Drying house

“ As to dryness of air, there is little which the individual can do except to choose a dry climate in which to live or spend his vacations. Unfortunately, there is not as yet any simple and cheap way of drying house air which is too moist, as is often the case in warm weather.
Humidity
In the cold season, indoor air is often too dry and may be moistened with advantage. This may be done, to some extent, by heating water in large pans or open vessels. But for efficient moistening of the air, either a very large evaporating-surface or steam jets are required. ”

“ In most cases it is found sufficient to roll crepe thin for air-drying in order to prevent the appearance of coloured spots. It is found, however, that some drying-houses are so badly planned and constructed, that quick drying under even the best of conditions is a practical impossibility. ”

“ Occasionally a little lumber for interior finish, where an extra fine job was desired, was run through the dry-house for a final drying, and later, after machine-made sash, doors, and blinds began to take the place of the old hand-made goods, being generally made from air-dried stock, they were sometimes put through the dry-house before being wedged and pinned. ”

“ Here, in this apartment, paved with red brick, we see several pieces of canvas drying. It is a large room, very clean, here and there a washing trough, and in one corner two or three large horizontal baths. The appearance is that of a wash-house, except that all the assistants are men, and not washerwomen; there is plenty of water everywhere, and the floor is well drained to allow of its running off. We are to be favored with a sight of the whole process, and this is the first operation.
Into one of the horizontal baths, measuring about 5 by 4 feet, is put the salting solution. ”

“ The home laundry must be well ventilated and lighted, and in the basement if possible, for obvious reasons, the chief being the relief thus afforded to the otherwise congested kitchen and overburdened kitchen stove, while at the same time one other menace to health—the steam generated by the washing and drying—is removed from the main part of the house. It is highly essential that the laundry be properly and completely equipped for the work of washing, boiling, drying, and ironing. ”

“ A quick-drying color can be slowed up and made to dry to any required time without injuring it, while if ground in a slow drying preparation, it cannot possibly be quickened without injuring more or less the working and covering properties. The working is certainly important, and the covering more so. The covering property should be strong, because the fewer coats of color on a job the better. Thus a quick dryer saves both labor and time. ”

“ Generally speaking, a great advance has been made in the design of crepe drying-houses during recent years, and it has been possible even to improve older ones so as to bring them into line with the more modern buildings. ”

“ Drying is a troublesome business, and it must be done in a room where there is a window or door to admit a draught, when necessary, as it sometimes is. But if you have only a small quantity the drying can be managed somehow. ”

“ Again, the drying of floors after they have been washed is always a difficulty, particularly in winter, and is the more felt in the case of the bedrooms, which have, when single-bedded or small, but a slight current of air through them, and consequently dry slowly. ”

“ It has been imagined that sun and wind alone dry clothes but the fact is that air is the drying medium and therefore the best dryers provide a good circulation of air plus heat. Dry air has a tremendous love for moisture and eats it up as a blotter eats up ink. The warmer the air the more moisture it will hug. This would seem enough, just to bake the clothes, but baking does not remove odors and does render them yellow; they are unventilated and smell like the laundry, so people are prone to say “Sun drying or nothing.” ”

“ If applied to a double-floored building, this disadvantage would, from the stronger draught, and consequent larger supply of air, be less likely to show itself, and the upper floor with its uniform warm air would be well adapted for drying off finished sole-leather, while the cooler and milder drying of the ground floor would be fitted both in character and situation for that wet out of the yard. ”

“ Hence, constant change is necessary in order that the moisture given off may be continually carried away.
In practice, air movement, is therefore absolutely essential to the process of drying. Heat is merely a useful accessory which serves to decrease the time of drying by increasing both the rate of evaporation and the absorbing power of the surrounding space. ”

“ Many years these dryers are not required, but from time to time they prove of vast value, and if properly constructed are much superior to any drying-floor. But so far no perfect dryer has ever been constructed. Most dryers are too expensive, costing from three thousand to seven thousand dollars, when of a capacity to dry from twenty-five to fifty tons of green grapes at one charge. Nearly all late dryers are constructed with a fan, which sucks the air out through one end of the building. ”

