1900 Harry Johnsons Bartenders Manual (Mixellany)

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be placed should be perfectly dry and well ventilated. The box should be made of the best material, long and large enough, and sufficiently convenient to serve the purposes of your present trade, and even larger than the present demands, to meet the possible re- quirements of a growing business. It is much better to have it built sufficiently large for the future time so that you may not be troubled by having it enlarged or altered. The ice box should not be nailed together, but built in sections, which are joined together by screws. It might happen that it was necessary to remove the ice box to some other place, and this could readily be done when it is in sections. Otherwise you would destroy the box in tearing it apart. The bottom of the box should, particularly, be made of the best lumber. Before the bottom of the box is filled with charcoal or sawdust, it is proper to put in a layer of good, solid felt paper, on both sides of the wood, so that the filling is packed between the two layers of paper. This will prevent air or heat from entering in between the cracks and crevices which would ob- viously heighten the temperature and evaporate the cold air. The side walls of the box should be made the same as the bottom, and they should reach as high as the ceiling of the basement or cellar, unless the ceiling is extraordinarily high. In that case, the box should be made the average height, which is about six feet six inches. The vacant space above the box should be boarded, filled, and boxed up with felt paper, right against the ceiling, in order to keep the hot air from settling down on the top of the box. When you are obliged to have a large-sized box for your business, it may be possible that one door is not enough, when, of course, two should be made. Have the ice chamber constructed so that it will only come down as far as to allow the placing of barrels under-