Wichita eagle., 1888-05-13
ANOTHER VICTORY.
WICHITA TO MAKE ICE MACHINES
FOR KANSAS.
i Company With 100000 Capital
Secured the Right Of ham
sas for the Eureka
Ice Machines.

1t will be remembered that some weeks
ago it was stated IL the EAGLE that Mr..
Lee Hays was figuring on getting the ex-
elusive right 10 manufacture ice machines
for the state of Kansas from the patentee
OF the process. 1t was represented aS be-
ing so simple, cheap and durable and Civ
ing such satisfaction that il threatened to
completely revolutionize the making
cold business the world round. Mr..
Hays kept up his work Oh the inyestiga-
Iion until he was thoroughly satisfied,
and it may with propriety be
said he was enthusiastically salts
fed that the invention was one
OF peculiar and extreme merit, and called
for an energetic effort TO add another in
dustry to the city of Wichita. Writing
letters on the matter was not tiresome
using the wires were not Objectionable,
time was nothing until he had made the
purchase of exclusive control for the state
OF Kansas and hence in position to COM
mence work on factory,
According TO the agreement in the con-
tract the inventor OF the machine was to
| give practical test to parties concerned
/ In Wichita. As result Mr.. I.
A. Smith, patensee OF the company.
| from Philadelphia, accompanied by the
| general manager of the company, Mr.. H
! ). Bradford, arrived for making the test.
/ OF course this is not for Mr. HAYS bene-
| fit, as he long since saw it and gave it
critical examination, assisted by experts,
| but he wants its workings practically
demonstrated to the party IN the city who
are intrusted with him and heretofore haye
| trusted this feature exclusively to him,
| having full confidence in his ability TO
protect himself from any cheat arrange
| meut.
The ice machine. as it is termed. and it
would seem that it is almost too simple to
| permit the name machine" for family
use differs very little in appearance from
common every day ice box which the ice
man visits every morning II is divided
with chambers or compartments which
are treated with different temperatures
according to the wishes of the user, the
machine having the power TO bring the
temperature many degrees below zero,
changing a bucket OF water into ice in a
very few minutes.
After long experiment and thorough
investigation for an economical system of
refrigeration, Mr.. Smith by happy
thought concluded to mix certain salts
with water, and the result reached was
startling. He found that on mixing the
salts with the WAGER the temperature of
the latter could be reduced to very low
degree and the more the two were agltated
the colder the water got until any coldness
could be obtained.
The upper chamber contains two tanks
one used as the ice forming vessel, and the
other for the drinking water the latter be-
ing provided with fresh water supply
pipe which connects with the water supply
\ pipe leads from this tank to the bottom
of the ice forming tank, the supply being
regulated by stop cock or valve. An
overflow pipe leads from the top of this
tank to the cooling vessel, from which an
other overflow pipe leads down to the stor-
ing or preserving compartments and finally
out through the side of the refrigerator to
a suitable receptacle, from whence the So
luton Is taken to an evaporating appar-
atus where the salts are recovered for fu-
ture use. The chemicals used by the ssys-
tenn of this company is entirely free from
contact with the preserving chamber, but
it Is pure and harmless, and, moreover, a
purifying agent.
Mr.. Smith, originally from Steelton,
Pennsylvania, has for years been engaged
in the rifrigerating business and expert
melting i'll that line. The great ice plants
calling for hundreds of thousands of dol
.arS with expenses for running seemed to
him to call for more simple and less
complicated process. His investigation III
a chemical line happily resulted in the
startling fact of being able to produce
rapidly intense cold out of
nitrate of ammonia salt and
water when put together in the proper
proportions and manner calling for
a composition iron coil with stop-cocks in
closed in space the temperature it was
desired to decrease. He succeeded in get
ting patent for his process about one and
a half years ago. 1t then became known
and it went over the wires reaching Eu-
rope and very soon he received letters
from England desiring that he should
come there and show them the merits of
his invention. He went to London and
soon made arrangements for it being used
by the English government. He was back to
London last fall and says it had been in
troduced in the army in Africa and India,
the ice machine and making ice for use
beng invaluable under those circum-
stances. Concerning this application of it
the London Times had long article, from
which the following Is taken:
"A useful adjunct TO the hospital de-
partment OF the army has been devised BY
DR.. F. W Chaplin in refrigerator for
field use with the army ON service. It is
an adaptation of the Eureka refrigerator. |
in which the chemical agent used is nitrate !
OF ammonia, which has the property Of |
rapidly cooling any liquid 10 which it is |
added The nitrate. moreover, Is recover |
able from the solution by evaporation. and /
can be used over and over again without /
sensible loss The apparatus consists OF /
two collapsible India rubber buckets, one /
Of which contains a coil of India rubber /,
tubing. This coil Is placed in one Of the /
buckets and IS immersed in the nitrate OF 4
ammonia solution. The water to be cooled !
Is passed through the coil and is rapidly
cooled and forms a supply for drinking or /
other purposes. For refrigerating pur-
poses and for making ice some OF the water 4
which has already been cooled il run into /
the second bucket, and nitrate OF ammonia 4
is added 10 It, forming the freezing mix
ture. When the solution is exhausted il !
IS removed for evaporation. The fed
refrigerator i coiiapsible, and when open
and in use IT measures 3ft. by 2ft by lift Gin
closed for transport its dimensions are 3ft
hv fOiu. oy ifr ON and it, weight is under
lO}Ib when packed with "A sufficient nuan-
titv of nitrate of ammonia for four DAYS
U.s.. We recently inspected one Of these
field refrigerators at the Office Of the