Cork insulation; a complete illustrated textbook on cork insulation ...

348 CORK INSULATION
come within the scope of the subject of the proper <strong>insulation</strong>
of a refrigerator, but they are touched upon here because
<strong>insulation</strong> was frequently and erroneously blamed for such
interior odors in the days of the early trials at insulating
household refrigerators with corkboard.
155.—The Modern <strong>Cork</strong>board Insulated Household Re-
frigerator.—Early ice storages, ship's cold stores, cold storage
houses and breweries were insulated with air spaces and loose
fill materials in hollow walls with reasonable success, all
things considered, during the days when ice was employed
as the refrigerant. The advent of mechanical refrigeration
and lower temperatures in cold stores increased the condensa-
tion of moisture within the air spaces and the loose fill insu-
lating materials to such a degree, however, as to frequently
destroy the insulating capacity of the walls entirely. For it
will be recalled, from an elaboration of the subject in the
chapter on "Measurement of Heat, Change of State, and
Humidity," that the capacity of air to absorb and hold moist-
ure, or water vapor, in suspension, varies with its temperature
and, warm air being capable of holding more moisture than
cold air, when warm air is cooled, its moisture capacity is
lowered until a temperature is reached at which the air can
no longer hold all of its moisture in suspension, which point
is the point of saturation, or the dew point. By insulating
the exposed surfaces of cold stores with a sufficient thickness
of a material having its air content, upon which it must
depend for its heat retarding properties, divided into an in-
finitesimal number of microscopic or colloidal particles dis-
persed throughout the material in hermetically sealed cells,
so that such air loses its normal properties as air, the precipita-
tion of water vapor within such <strong>insulation</strong> or within the build-
ing structure back of the <strong>insulation</strong>, due to exposure of chilled
surfaces to the atmosphere, was eliminated. Pure corkboard
was the insulating material that met these conditions, both in
theory and practice, when properly manufactured and when
properly applied in intimate contact with the surfaces to be
insulated.
Borrowing another page from the experience and practice
of commercial cold storage plants, through the advice of a
;