The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-05-14
Production Of Cold by Means Of EVapo-
ration.
Ice Can be Manufactured in Large
Quantities for Fifty Cents
Ton.

outlook is that with the introduction
of process just perfected, the cost of
making artificial ice will be cut down
to such a figure that natural ice cannot
compete with it, even in such northerly
| cities as Montreal or 81. Paul.
Practically speaking, it is impossible
| to harvest, house and sell natural ice,
even under the best conditions, for
much less than 81 80 a ton. That at
| least is the estimated cost of the natur-
al ice furnished to New York City.
This is harvested from the Hudson,
from below Albany, stored and shipped
to the city in boats The transportation
is of the cheapest, and every condition
favors the lowest possible price, and
yet 81 is about the bedrock price for
ice in the metropolis. The figure for
Boston, Chicago and other large cities
is usually 81 or so higher.
The present cost of making artificial
ice in northern cities, where coal and
supplies are cheap, has been closely es-
! timated at 81 50 per ton, so that it is
not profitable to sell it at much less
than 50 30 a ton. By the invention of
a new process it seems proba BILE that
| artificial ice will soon be made for 80
cents tons in large quantities, so that
it may be sold at a profit al not much
more than 81 a ton. And throughout
the South it is probable the figure will
! be only a little higher, say 60 or 10
cents per ton for the first cost
If these figures are realized nature
will be driven from the commercial ice
business, and the inventive genius of
man will have scored another improve
ment over his clumsy and antiquated
ancestor.
One of the new machines is to be seen
| in one of the large dressed beef estab-
lishments of New York City. The new
process is remarkably simple, and is
1 really little more than a modification
of the systems now in use. The ro-
nance of it lies in the fact that its
| inventor, d. Livingston Holden, now
a man advanced in years, was the first
to set up an ice-making machine in this
country, and is likewise the accredited
father of the system by which the bulk
| of artificial ice is now made-that
known as the compression process.
The earliest of successful artificial
icemakers was a Frenchman named
Care, who, in 1857, brought out fair
ly workable machine, built on what is
known as the absorption system. The
principle here, and for that matter in
the compression system as we'll, might
be likened to the emptying of a pan of
water or bailing boat with a sponge;
the dry sponge takes up as much wa
ter as it will hold and is then squeezed
out, this process being repeated indie
finitely. In very much the same way
it happens with a liquid in evaporating
and further in a gas expanding rapidly
/ that a great deal of heat is used up
and this heat is drawn from the nearest
available source. This is only saying
| in a reverse way that water will be
converted into gas (steam) if it is suffi-
GENTLY heated, and that a gas, if heat
ed, will rapidly.
If some liquid be taken which evapor-
ates very quickly in the air, like ether
or alchohol and little be poured out on
the hand, its cooling effects will be i'm
mediately felt. In the same way, if a
bottle containing water be kept wet
with ether on the outside, the evapora-
ton will chill the water and eventually
freeze it. Indeep the carafes frappes
of the French restaurants are produced
in just this way. The decanters. filled
lNIi II Soil W dlSl, are set III swallow
tanks containing brine, which remains
liquid at below the temperature at
which water freezes. In contact with
these tanks are receivers which are
kept charged with ether vapor The
evaporating vapor chills the brine, and
this in turn takes heat from the water
in the decanters and soon freezes it.
Ice making on a large scale as it is
now carried on is little more than an
application of this process Either
ammonia or sulphurous oxide is used
instead of ether, because these sub
stances are cheaper and are not infiam-
mable. The best substance of all is a
distillation of petroleum called chrvmo-
gene-its name means cold generator
But as ii is frowned on by the insurance
agents, it is but little used.
For the most part, anhydrous ammo
MIA is employed. That is simply our or
binary ammonia, more properly am
monia water with the water taken out
of it. This substance is first liquefied
by being compressed and cooled. where
by the latent heat of the gas is pressed
out and carried away Stored in large
iron tanks it is ready for use and ship
ment
In what is known as the can process.
that is, where the ice is made in tin cans
a factory is set up containing huge
shallow watts often 100 feet square. and
usually four or five feet deep. Dividing
the watts up into small compartments.
are row after row of coiled iron pipe.
The entire vat is then flooded with
brine and into this bath are thrust tin
cans containing distilled water The
cans, as a rule, are about II inches
thick, ID inches long. and about feet
deep, and when frozen this makes a cake
of ice weighing something over 300
pounds.
Through the coils of iron pipe liquid
ammonia is run, passing through a
small orifice from the containing tanks
into the coils. Evaporating rapidly
the ammonia cools the brine surround
ing this system of pipes down to - or
Is degrees Fahrenheit, or about Is de-
grees below freezing point This rap
| idly draws the heat from the water
contained in the can. The heat passes
first to the circulating brine and then
! to the coil, with the result that the
water slowly congeals. AS soon as the
can is frozen it is picked up by a
crane, given a quick bath in hot water,
| which melts the ice sufficiently to re-
lease the can, and the ice is then ready
for storage.
This system has been carried to great
perfection by the introduction of ma
chinery for recondensing the expanded
ammonia, SO that it is used over and
over again. The chief difficulty with