“ The soil is rendered cold by evaporation. If water cannot pass through the land by drainage, either natural or artificial, it must escape, if at all, at the surface, by evaporation. Now, it is a fact well known, that the heat disappears, or becomes latent, by the conversion of water into vapor. Every child knows this, practically, at least, who, in Winter, has washed his hands and gone out without drying them. ”

“ In kitchens one servant may perform the work of two by a close packing of all the conveniences for cooking and such arrangements as shall save time and steps. Washing-day may be divested of its terrors by suitable provisions for water, hot and cold; by wringers, which save at once the strength of the linen and of the laundress; and by drying-closets connected with ranges, where articles can in a few moments be perfectly dried. These, with the use of a small mangle, such as is now common in America, reduce the labors of the laundry one half. ”

“ The drying room, or box, as the case may be, must be kept cool, and if any current of air is induced it should be cool and constant, so that the drying may proceed with perfect regularity until the process is complete. ”

“ No parts of timber require the perfect extraction of the sap so much as those that are to be joined.
When the plastering is finished, a considerable time should be allowed for the work to get dry again before the skirtings, the floors, and other joiners’ work be fixed. Drying will be much accelerated by a free admission of air, particularly in favourable weather. When a building is thoroughly dried at first, openings for the admission of fresh air are not necessary when the precautions against any new accessions of moisture have been effectual. ”

“ Meanwhile, the water-dissipating forces of the dry-farm section are not wholly objectionable, for whether the land be cultivated or not, they tend to hasten the formation of dry surface layers of soil which guard against excessive evaporation. It is in moist cloudy weather, when the drying process is slow, that evaporation causes the greatest losses of soil-moisture. ”

“ In designing garden buildings, I always strongly urge in connection with the heating system a warmed potting shed and a comfortable messroom for the men, and over this a perfectly dry loft for drying and storing such matters as shading material, nets, mats, ropes, and sacks. If this can be warmed, so much the better. There must also be a convenient and quite frost-proof place for winter storing of vegetable roots and such plants as Dahlias, Cannas, and Gladiolus ”

“ Whenever possible have all the hospital clothes dried in the open air. No drying room, however well constructed, can compare with nature’s process of drying by fresh air and sunshine. The best method of bleaching is by the use of the sun rays while the clothes are wet. However, in planning for laundry work, it is never wise to depend entirely on open air drying. An artificial dryer is a necessity where promptness is required. Quick drying is essential to good work. Where bad work is done, the trouble is oftener in the washing than in the drying. ”

“ From the deckle edge it dries inward and the last spot to dry is the centre of each sheet. The dry workers, with a hand-tool like a T square, hang their sheets over the russet, cow-hair ropes; then when the rope is loaded, pull it aloft; but the art of drying lies in the regulation of heat and air. The heat is great, yet regular; every operation is ordered for cleanliness and purity, so that not a speck of dust may fall to mar a sheet.
Here came Matthew Trenchard upon a question of temperature. ”

“ Many merchants dread window washing day. It shouldn’t be a bugbear when a simple method like the following is understood. Wait until the sun is off the window, for if the sun is shining on the glass it will look streaked after drying, irrespective of the amount of muscle expended in the rubbing. ”

“ One of the great secrets in all drying operations is to have a constant current of fresh hot air playing on the goods to be dried, this absorbs the moisture they contain, and the water-charged air thus produced must be taken away as quickly as possible. ”

“ Colors, especially delicate shades, should not be allowed to hang in the sun only during the actual time required for drying a black made by our process; it greatly improves upon exposure to the sunlight, giving it an advantage over all others. Baths of logwood or old garnet baths that you are desirous of saving for future use, it will be well to remove them from the copper or tin basins or pans to wooden buckets or crockery jars, and cover them up for the purpose of excluding all foreign matter. ”

