IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO REFRI- GERATING APPARATUS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF PERISHABLE SUBSTANCES, FOR COOLING AIR IN HOSPITALS AND OTHER BUILDINGS, AND FOR OTHER COOLING or REFRIGERATING PURPOSES
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th July 1879. A communication
from abroad by De Witt Clinton Sanford, of Saint Louis, Missouri, United
States of America, Provision Broker.
.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO REFRI-
GERATING APPARATUS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF PERISHABLE SUBSTANCES, FOR
COOLING AIR IN HOSPITALS AND OTHER BUILDINGS, AND FOR OTHER COOLING or
REFRIGERATING PURPOSES." [A communication from abroad by De Witt Clinton
Sanford, of Saint Louis, Missouri, United States of America, Provision Broker.]
The present Invention is applicable to meat-curing, packing, and preserving
establishments, to breweries, beer-caves, wine-vaults, cellars, stores, saloons, houses,
hospitals, morgues, churches, vessels, railway carriages, to portable refrigerators, such
as those used for houses, saloons, stores, and hotels, and to other buildings, structures,
places, and purposes where refrigeration, desiccation, or ventilation is desired.
The distinguishing feature of this Invention is the employment of refrigerating
air-currents in a horizontal direction.
The Invention further relates to the means for directing and controlling the
refrigerating currents. It also has reference to the mode and means for utilizing
the drip-water. It further has reference to the construction of the ice-cribs and
of the walls and roof of the refrigerating building.
The construction employed in carrying the said Invention into practice consists
mainly of an apartment wherein air is cooled, and a refrigerating apartment or
series of refrigerating apartments through which the air after being cooled travels
in a horizontal direction, the air leaving the air-cooling chamber at the lower level
thereof, and after traversing the refrigerating apartments passing into the air-
cooling chamber again at the upper level thereof, and the current being due to the
difference in weight of the colder air in the air-cooling chamber and the warmer
air in the refrigerating apartments.
The refrigerating apartments may be side by side and upon the same level or
thereabout, or they may be one above the other, and the air after passing through
them may be discharged into the open air, and fresh air may constantly be taken

page_text: into the air-cooling apartment in place of using the same air over and over. In all
cases, however, the refrigerating apartments themselves constitute the flues for the
air-current, and the latter is caused to move horizontally through them saving
when the series of refrigerating apartments are arranged one above another, and
in such case the current is partly in a vertical direction, viz., in passing from a
lower storey to an upper one.
For this cooling any suitable cooling agent, system, or apparatus may be
employed. I prefer to use ice, placing it preferably in a crib. The ico should be
disposed so as to expose as much surface as is practicable to the air, so as to cool
the requisite quantity of air as speedily as possible. To this end the upright and
cross slats of the crib should be spaced apart the farthest practicable distance, and
sufficient space must be left between the crib and the walls of the air-cooling
apartment and around the ice for abundant air to freely pass. I prefer to con-
struct the crib so that its top, sides, and bottom are exposed to the air, but it may
extend to the floor and against the walls of the air-cooling apartment providing a
space or flue is left open through which the air can descend in contact with the
ice. The crib may be movable or a fixture, and it should be made so that the ice
can be introduced either at its sides or top. To obtain the best results the body of
the ice should extend as high as the lower edge of an upper opening, or an opening
through which the air enters the air-cooling chamber; a reservoir is arranged
beneath the ice to catch the drip water and hold it for use; there is also a partition-
wall between the air-cooling chamber and the refrigerating apartments; there
are openings respectively at the top and bottom of this wall; through the lower one
the air passes from the cooling chamber into the refrigerating apartments; and
through the upper one it returns from the refrigerating apartments into the air-
cooling chamber; these openings are fitted respectively with doors or valves, by
moving or closing which the circulation of the air through the entire refrigerator
can be regulated or stopped at will. I provide a series of four refrigerating apart-
ments corresponding to a four-storied house, being separated by close floors or
shelves extending horizontally across the length and breadth of their respective
apartments, excepting that an opening is left at the ends or sides alternately
farthest from and next to the air-cooling chamber; these openings are for the
passage of air from one refrigerating apartment or storey to the next one above it...
By this arrangement the refrigerating apartments become a series of horizontal
flues, which with the openings connecting them form a continuous flue (of uniform
cross section, or nearly so), connecting the lower opening with the upper opening
of the air cooling chamber and through which the air circulates. I provide openings
(having doors that can be tightly closed) in the top of the uppermost refrigerating
apartment to allow the discharge of air when desired. There is a similar opening
similarly closed in the top of the air-cooling chamber to admit fresh air into that
chamber when desired. The articles to be refrigerated are placed in refrigerating
apartments, where they are subjected to the current of air flowing from the air-
cooling chamber and thereby cooled and dried. The air in turn becoming warmer
and having its specific gravity reduced ascends from story to story, finally re-
entering the air-cooling chamber, where it is again cooled, dried, and purified, and
from whence it re-enters the refrigerating apartments to repeat its work, the
current being regenerated without auxiliary aid.
The air contained in all these connected apartments may be likened to an endless
chain, no part of which can move or stop without all of it moving or stopping,
and by opening or closing the valves at either of the openings, or by operating
a valve at any other desired point in the path of the current the latter can be
controlled accordingly.
The course of the air through the refrigerating apartments is both horizontal and
vertical, the horizontal and vertical currents being connected, forming one con-
tinuous current that ultimately ascends and enters the air-cooling chamber at the
upper level thereof: Only the horizontal portions of the current are used for

