Useful To Keep Rooms Cool in Summer

to keep rooms cool in summer.
(from Godey's Ladies Magazine, edited by L.A. Godey, Sarah J. Hale, 1864)

Ingredients:

branches with green leaves​

a flat vessel filled with water​

​

or....​

​

Indian matting, or plaited grass​

an open window​

water for damping​

Instructions:

A flat vessel filled with water, on which are floated branches of trees covered with green leaves, is a very pleasant and efficacious means, and is much employed in Germany. The suspension of Indian matting, previously damped, at the open window, tends much to diminish the heat. This matting may be imitated by any kind of plaited grass.​