“ Since air circulation is as essential as the proper degree of heat, and as its contact with the material to be dried depends upon its free circulation, it is necessary that the dampers for its admittance into, and its exit from, the drying room be efficiently and properly operated. ”

“ And, then, the pipes do not freeze; while in even the tiniest three-roomed house there is usually a bath and a shower—though sometimes only in the scullery or back kitchen—with water laid on. And, after all, in a hot country cleanliness is not that affair of infinite toil that it is in a cold one; there is usually a day or so each week, even in the wettest weather, when there is enough sunshine to dry the clothes out of doors, so that one is saved the necessity of slinging them in lines across the kitchen, to drip on to the children’s heads, and lie in sullen grey pools on the floor. ”

“ Weather drying is cheap, but exceedingly slow, and in unfavourable weather is very unreliable. The goods, moreover, need constant attention to obtain an even result. Steam pipes are usually laid along the shed floors, and are used in winter and damp weather to accelerate the drying, and also in the final shed stove to remove the last traces of moisture. Wet weather, however, will not stand a high temperature, and steam drying is better avoided when possible. Air-dried leather still contains about 14 per cent. ”

“ Our kitchen looks like a junk shop these days, and a wet one at that, for the numbers of muckluks, fur parkies, mittens, and other garments hung [Pg 299] around the stove to dry are almost past counting, and the odor is stifling; but the clothing must be dried somewhere, and there is no other place. An engine room would be the very best spot I know for drying so many wet furs, and I wish we had one here.
In speaking to one of the men today about prospecting my claim, I told him I would furnish the grub, but he said very kindly, "I wouldn't take any grub from you. ”

“ No artificial methods of drying are at present usual, beyond good fires inside during the winter, though, as under such conditions a cob cottage is not usually considered fit to live in for several months after completion, some artificial means of drying might be worth considering. ”

“ It is probable that for the sake of economy, air-drying will be eliminated in the drying processes of the future without loss to the quality of the product, but as yet no method has been discovered whereby this may be accomplished. ”

“ Moisture tends to transfuse from the hot towards the cold portion of the wood.
11. Collapse of the cells may occur in some species while the wood is hot and plastic. This collapse is independent of subsequent shrinkage.
Theory of Kiln-drying
The dry kiln has long since acquired particular appreciation at the hands of those who have witnessed its time-saving qualities, when practically applied to the drying of timber. The science of drying is itself of the simplest, the exposure to the air being, indeed, the only means needed where the matter of time is not called into question. ”

“ The more quickly the drying can be accomplished the better. For this reason, settled dry weather should be chosen for this kind of work; if windy, all the better.
165. Family Washing.— [The following method, though not generally known, is much practiced in many families.] Melt together half a pound each of washing soda and of soap cuttings, mix well with sixteen gallons of water, pour it lukewarm over the dirty linen, and leave to soak for twenty-four hours. ”

“ If one has an attic or a cellar, temporary lines can be put up in either or both; if one has not, there may be room for a line or two in the kitchen and the clothes horse must help out. If there is no place where clothes can be hung in the house, either put the washing off, or get all the white clothes to the stage of the second rinsing, then put them into the tubs with clean water and leave them till the storm is over. ”

“ The effect produced by the two drying processes is very different: when dried by artificial heat, the exterior of the pieces becomes hardened before the interior has entirely lost its moisture, and consequently the pieces decay in the centre, although the surface may show no change. ”

“ Money has been expended in elaborate buildings which certainly do the work for which they were designed. As long, therefore, as the accommodation is sufficient, and regular shipments are the rule, it is expected that ordinary air-drying will still remain the general practice.
Of the better-known artificial driers, there are only three [134] which merit serious consideration in these pages. They are the vacuum driers, the Colombo Commercial Company’s hot-air drier, and the Michie-Golledge process.
Vacuum Driers.—The vacuum drier is so well known that only a brief description need be given. ”