SC -cooling Creme' Bastarde

Stefan li Rous stefan at texas.net
Tue May 23 21:59:44 PDT 2000


Constance de LaRose said:

> However, in answer to the original question, I looked into the design for 
> Caernarfon Castle last night because I remembered something about a cold room 
> off the kitchen.  According to the design, they diverted sea water into a 
> stream which flowed through the center of a stone room.  Around the edges of 
> the room are shelves where they could place containers or other things they 
> want to keep cool.  In the center of the diverted stream they place two stone 
> boxes (no notes on what kind of stone or how the boxes were made) around 
> which the stream flowed constantly and in which they could put those things 
> which they wanted to keep especially cold.  The notes from the national trust 
> say that the average mean temperature in the room is 34 degrees and that the 
> temperature in the boxes runs about 15 degrees (Fahrenheit).  They also note 
> that the boxes are large enough to hold a full boar carcass in each and the 
> room would hold enough to feed 200 people for more than a month. 
 
> At any rate, it would appear that they not only had the ability to 
> refrigerate but also to freeze.

Ummm. I think you should check your temperature numbers again. Are you sure
these were given in Fahrenheit and not Celsius? 15 degrees Fahrenheit is
quite 
a lot below freezing. If that water stops flowing or even slows it is likely
to freeze solid fairly quickly. Any spray from the water will freeze, eventually
blocking access or possibly the water. For the same reason, the water
has to
come from somewhere and not be frozen at that time.

I think 15 degrees Celsius is more likely. And if this is a British
publication I would expect them to use Celsius rather than the Fahrenheit
scale.

So, basically the room will keep things cool, but not cold.

Thanks for the interesting info.

- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****


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