IMPROVEMENTS IN REFRIGERATORS, ICE SAFES, AND PRESERVING CABINETS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Clifton, of New Bond Street, in the County
of Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RE-
Sealed the 17th September 1867, and dated the 21st March 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Clifton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st March 1867.
I, HENRY CLIFTON, of New Bond Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for " IMPROVEMENTS
IN REFRIGERATORS, ICE SAFES, AND PRESERVING CABINETS," to be as follows:-
The refrigerator, ice safe, or preserving cabinet has walls or sides (including
top and bottom) made with compartments, that is to say, each wall or side is
divided by a partition parallel' with the outer and inner surface of such wall
or side, the outer compartment being charged with charcoal or other non-
conducting or badly conducting substance, and the inner with confined, dead,
or compressed air, or there may be more than one compartment filled with
non-conducting or badly conducting substance.
The apparatus is divided by a partition or division so as to form two chambers
or compartments; the front chamber has a door with compartments arranged
and charged as above described. The front or outer chamber receives the

page_text: articles to be refrigerated, kept cool, or preserved, and the back chamber
receives the ice. The division or partition has two slots or openings in it, one
at the upper part and the other at the lower part; these openings may be
fitted or not with perforated metal or wire cloth; by these openings a constant
circulation of air is maintained, the warm atmospheric air entering through
the upper opening and passing down the ice chamber to the lower opening,
whence it issues. The openings are usually provided with doors hinged,
jointed, pivoted, or hung so as to be moveable; these are worked by the door
of the outer chamber so that when the latter is opened the inner doors close,
and when the outer door is closed the inner doors are opened. This may
be effected in one arrangement by using rods or levers sliding in staples or
brackets, which when the outer door is closed are forced by studs thereon
against the moveable doors of the openings so as to push them open; but
when the outer door is opened it releases the inner doors from the levers and
allows them to close by their own gravity.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Clifton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st September 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
CLIFTON, of New Bond Street, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Henry Clifton, Her special licence that I, the said Henry Clifton,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Henry Clifton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN REFRIGERATORS, ICE SAFES, AND PRESERVING CABINETS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Henry Clifton, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,

page_text: and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Clifton, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My refrigerator, ice safe, or preserving cabinet constructed according to my
Invention is made with walls or sides (in which expression I include the top
and bottom), and which walls or sides consist of compartments, that is to say,
each wall or side is divided by a partition parallel with the inner and outer
surface of each wall or side; the outer compartment is charged with charcoal
or other non-conducting substance, and the inner with confined or dead air, or
there may be more than one compartment filled with non-conducting substance.
By the expression non-conducting substance above used I mean a substance
which resists the transmission of heat or cold, or which tends to prevent such
transmission. The best non-conductor of heat and cold being the most
desirable substance for the purpose.
The apparatus, that is to say, the refrigerator, ice chamber, or preserving
cabinet is divided internally so as to form two chambers or compartments
communicating together, as herein-after described, and it has a door formed
of parallel compartments arranged and charged with non-conducting substance
like the walls or sides above described. One chamber receives the articles to
be refrigerated, kept cool, or preserved, and the other chamber receives the
ice. The chambers communicate together by two openings, one at or near
the upper and the other at or near the lower end of the division or partition;
these openings are fitted or not with perforated metal or wire cloth. By
means of these openings a constant circulation of air is maintained, the
warmer portion of the air contained in the ice safe, refrigerator, or preserving
cabinet entering through the upper opening and passing down the ice chamber
to the lower opening, whence it issues; these openings I usually provide with
doors hinged, jointed, pivoted, or bung so as to be moveable, and these doors
are worked by the outer door so that when the latter is opened the inner
doors close, and when the outer door is closed the inner doors are opened.
This may be effected according to one arrangement by using rods or levers
which slide in staples or brackets, and which, when the outer door is closed.
are forced by studs thereon against the moveable doors of the openings so as
to push them open, but the outer door when it is opened releases the inner

page_text: doors from the action of the rods or levers and allows the doors to close by
their own gravity.
It must be understood that my Invention refers to ice safes, refrigerators, and
preserving cabinets which are internally divided into two chambers or com-
partments, one, which to avoid repetition I call the ice chamber, contains the
ice, and the other chamber or compartment which, to avoid repetition, I call the
food chamber, contains the matters to be kept cool, refrigerated, or preserved.
Now heretofore in the construction of ice safes, refrigerators, and preserving
cabinets having such chambers or compartments the ice chamber has been
completely separated or closed off from the food chamber by an entire com-
plete or solid partition so that there is no communication of air between the
chambers, and consequently the moisture in the air contained in the safe,
cabinet, or refrigerator is to a greater or less degree condensed upon the
substance intended to be cooled or preserved, which seriously vitiates its
flavor and promotes the decomposition of perishable matters upon removal of
the same from the safe, cabinet, or refrigerator. Whereas according to
my Invention I form openings between the chambers in such manner as
to establish free communication for the passage or circulation of air between
the two chambers at the upper and lower parts of the same, a con-
tinuous circulation of air is thus maintained in such manner that the air
passes into the upper part of the ice chamber, over the ice, and flows down
such chamber and out at the bottom thereof into the food chamber, and
so on, the circulation being continuous and the moisture of the air being
deposited by condensation upon the ice. Any moisture that may be deposited
by condensation upon the articles to be preserved, refrigerated, or kept cool
when the outer door is opened is immediately taken up when the outer door
is closed by the current of cold air which enters the food chamber from the
bottom of the ice chamber in its passage back through the food chamber to the
top of the ice chamber, and is carried into the ice chamber and there deposited
as before described; thereby the air in the food chamber is desiccated and
rendered suitable for preserving matter liable to injury by decomposition; at
the same time the reduction of temperature by means of the above circulation
of cold air prevents the evaporation of the juices in which the fine flavour of
most articles of food is said principally to exist.
The accompanying Drawings exemplify in what manner the said Invention
may be carried into effect.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section, Figure 2 vertical section, Figure 3
plan of an ice safe, refrigerator, or preserving cabinet constructed according
to my Invention.

