I hope to turn Hampshire hog myself, either here or hereafter, after the Pythagorean system.
The weather is becoming very hot; we are making our house look cool and comfortable, colouring it with French grey, and hanging pankhās in preparation for the hot winds. We hope to feel cool by the aid of a thermantidote, for which we are building a terrace and verandah.
The thermantidote is a structure awful to behold; but we shall benefit from its good effect; and, like a steam-boat, shall be able to do without wind, which, with the tattīs commonly in use, is the sine quâ non for fraicheur.
A thermantidote is an enormous machine for forcing cool air into the house; it is made of amrā (mango wood), or of sākoo (shorea robusta): the wheels and axle are of iron. In height, it is about seven feet, in breadth four or five, and some nine or ten or twelve feet in length.
There is a little machine sold in England, under the name of a fire-blower, which is on the same principle, and is almost a miniature thermantidote. It also resembles in some respects a machine for winnowing corn, but on a larger scale.
The thermantidote, which is hollow, and of circular form, has a projecting funnel, which is put through and fixed into a window of the house, from the machine which stands in the verandah.
In the interior, four large fans are affixed to an iron axle, which, passing through the centre of the machine, is turned round by two men on the outside; by which means the fans revolve, and force the air out of the thermantidote through the funnel into the house.
To render the outer air cool, which is thus driven into the house, a circle of about four feet in diameter is cut out in the planks which form the two broad sides of the thermantidote; and beyond these circles khās-khās tattīs are affixed; so that the vacuum produced by forcing the air out of the machine is supplied by air passing through the tattīs.
On each side of the thermantidote, on the outside at the top, a long trough is fixed, perforated with small holes in its bottom.
