The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-01-07
ICE.MAKING.
Nature and Art-DetRiIed Description
OF the PrOcess OF Ice-Mnking-The
Possible Uses OF Dry-COld AIR.

Nature we have TO use her wi ways aud
forces; and sometimes we must initiate her
very contradictions. A good instance of
this il the modern method of making ice
from fire, a. compared with natures mode
Of raising hail-storms in July.
She goes TO work thus: The sunshine
heats the earth, expanding the contiguous
air, and TO a slight extent displacing II by
still lighter aqueous vapor. This yapor in
turn acts like the glass Of a greenhouse,
freely transmitting the bright heat rays,
but shutting in those dark ones which tho
earth would have sent back into space
Thus the heat increases itself, and the bar
ometer falls, till heavier dir from n distance
crowds In under these expanded strata, and
forces them up, as If through q long chin
ney. They push up before them the un-
warmed superintendent strata, which be-
log thus relieved from the pressure Of those
still higher layers that flow of to right and
left, expand rapidly and chill what mois-
ture they contain into hailstones. Thus
nature, by expanding certain masses with
heat, drives other masses into regions whore
they expand and freeze, producing cold
from heat.
And now for mans imitation, as 1 saw il
the other day upon exhibition at the 'Port
Richmond Iron Works" (Philadelphia) Of
l. r 0lOIlAh a AuH NutIt INC mhNuAlIIN Is
made. At this shop, by tho way, were built
the engines Of the Monadnock, APamenti-
Gus, Tacony, Cambridge, Antietam, and
several other ~gunboats; here are cast single
pieces, -bed-plates, walking-beams and an
wills, that weigh, before finishing, from
sixteen 10 forty-hve tons; and here are be-
ing made the Lehigh Crane Iron Company's
six big blast-engines, each tifty-six feet long
and thirty-eight high, with nino foot blow
ing cylinders, ten foot stroke, twenty.seven
foot ay wheels and thirty-six foot walking.
beams.
a strong '%'retort" Of boiler iron Is 20
part filed with the aqua ammonia of COM
meroe, and is heated by n steam worm at
% pounds pressure to say 1900 Fahren-
heit Thus l 3 or l.. Of the gas is driven
from the solution, TO accumulate in
the space above the now "poor
'liquor, - and 10 pass at a pressure OF say
8 atmospheres,. into the '1iqueiier," q tank
Of running water where some 200 feet Of
the gas.pipe lie in folds like those Of n
steam house heater. Here, with 8 atmos-
pheres pressure, II condenses at so IF. 10
liquid ammonia, nearly free from water or
with s atmospheres, at 72eF. 30 that
rsry cold hydRnt water il not indispensa-
BILE, although the coolest is best. A few
gallons Of u is ammonia collect in n strong
recipient" whence ii passes up TO the
ireezing-box, aud, admitted by u minute
and carefully-regulated faucet, Is distribu-
ted TO n dozen separate larger pipes i'm
mersed in brine. Thus relieved from of
the pressure, IL revaporizes, expands and
develops intense cold. The brine IL con-
stantly stirred and the brass cans of fresh
water, protected by wooden covers, and
set into the brine TO freeze, give out latent
heat as the ice forms otherwise the brine,
or mercury itself, would become one solid
mass.
Returning, the cold ammoniacal gas is
reabsorbed by the ''poor liquor" which il
drew from the bottom OF the "%retort'
where the coolest and weakest collects
from its greater weight), and which, drip
ping through a series Of horizontal disks
In the absorption vase" il made to pre-
sent a large and ever changing surface to
the gas. A pump forces the "liquor" thus
enriched into the heated '%'retort" again,
where, falling over a similar series Of disks,
the gas and the poor liquor again part
company, to start new upon their sepa.
rate journeys.
Ingeniously, 10 make the poor liquor
from the retort cool enough to absorb the
gas, and 10 warm somewhat the regen-
Grated liquor that has left the absorption
vase, a worm of the former passes through
the latter, and afterward through the waste
water from the ''liquefer," economlzing
both the heat and the cold.
The pump and all the screw-clamped
joints are packed with vulcanized rubber,
which in the joints is confined as by a
tenon in a mortise. The fabrication is
Abe glycerine. Grease is not ammonia
proof-it turns TO soap and ''volatile lima
ment." And whenever the ammonia does
escape, every breathing creature does well
TO escape too. But these accidents are
needless; properly managed, a machine
need not waste a gallon in a month.
Each of the beautiful, blaok-shaped ice
cakes, two feet deep and three inches
thick, forms in four hours; they are re-
placed in continual succession, are taken
from tho cam by hot water, and if laid to.
gether will unite into masses of any size.
Curiously, if too cold, say zero, they start
from the cans with a crash, and are broken
into fragments the size of walnuts,
/ describe the process thus infinitely, for
its great physical interest; and because the
industry, though a new one is already be-
coming important. Half the ice now used
in Paris ia said to be artificial. In these
northern States, We cannot compete with
nature, unless, possibly, in those large
packing-housea, breweries, etc, where the
steam and cold water are ready at hand,
and the warm waste water can be utilized.
But in New Orleans, six machines, each
costing with its auxiliary apparatus, ammo
MIA, etc.. nearly $40. 900, are daily making
20, 900 pounds apiece for cent a pound,
out of water freed by dibtillation from inn
purities and a%ir-bubbles. Machines of1-1C
the capacity however, cost proportionately
nearly four times as much, and so doet
their product
This freezer is, essentially, Canes
(French) Continuous" one. Various 9th,
ers are "intermittent;" tho gas, expelled
from the retort by heat or otherwise, being
cooled, and oftenest liquehed, in the reeip-
lent and efterward developing the cold
there by expansion whenever, by the cool
ing Of the retort, or else by pumps, the gas
10 returned TO il. Many gases and volatile
yapors have been employed, such as air,
carbonic acid, sulphureted hydrogen, eth
ers, gasoline, naptha, cyanogen, and even
Tuning sulphuric acid in platinum lined
vessels. Only a few Of these gases are 30
soluble that water is used, as with ammon-
Ia, 30 aid their return 10 the retort, but /
think that some OF them could advantage
ously be used with alcohol or some other
solvent. . The question is important.
Some Of the 'intsrmittent" machines ara
merely domestic" not meant for the