page_text: In Figure 3 the top is removed; Figure 4 is a side view of a modification
differing from the arrangement, Figures 1, 2, and 3, only in having its door
at the side instead of at one end opposite the ice chamber.
A, A*, is the ice safe, refrigerator, or preserving cabinet, the shell or walls
of which, including in that expression "shell or wall," the sides, ends, top and
bottom, are made with one or more compartments a, b, c, three compart-
ments being most effective, but more or less may be employed, the outer and
inner compartments a, c, are packed or charged with charcoal or other non-
conducting substance, and the central compartment b contains confined air.
A is the ice chamber or part of the safe containing the ice; A* is the food
chamber or part containing the matters to be kept cool, refrigerated, or preserved;
D is the door, which is formed of three compartments a, b, c, as above described.
e is a perforated plate on which the ice rests, and through which the water
given off from the ice percolates; this water can be drawn off through a pipe
and cock f. The chamber A is partially divided from the chamber A* by one
or more bars, plates, or divisions g, g, which extend across the safe from side
to side, but not from top to bottom, there being openings h, h, at the upper
and lower ends of the division, whereby communication is established between
the chambers A, A*, at the upper and lower parts. These openings, which I
call air openings may be provided with perforated metal or wire cloth for
preventing pieces of ice from falling from the chamber A into the chamber A*;
i, i, are traps or hanging doors for opening and closing the openings h; these
traps work on axes in the plates g so as to close downward and open upward;
k is a bar which connects the upper trap i with the door D; it is supported
in brackets n fixed to one side of the safe. is a bar which connects the
traps together. When the door D is opened it allows the traps i to drop
and close, when the door D is closed it pushes the bar k inward and thereby
opens the upper trap i, and the two traps i being connected together by
the bar the lower trap i will also be opened. By these means when the
door d is opened the outer air will be prevented from rushing into the
chamber A, and hence the ice will be economized and prevented fron
wasting, also when the door D is closed the traps i open and a continuous
circulation of air will be maintained through the safe, cabinet, or refrigerator,
the air passing in the direction of the arrows, first from the part or chamber A*
to the part or chamber A through the upper opening h, and then over the ice
in the said chamber A, where by contact with the ice the moisture of the
air is taken up by condensation, and the air then passes down the part A and
out of the lower opening h into the part A*. m, m, are shelves for supporting
articles to be cooled.

page_text: In the modification, Figure 4, the openings h, h, are not provided with any
doors or traps i, i, but are always open. The outer door may be placed at the
top or side, or in any convenient part of the safe, refrigerator, or cabinet, and
the ice chamber may be at the back or side or other convenient position in
the body of the safe, refrigerator, or cabinet. Sometimes I place the ice
chamber A midwise of the ice safe, refrigerator, or cabinet, that is to say, across
it vertically or nearly so in such manner that there may be spaces or chambers
on each side of it for containing food or matters to be kept cool, refrigerated,
or preserved, and in each of the sides of the ice chamber which divide it from
such spaces or food chambers, that is to say, in both sides of the ice chamber,
I form two air openings, one at the upper part, and the other at the lower
part of each such division or side, in order to maintain a free circulation of air,
as above described.
I wish it to be understood that though I have shewn a particular mechanical
means for causing the door D when it closes to open the traps i of the air
opening I do not restrict myself to such particular mechanical means, though
I believe them best adapted for my purpose; but other well-known mechanical
appliances may be used for connecting the door with the traps or valves of
the air openings, such appliances being arranged and combined according to
my Invention so that the closing of the outer door D may open the traps of
the air openings, and the opening of the said door D will permit or cause the
traps to close. I do not always fit the air openings with traps, doors, or valves,
nor with perforated metal or wire gauze.
I wish it to be understood that I do not claim as of my Invention the
employment for ice safes, refrigerators, and preserving cabinets of walls or
shells made in compartments, nor the employment of a division or partition
for dividing the ice safe, refrigerator, or preserving cabinet into two chambers,
an ice chamber and food chamber, except when air openings are used, as
herein described, and claimed for the establishing of communication between
the two chambers.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same may be performed, I declare that I claim as my improvements in ice
safes, refrigerators, and preserving cabinets,-
First, the employment of openings for establishing communication between
the ice chamber and the food chamber, or chamber for containing the articles to
be kept cool, refrigerated or preserved, such openings being situated at or near
the top and bottom of such chambers and affording the means whereby a
circulation of air is obtained, substantially in the manner described and for the
purpose set forth.

page_text: Second, the employment of doors, traps, or valves for opening and closing
the air.openings, such doors, traps, or valves being so combined with the outer
door of the safe, refrigerator, or cabinet as to open when such door is
closed, and to close when it is opened, substantially as and for the purpose
described.
Third, the improved ice safe, refrigerator, and preserving cabinet herein-before
described, in so far as regards the general arrangement and combination of
parts of which the same consists, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Clifton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
Witness,
M. HENRY,
Patent Agent,
68, Fleet Street, London.
H. CLIFTON. (L.S.)