page_text: refrigerating the vertical portions, serving merely as connections to complete the
circuit. All the openings and spaces for the passage of the air should in cross
section not only be large enough to permit (when desired) air to pass throughout
all the various apartments of the refrigerator in sufficient quantity to abstract the
heat from the articles being refrigerated, but the entire flue throughout its length
from the point where it leaves the air-cooling chamber to where it enters it again
should be practically of uniform cross-sectional area to enable the air to pass freely
and rapidly, and so as to abstract the heat as speedily as possible.
When the refrigerating apartments are fully occupied, as in a meat-packing
establishment, the articles being cooled I estimate will obstruct about one half the air-
space. Hence the openings and all that portion of the flue not used for refrigerating
should be about one half the area of that of the cross-section of some of the
refrigerating apartments. The air-space in the air-cooling chamber should be pro-
portionately spacious, and as a general rule in order to obtain the best results, it
may be stated that after making allowance for the space occupied by the articles
being cooled in the refrigerating apartments, the remaining portion or portions of
the flue (meaning the apartments and openings for the time being employed)
should be nearly or quite uniform in cross-sectional area.
As thus far described the various openings at the ends of the floors of the
refrigerating apartments have been considered permanent. But by making openings
at both ends of the floors, and providing doors or valves to close them at will, and
by placing doors (swinging either vertically or horizontally) or vertical partitions
across the refrigerating apartments at the edge of the openings, and by properly
adjusting said doors and partitions, the current of refrigerating air may be thrown
through either two or all of the refrigerating apartments, or cut off from any of
them at pleasure. The general construction may also without departing from the
principle of the Invention be modified by arranging a series of refrigerating apart-
ments on each side of the air-cooling chamber, or by placing the latter at the side
of the refrigerating apartments. The air cooling chamber also may be arranged
differently; it may be placed above the refrigerating apartments, or it may be
removed from the immediate vicinity of the latter, and in either case be connected
therewith by suitable flues.
The velocity of the air-current is in proportion to the height of the ice in the
air cooling chamber, and consequently the height of the column of cold air in the
air cooling chamber. Therefore to obtain increased velocity the air-cooling chamber
and its interior arrangements may be placed or built higher than the refrigerating
apartments, whether the latter are arranged side by side or one above the other.
The improvement may also be applied to a two-story house as well as to a house
of more stories. The bouse can be ventilated as well as cooled by opening the
valves and allowing the air currents to pass, the external air being admitted through
the opening, and after being passed through the apartments as desired being dis-
charged through an opening.
Openings connecting any one of the refrigerating stories directly with the air-
cooling chamber can be made if desired through the wall of the air-cooling
chamber, through which openings the cold air can flow into the refrigerating
apartments, as previously described, providing the ice in the said chamber extends
above the opening in question. But when any of said last named openings are
to be used, all other lower openings for the outflow of air from the air-cooling
chamber should be closed.
I will now describe the application of the Invention to connected refrigerating
apartments upon the same level, or to a one story house having a series of com-
partments side by side, or to a refrigerator of chest form thus divided.
In a series of two or more apartments arranged side by side, the current of cold
air passes from the air cooling chamber through an opening into refrigerating
apartments, and after circulating to and fro through them (passing through an
opening) it passes up a flue and thence through an opening into the upper part of

page_text: the air-cooling chamber, completing the circuit without auxiliary aid. In this
arrangement also, by means of adjustable openings and doors at the ends of the
partitions (where three or more refrigerating apartments are used), or at other
suitable points, the refrigerating current may be directed through any of the
refrigerating apartments at will. Also when more than two refrigerating apart-
ments are used, either of them may be connected directly with the air-cooling
chamber by means of suitable openings or flues. The air may be allowed to pass
out of the top of the flue instead of returning it into the air-cooling chamber.
The walls and partitions of the horizontal series may, in some cases, be as high
as the walls of the air-cooling chamber, in which case the flue would be omitted.