This old Modern Mechanix piece, may have a clue to some of our energy woes:
Iceless “Ice Box” Lowered in Ground Keeps the Food Cool
A COUNTERWEIGHT on one end, and a cylindrical container on the other end of a steel rope running over two pulleys supported on a pole, makes up the major portion of an ingenious contrivance for cooling foods.
The container, shown in the accompanying photo, fits loosely into a seven-foot hole in the ground lined with a steel casing. It has three shelves, and a door closes it off from the outside. Three iron rods about four feet long run from the top of this “cooler” container to the sustaining end of the rope or cable.
At the point where these rods are connected there is a large circular cover securely fastened. As the cooler is eased downward into the casing in the ground this cover settles over the brim of the casing, and closes it off from the outside. The photograph shows the cover within a few inches of the brim, the cooler being inside the casing.
This cover and the fact that the container is suspended by it several inches above the bottom of the hole, keeps rodents, dirt, and water out of the cooler. The counterweight keeps the device stationary at any level it is moved to.
What if we mine the Earth-- the depths (like 50' down) for the ambient cool? Pump hot air down, suck cold air? Geothermal pumps are nothing new, but what if their usage is expanded?
