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

CORKBOARD INSULATED REFRIGERATOR 357
It's the cold circulating air that cools the foods. To be sure
that you are getting good circulation, look to see that there is a
broad unobstructed drop from the ice chamber into the food compartment.
In a side-icer there should be a solid insulated partition between
the ice chamber and the food compartments. In this way the cold
air is "baffled" in any attempt to sneak out into the food compartment.
It must go down and around, collecting heat and odors from
the food and traveling all the way back to the ice chamber to be
re-cooled and deodorized. Good circulation is necessary to dryness
and absence of odors, as well as to evenness of temperature.
Both side- and top-icers are good if well designed. The sideicer
is often more convenient to ice; and the top-icer has the advantage
of a broader drop for the cold air and less difference between
the coldest and warmest place in the box, but the average temperatures
are about the same.
Sice, Too, Is Important.—Be sure that the refrigerator is big enough
for the family needs, not only in winter, but in the good old summer
time when more perishable foods are used, when the refrigerator
must work harder to keep the temperatures down and when weekend
guests are abundant. Almost, then, you need elastic, rubber refrigerators!
So buy the refrigerator for your greatest need, not your
smallest one, remembering it won't stretch.
Also, it is important that the ice chamber be the right size in
proportion to the remainder of the box. It should occupy about
one-third of the whole inner space and the smaller the box, the
larger the relative size of the ice chamber.
Generally speaking, a family of two can get along with a refrig-
erator taking fifty pounds of ice. For the average family of four,
100-pound capacity is required.
Drain Pipes and Shelves.— "I've missed all the best advantages that
came my way," said the blonde spinster, "because I had to go home
and empty the pan under the refrigerator." Don't have a pan! Be
sure there is a drain pipe, well fitted and easily disconnected, with
'a good water seal at the floor so that it lends itself gracefully both
to cleaning and readjustment without danger of leakage. This small
point means much to the housekeeper's serenity, and keeps her temper
down, though not so important in lowering refrigerator temperature!
Again, the blonde spinster needed an automatic ice man. She
got him by having an outside door into the ice chamber. No longer
did she need to be at home when the ice man came!
Shelves should be of woven steel wires, well welded to steel
bars, so that they, too, are easy to clean, hard to rust, and will
neither slip nor sag.