~"DADDY'S HOME MADE WATER COOLER"~>

Susan, April, Wayne Jr and Jim Guffy

Lois Caywood Guffy

Back in the early 1950’s, daddy made a "contraption" that took the place of a water cooler. His invention was nothing short of ingenious. He built a wooden box type frame and made many slide out trays for the horizontal cooler pads, similar to a chest of drawers. He placed layers of fresh straw encased in gunnysack pads and placed them in the trays. The store bought coolers had only three vertical sided cooler pads



Daddy’s homemade cooler was far cooler than the ones you could buy. He made a metal tray or trough with drain holes on the three top sides that filled with water and trickled down to wet the layers of straw pads. He had it set up somehow, so a magneto shut it off when the water filled to a fill point in the water tray. On the front side of the cooler, he added a big house fan that pulled the cool breeze into the house.



Daddy changed his design several times before it was perfected to his liking. He said his idea came to him as a child when they dampened bed sheets and placed them in the windows for the wind to pass through to cool the rooms down, but the wind dried them too quickly. They had a running spring where he was raised and I am surprised he did not make a cooler back then. Perhaps grandpa Caywood would not let him?






Created July 27, 2017

Updated: 14 June, 2021

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