IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING ICE
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Norman and James Copeland, of Glasgow, in
the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineers, for the Invention of
Sealed the 21st August 1866, and dated the 28th February 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Norman and James
Copeland at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 28th February 1866.
We, JOHN NORMAN and JAMES COPELAND, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING ICE," to be as
follows, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to the production of ice by means of currents of
brine or other fluid having a temperature below thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit,
and more particularly to the formation of the ice on the outside of vessels or
passages containing the brine or cooling fluid, as described in the Specification
of Letters Patent granted to Alexander Carnegie Kirk, and dated 13th
September 1864 (No. 2235); and the present Invention consists in forming
the passages or cells for the cooling fluid of a number of tubes or of a single
convoluted tube formed into a slab or partition piece, which is arranged by
Price 8d.]

page_text: preference in a vertical position for the ice to be formed upon each side of it.
The tubes may be of various sections, but in a simple and preferable modi-
fication they are rectangular in section; they are of copper or other suitable
thin sheet metal, and are united together edge to edge or side to side by
soldering or otherwise to form a slab. The tubes are made to communicate
with each other alternately at opposite ends, so that the brine or cooling fluid
passes through each one in succession; or they may be made to communicate
with each other in sections of two or more.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Leiters Patent, filed
by the said John Norman and James Copeland in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 25th August 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
NORMAN and JAMES COPELAND, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Iler most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said John Norman and James Copeland, Her special licence that we, the
said John Norman and James Copeland, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said John Norman and James Copeland,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter 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 APPARATUS
FOR PRODUCING ICE," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
John Norman and James Copeland, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, 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 we, the said John Norman and James Copeland, do
hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the

page_text: following statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say:
Our said Invention relates to the production of ice by means of currents
of brine or other fluid having a temperature below thirty-two degrees
Fahrenheit, and more particularly to the formation of the ice on the outside of
vessels or passages containing the brine or cooling fluid, as described in the
Specification of Letters Patent granted to Alexander Carnegie Kirk, and
dated 13th September, 1864 (No. 2235). And our present Invention con-
sists in forming the passages or cells for the brine or cooling fluid of a number
of tubes or of a single convoluted tube formed into a slab or partition piece,
which is arranged by preference in a vertical position for the ice to be formed
upon each side of it. The tubes may be of various sections, but in a simple
and preferable modification they are rectangular in section. And in order
that our said Invention and the manner of performing the same may be
properly understood we have hereunto appended a Sheet of explanatory
Drawings to be hereinafter referred to, and representing a simple, convenient,
and practically successful modification of our improved arrangements.
6, which
Each slal
Figure of the said Drawings is a plan of a freezing or cooling tank;
Figure 2 is a longitudinal vertical section; and Figure is a partially sectioned
end elevation. The tank is of a long rectangular form with bottom I and
sides 2. 3. of wood. and with end plates 4, 5, of cast-iron. One of the
end plates 4, is made with ribs on its inside, forming grooves or
seats to receive the ends of four tubular slabs or partitions
pass through stuffing boxes formed in the other end plate 5.
or partition 6 is built up of a number of tubes of a long rectangular
cross section, as seen at the left-hand side of Figure 3. The tubes may be of
any suitable thin metal, but we prefer to make them of sheet copper, which
being cut and bent to the shape has the edges brazed together. whilst the
tubes are combined together to form the slabs by brazing them edge to edge,
the whole being tinned over externally and internally when completed. The
inner ends of the tubes are closed, but so as to communicate with each other
in pairs, as will be easily understood from the right-hand end of Figure 2.
The outer end of each tubular slab 6 has fixed on it by rivetting and sweating
or brazing a brass flanged piece 7. by means of which there is bolted to it
a cast-iron box 8 formed with upper and lower flanged openings 9, 10, and
with internal partitions, which direct the currents of brine into the tubes in
the manner indicated by the arrows. The end boxes 8 may he connected in
various ways with the main inlet and outlet pipes for the brine, so as to pro-
vide for the circulation of the brine through the machine or apparatus in

page_text: which it is cooled, thence to and through the water tank, and back again to the
cooling machine or apparatus. Thus cach tubular slab or partition 6 may
communicate independently with the said outlet and inlet pipes; it is, how-
ever, often convenient to connect two slabs together, as shown in the Drawings,
namely, by branches 11 fitted to the upper openings 9 of the end boxes 8.
In this case the bottom openings 10 of the connected boxes are connected to
a four-way cock 12, which communicates with the inlet and outlet pipes.
When the brine has been flowing for some time through one slab first, the
cock 12 may be turned so as to cause it to flow through. the other slab first,
and thus equalise the freezing or cooling action. As the long slabs of ice
formed on the tubular slabs 6 are inconvenient to handle, an appliance is
shown for dividing them into any short lengths that may be required. This
appliance or divider consists of a pair of tubes 13, closed at their bottom ends,
but open above, and united by a saddle piece at the top. The required
number of these dividers are placed astride of the tubular slabs 6 at the ends,
and at intermediate points, before beginnning to freeze the water with which
the tanks are filled, and after a sufficient thickness of ice is formed, warm
water is poured into the dividers, and is also passed through the tubular slabs
6, and at once loosens the blocks of ice.
Ilaving thus particularly described our said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, we have. to state that we do not restrict
ourselves to the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what
we believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to us
by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the constructing and
arranging of apparatus for producing ice substantially in the improved
manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Norman, on behalf of myself and
of the said James Copeland, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Twenty-fourth day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent.
Glasgow.
JOHN NORMAN. (L.S.)