SC - Caernarfon Castle cold room
Phil Anderson
phil at spis.co.nz
Thu May 25 17:01:20 PDT 2000
On the topic of the Caernarfon Castle cold room, Allison writes, in
response to Stefan:
> Read it again. This castle has sea water running through the cold
> room.
Um, read the original description carefully. It says:
"According to the design, they diverted sea water into a
stream which flowed through the center of a stone room."
That could mean it has a stream of seawater, or they could be
adding sea water to a freshwater stream. Regardless, it's rather hard
to see how one could get a regularly flowing stream of seawater,
what with tides and all. (Yes, I do know about the intriguing example
of one on whichever Mediterranean island it is, but that's a very
special case...)
> It will not completely freeze because of the salt content. I have seen
> 'scales' of ice floating on the North Sea, but the sea was not frozen. The
> water, though, is very near freezing in temperature.
Arctic water temperatures are around the "ice point" of seawater,
which is around -2 C, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Temperatures around southern Britain will be rather warmer than
that, a long way above 15 F.
The mechanism described simply doesn't seem a plausible way of
getting such low temperatures. Cold, sure. 15 F, no way unless the
outside temperature is down around that level. Even 34 F sounds
rather low for summer unless they were using ice.
I have to reject Stefan's suggestion of Celsius temperatures too -
that would be far too warm. 15 C is 60 F; 34C is 93 F.
This topic is an interesting example of someone citing a presumably
reputable source which makes claims that just don't sound plausible
when you look at them. I can't think why the National Trust would be
wrong (ignoring the possibility of a typo), but I also find it very hard
to believe they're right.
Edward Long-hair
Southron Gaard, Caid
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