Bedroom on Stilts 10 Degrees Cooler Than on the Ground (Feb, 1930)
Bedroom on Stilts 10 Degrees Cooler Than on the Ground
WHEN A. Winters, a Californian, needed a cooler sleeping place he built a bedroom on top of a forty-foot steel tower, up in the air where the breezes are blowing. The room is large enough for a bed, two chairs and a small table. It is reached by means of a small electric elevator through a trap door in the floor, a convenience suitable for many a two and three-story house. Records show that the temperature at the height of the sleeping room averages ten degrees cooler than on the ground and it is particularly suited for low regions where vapors and fogs lie close to the earth. The chamber makes an ideal place for reading or studying.
I’ed think getting a decent shot going at speed would be impossible...
It needs a ladder, in case something goes wrong with the lift. Also, I wouldn’t want to be up there if it got windy.
Comment by Stephen — July 18, 2011 @ 5:10 am
Oh, come on. California never has wind storms or earthquakes and such.
Comment by Toronto — July 18, 2011 @ 7:32 am
What a fantastic idea for a ham shack! — No more tower climbing to tune the antenna. — KA7GPT
Comment by mburdoo — July 18, 2011 @ 7:46 am
The chamber makes an ideal place for reading or studying … and to get away from the wife!
Comment by Buddy — July 18, 2011 @ 9:01 am
Hope he wasn’t a sleepwalker.
Comment by Paul — July 18, 2011 @ 10:19 am
@ Paul – If he was he wouldn’t be for long.
Comment by Hirudinea — July 18, 2011 @ 2:30 pm
For all that cost and trouble…..could’nt they just put in a bigger attict fan? Or even a dedicated one for the bed room?
Comment by Michael C — July 18, 2011 @ 3:46 pm
That could be handy for an astronomy telescope housing to raise it above tree tops nest to the forest. Or at least where I’m living in currently.
Comment by Jari — July 18, 2011 @ 6:31 pm
@Michael C: I’m not even sure if attic fans existed in 1930. They may have had ceiling fans for inside the house, but I wonder how useful they were – the one I had was a waste of electricity.
Comment by Charlene — July 19, 2011 @ 1:34 pm
Charlene » That question of when attic fans entered the picture intrigued me so I checked old Popular Mechanics. In the July 1935 issue is this suggestion to ventilate your attic with an attached fan.
I think that this means that we can be pretty sure that there weren’t attic fans the way that we think about them in 1930.
I’m not counting the “model electric home” on this 1923 issue since that was viewed as experimental. That is however the earliest occurrence of the term “attic fan” at least in Popular Mechanics.
Comment by John — July 19, 2011 @ 2:34 pm
Actually I did not even think about it, I somehow had the ideal “Whole House fans” as I’ve found they properly called, went back farther in time. I still think any kind of fan arrangement would be better than this contraption
Comment by Michael C — July 19, 2011 @ 3:39 pm
Michael C » Actually whole house fans and attic fans are two different things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attic_fan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole-house_fan
Comment by John — July 19, 2011 @ 4:58 pm
Yes I know, the use of the terms has changed a little over time, or at least the slang. In my orignal post I had in my minfdthe fans my parents refered to as attic fans. They where a single big fan in the attic that pulled air in the windows and out the attic.
Comment by Michael C — July 19, 2011 @ 5:12 pm