Improvements in or connected with Refrigerating Apparatus.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Jan., 1892-Accepted, 26th Mar., 1892
Improvements in or connected with Refrigerating Apparatus.
I, JAMES GRIEVE LORRAIN, M. Inst. E.E,, M. Inst. M.E., of Norfolk House,
Norfolk Street, Strand, London, W.C., Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention, as communicated to me from abroad
by LA COMPAGNIE FRIGORIFIQUE BRUXELLOISE, of Rue de l'Evêque, Brussels,
in the Kingdom of Belgium, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
In this invention the refrigerating solution is alternately heated and cooled
without its being necessary to move or reverse the apparatus and without the use
of valves which are too often a cause of trouble in the working of apparatus of
this kind.
Any suitable method of heating can be employed. In the annexed drawings
Figure 1 is a vertical section: and
Figure 1 is a plan of an intermittent apparatus-heated by steam.
Figure 2 is a vertical section of the same apparatus heated by gas.
Figure 3 is a vertical section of the same apparatus heated by coal.
Figure 4 shows in vertical section and Figure 5 in plan a continuous acting
apparatus, the principle of which does not at all differ from that of the intermittent
apparatus which I shall describe first.
In the figures similar letters refer everywhere to similar parts.
The apparatus represented in Figure I consists of a boiler A and of a liquefier B
immersed in a vessel E. A pipe a provided with a valve c puts in communication
the top of the boiler with the top of the liquefier. A pipe b provided with a
valve d puts in .communication the bottom of the boiler with the bottom of the
liquefier. In this boiler is fixed a worm C of a kind termed "reversing" provided
at each end outside the boiler with valves having each two outlets as shown in
figure 14. The valve e can admit steam by n or evacuate cold water by s¹ ;
whereas the valve can evacuate the steam by n' or admit cold water by s." In
the upper part of the boiler fixed a separator D. This separator consists of a
slightly conical tray or shield with holes in it. A pressure gauge placed on the
dome of the boiler shows. the internal pressure. The action of the apparatus is as
follows. The boiler A is about two thirds full of any suitable refrigerating
solution, in the present case with a solution of ammonia of the strength of twenty-
nine degrees. The valve c is open and the valve d is closed. This solution is
heated by causing steam to circulate in the worm C by suitable regulation of the
valves e and f. Under the action of. the heat the gas in solution separates from
the water and rises through the separator D. The aqueous vapour mixed with
the gas is condensed on D and drops back again into the solution in the boiler,
while the gas freed from all moisture passes through the pipe and into the
liquefier B where it liquefied by the action of the pressure and of a current of
cold water which is kept flowing through the vessel E.
When the pressure
indicated by the pressure guage shows that all the gas of the solution has passed
over into the liquefier B, the valve c is closed and the circulation of steam
through the worm is stopped. To produce the refrigerating action it is then only
necessary to cause evaporation of the liquified gas contained in the liquefier B
which thus becomes refrigerating. In order to do this the valves e and are so
regulated as to cause a current of cold water instead of steam to circulate through
the worm C. Under the effect of the cold a vacuum is produced in the boiler A
the water of which becomes again ready to absorb ammonia. The current of
water through the vessel E is now stopped and the valve d is opened. The

page_text: liquefied gas in the refrigerator B evaporates rapidly on account of the vacuum,
the solution of the gas at the same time being reformed in the boiler to the bottom
of which it is conducted by the pipe . This evaporation produces an intense cold
which freezes the water in the vessel E. When the water contained in the boiler A
is resaturated the apparatus being again in its original condition, is ready for a new
operation.
It will be noticed that the freezing effect is obtained without displacement of the
apparatus by the sole working of the valves which latter are external. For heating
by gas the lower end of the boiler A is surrounded by a coil of pipe G as shown in
Figure 2. This coil communicates at its two ends with the inside of the boiler
and is therefore filled like the latter with the refrigerating solution. Any suitable
gas furnace H may heat the boiler and also the outside coil G. By this arrange-
ment the solution is rapidly raised to the required temperature.
In heating by coal the boiler A is encased in any suitable furnace F as shown in
Figure 3. It will be noticed that when the apparatus is heated by steam the
internal worm C is used alternately for heating and cooling the solution of
ammonia; and it is by the said worm C that the change of condition is produced.
In the two cases of heating by gas and by coal the internal worm c only acts as a
cooler by the circulation of cold water in it.
In order to produce a continuous freezing effect we couple two of these inter-
mittent freezing apparatus by means of the arrangements which we shall hereinafter
describe and which are shown in Figures 4 and 5 in elevation and in plan
respectively. A and A' are two boilers provided respectively with their stop
valves c and d, c and d and with their double outlet valves e and f, e and f¹. The
outlets n and n' are for the admission and expulsion of steam, s and for the
admission and expulsion of cold water. The refrigerating liquefier shown in
Figure is here replaced by: 1st. A liquefying worm I immersed always in a
current of cold water, 2nd a small receiver K for the liquefied ammonia, and
3rd any suitable refrigerating coil L which transmits its cold directly to the air
or other body to be cooled.
:
The two boilers A and A¹ are put in communication with the liquefier I by
means of the pipes a and a' respectively and with the refrigerator L by means of
the pipes and 6. The action of this apparatus is as follows: The saturated
solution of ammonia contained in the boiler A is heated by steam admitted through
the valve e and the solution in the boiler A' which has been exhausted by a
previous operation is cooled by a current of cold water admitted by the valve f
The valves c and d are open and the valves c and d are closed. Under the action
of the heat the gas which is liberated in the boiler A passes over into the worm I,
is liquefied therein under the action of the pressure and of a current of cold water
and the gas now liquefied flows into the collecting receiver K. It is the cold water
(in which the worm I is immersed) entering by the lower orifice t and flowing off by
the upper pipe g as shown in Figures 4 and 5 which is conducted through the said
pipe
g into the worm C₁ of the boiler A' in order to cool the exhausted solution
and cause it to remain cold, which produces and maintains a vacuum in this boiler.
The valver of the receiver K being slightly open and the valve d¹ being open, as
has been herein before explained, the gas expands in the coils L where it produces
cold, while at the same time the previously exhausted solution contained in the
boiler A absorbs the gas which enters the bottom of the boiler by the tube b'.
When the pressure gauge on A' shows that the absorption has ceased, the positions
of the double outlet valves e and fand e' andare inverted, that is to say steam
is caused to circulate in the boiler A' and cold water being conducted through the
double branched pipe g is caused to circulate in the boiler A. The valves c¹
and d are opened, the valves c and d are closed and the action which has hitherto
been taking place in the boilers A and A' is by this means reversed. The
liquifier I is now fed from the boiler A' and the cooling action continues without
intermission or interruption in the coils L by the evaporation of the liquid ammonia
contained in the receiver K which evaporation takes place in the same proportion

page_text: as the gas is re-dissolved in the liquid of the boiler A which had been exhauste
by the previous operation.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, as it has been communicated to me from abroad, and in what manner the
same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is
1. The arrangement and combination of parts constituting the freezing machine
set forth with reference to Figures 1 and 1^.
2. The arrangement and combination of parts constituting the continuous freezing
machine set forth with reference to Figures 4 and 5.
3. The use of an internal reversing worm which can be employed either for
heating or cooling the surrounding liquid substantially as set forth.
4. The means set forth with reference to Figure 2 whereby rapid heating of the
solution is obtained.
Dated this 27th day of January 1892
J. G. LORRAIN,
Communicants' Patent Agent.