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.