AIR CONDITIONING
Back in the 30's the mines were idle and, though we really
couldn't afford frills, Dad occasionally had his mine
carpenters
or electricians to the house to give them work. If you
haven't
lived there, you would never realize how SE Kansas resembles
Death Valley in the summer. Dad was a good engineer but was
a
bit impractical at times. He decided that we needed some
air-
conditioning for the house and had the carpenters build a
big
evaporative cooler outside one of the living room windows.
The
rotating drum in the thing was about three feet in diameter
by
three feet long, in a great plywood box with a water trough,
and
a big blower. I thought it worked great but Mother
discovered
the living room furniture coming unglued, and that was the
end
of that!
The next project along this line was an attic blower. Again
the
carpenters and electricians arrived, to put a big
centrifugal
blower (from the mines) up in the attic. It had a belt-drive
motor
of about 5-horsepower driving it. They cut a big opening in
the
upstairs hall ceiling and installed a nicely hinged and
counter-
weighted door about 4 X 6 in size. This could be pulled down
to
open against the hall wall.
The evening arrived to try the new system out. Dad pulled
down
the ceiling door and hit the starter switch - the blower
began
to roar, and the ceiling door got sucked closed with a
tremendous
crash. Ceiling plaster went flying - Mother had a fit. The
crew
came back and changed pulleys and belts to slow the thing
down
by a factor of five or so and put in some noise abatement,
and
eventually got the system to working pretty well. Each of
the six
upstairs bedrooms could have a window up a foot for a nice
breeze.