure to warm air is no criterion that it is not losing heat and rapidly approaching the melting point. If a piece of ice must be exposed to warm air for a time before being placed in the refrigerator it should be wrapped up in a heavy cloth or newspapers. If these are left on after the ice has been put in the refrigerator, so much the better. The larger the block of ice, the slower it melts. Hence it is economy to purchase ice in as large quantities as the refrigerator will hold.