IMPROVEMENTS IN ICE MAKING
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frank Wirth, of the Firm of Wirth and Company, Patent
Solicitors, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in the Empire of Germany, for the
Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN ICE MAKING." A communication from
Gottlob Currle, of Ulm, in the Empire of Germany.
Sealed the 12th February 1878, and dated the 3rd September 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frank Wirth at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd September 1877.
FRANK WIRTH, of the Firm of Wirth and Company, Patent Solicitors, at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, in the Empire of Germany. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ICE
MAKING." A communication from Gottlob Currle, of Ulm, in the Empire of
Germany.
The improvements consist in the use of buildings to be constructed, preferably of
wood, of one or more stories, and with double walls and floors or partitions to be
filled in with non-conductors of heat, such as sawdust, or felt, or india-rubber
sheeting; and furnishing such buildings with one or more discharge pipes fitted
with minute holes, through which water is to be passed at a high pressure (say, of
5 or 6 atmospheres), and discharged in the shape of spray in and against the sides
of the said buildings.
Also fitting said buildings with louvres or shutters to be opened to allow of the
free ingress of air when below freezing, so that the spray may be frozen by the
natural temperature, and to be shut when the temperature is rising above freezing,
and so keep or preserve the ice already made.
Further, the Invention embraces, in combination with said buildings and spray
pipes, the making of ice by the use of any cold freezing mixtures, through which
said pipes may pass, or over which said spray may be driven.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Frank Wirth in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th February
1878.
FRANK WIRTH, of the Firm of Wirth and Company, Patent Solicitors, at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, in the Empire of Germany. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ICE
MAKING." A communication from Gottlob Currle, of Ulm, in the Empire of
Germany.
The improvements consist in the use of buildings to be constructed, preferably of
wood, of one or more stories, and with double walls and floors or partitions, to be
filled in with non-conductors of heat, such as sawdust, or felt, or india-rubber
sheeting; and furnishing such buildings with one or more discharge pipes fitted
with minute holes, through which water is to be passed at a high pressure (say, of
5 or 6 atmospheres), and discharged in the shape of spray in and against the sides
of the said buildings.
Also fitting said buildings with louvres or shutters to be opened to allow of the
free ingress of air when below freezing, so that the spray may be frozen by the
natural temperature, and to be shut when the temperature is rising above freezing,
and so keep or preserve the ice already made.
Further, the Invention embraces, in combination with said buildings and spray
pipes, the making of ice by the use of any cold freezing mixtures, through which
said pipes may pass, or over which said spray may be driven.
The accompanying Drawing will serve to illustrate how the Invention can be
performed.
Figure I. is an elevation of a building for the manufacture of ice; and in order to
save labour it also is an ice house for the storing, and is so constructed that the ice
required for daily use can be easily taken out.
Figures II. and III, are plan and cross sections, showing the floors on which the
ice rests, which are provided with a non-conducting stuffing b. The front and
back are provided with double walls, the outer wall having as many moving
shutters as possible to allow the cold air as free a vent as possible, as at f, i, c, while
the inner walls, which form the real caseing of the ice room, are left open, and only
closed with boards, as the quantity of ice rising from the floor requires it.
The space between the walls is divided into 5 floors connected by steps, so that
one can easily go from one floor to another, see Figures II and III.
At the top of the building the sides are connected by bridges e, Figures II. and IV.,
and Figure IIL, e and f; by this arrangement one can go all round the building.
The ice room proper is divided into two divisions; each of these are quite free and
open from the bottom up to the hanging bridges before mentioned. The four inner
side walls, see h, Figures II. and III., are carried up to the top, and covered with
boards provided with a water-tight paint covering, so as to form one smooth surface.
The roof is provided with shutter openings or louvres i, Figures I., II., and IV.,
so that the vapours and warmth given off by the water may have easy escape.
The water pipes conducting the liquid k, Figure III., are of metal, the water having
a pressure of 5 to 6 atmospheres. From this chief pipe 4 branch pipes 1, Figures II.,
III., and IV., proceed, each provided with a valve and water vent. These pipes
are carried up to the hanging bridges e, two of them are then carried into each
compartment of the ice house in a slanting direction upwards. Each of these four
pipes carried on to the bridge e are connected with three smaller pipes 1, 2, 3; these
latter being also carried upwards in a slanting direction, see Figures II. and IV.,
and are screwed at their farthest ends to the perforated pipes 4, 5, 6. Figure IV. These
perforated metal pipes are closed at farthest end, and bored or perforated with very
small holes. Thus there are 4 chief branch pipes, and twelve perforated ones, all
with equal number of holes, and placed in such a manner that the farthest end,
which is closed, is higher up than the end which is attached to the branch pipes.

page_text: In order to prevent waste of water, and insure a rapid formation of ice, the
number of holes have to be regulated according to the temperature; this is easily
effected, in spite of the rapid changes of temperature, by the use of taps in the
branch pipes, Figures II., III., and IV.; by these the water pressure can be
reduced or increased in any required degree.
In my experiments I have found that with a temperature of 1 to 2 degrees
Reaumur, 646 holes may be made in each perforated pipe, so that in the three,
1938 holes will be running; these 1938 holes project in an hour about 600 litres of
water on to the side of the building, Figure III., about 100 square meters. In about
10 hours the ice on the walls has reached a thickness of 6 centimeters; thus the
capability of a house, as above described, would be 7752 holes, using about 2400
litres of water, equal to 2400 kilos.
At a temperature of 21% to 31, Reaumur, with all twelve pipes in work, 11,628
holes should be employed, using 3600 litres of water in the hour. It is thus
evident that a cold temperature requires more holes in activity, and that more water
is required. Everything being in order, and the temperature at a proper degree,
the perforated pipes are attached to the branch pipes, the shutters being opened to
allow the air to rise through the building. The cocks are then opened, and the
water spouts out of the pipe holes at the top of the building in fine spray, and
trickles slowly down the sides. The fine spray falls down through the air, and the
thin sheet of water on the walls rapidly gives off all its heat, which is allowed to
escape through the ventilators in the roof. Thus at the top congelation begins, and
the walls are soon covered throughout with an even coating of transparent ice.
In order that the ice, as it formis, may be properly stored, boards of about 15
centimeters in height are placed at both ends of each compartment. When the
formation of ice has reached the top of these boards, others are placed on the top
of them, and so on until the house is full.
Should the weather become warm during the ice formation, and before the house
is full, the shutters are shut at each end, and also in the roof, so that the ice, which is
already formed, may keep until the return of cold weather, when the manufacture
is recommenced.
If one of my improved ice houses is provided on all its six sides, that is to say, at
the four walls, roof, and floor, with double walling, filled in with a non-conductor,
and the inside connected with a machine for the introduction of streams of cold air,
superior ice can be produced in the height of summer far better in quality, and
much cheaper than by any of the ice machines now in use.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frank Wirth, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Nineteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-eight.
FRANK WIRTH. (L.S.)