IMPROVE- MENTS IN REFRIGERATORS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Bernoulli Barlow, of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN REFRIGERATORS."-A communication from abroad by Nicolas
Toconk Galland of Paris France.
Scaled the 10th October 1873, and dated the 14th April 1873.

page_text: licat given off by the water will be absorbed by the acid until the
remainder of the water will be frozen.
This Invention is based upon the above principle.
The improved refrigerator consists of four largo vessels, two of which
are placed above, and two below. Each pair of the upper and lower
vessels are connected by a pipe; the two upper vessels are also connected
by a pipe which is also in communication with an air pump; the two
lower vessels are also connected to the air pump by pipes.
Each pair of upper and lower vessels may be said to resemble and act
like a barometer; it is therefore intended to call the whole apparatus a
"barometric refrigerator."
One pair of vessels is supplied with sulphuric acid, and the other with
water, and the upper water vessel is full of shallow trays in order to
obtain a great cyaporating surface; and the upper vessel containing
the acid is provided with agitators made of revolving discs of glass which
bring fresh particles of the acid to act on the vapours of water which
are given off by the action of the air pump.
The upper and lower vessels containing sulphuric acid are also in
communication with two other vessels in which the acid that has been
used is concentrated before it is again employed.
The pieces of ice formed in the shallow trays above referred to may
be consolidated into large masses by the action of compressed cold air.
The apparatus may be modified for refrigerating air for the use of
brewers, or for cooling apartments, or for other purposes, and when it
is desired to cool liquids below freezing point without congealing them 2
salt water is used in the apparatus instead of fresh water.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Henry Bernoulli Barlow, Her
special licence that I, the said Henry Bernoulli Barlow, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Bernoulli Barlow, my 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 REFRIGERATORS," being a communication to me
from abroad by Nicolas Joseph Galland, of Paris, France, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Bernoulli
Barlow, 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, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Bernoulli Barlow, do
hereby declare my nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement (that is to say):
It is well known that if two vessels one containing sulphuric acid
and the other water be placed in the receiver of an air pump and air
exhausted therefrom the water will be partly evaporated, and the heat
given off by the water will be absorbed by the acid until the remainder
of the water will be frozen.
The Invention forming the subject of this Patent is based upon the
above principle.
The improved refrigerator consists of four large vessels, two of which
are placed above, and two below. Each pair of the upper and lower
vessels are connected by a pipe; the two upper vessels are also con-
nected by a pipe which is also in communication with an air pump;
the two lower vessels are also connected to the air pump by pipes.

page_text: Each pair of upper and lower vessels may be said to resemble and to
act like a barometer; it is therefore intended to call the whole apparatus
a "barometric refrigerator."
And in order that the Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into operation, I will proceed to describe the accompanying
two Sheets of Drawings.
On Sheet 1 Fig. 1 is an elevation, partly in section, of the improved
refrigerator, and Fig. 2 is a section of a part of the vessel A shewing the
arrangement of the trays a.
In Fig. 1 A is the freezing vessel containing the shallow dishes or
trays a, which are piled one upon the other, and provided near their
upper edges with small holes for the overflow of the excess of water.
At the bottom of the vessel A is connected the pipe T, which descends to
near the bottom of the vessel B, the capacity of which is rather greater
than that of the vessel A; the vessels A and B act like a barometer.
Parallel to this first system of barometric vessels containing water is
placed a second containing the acid; it consists of the upper vessel A'
and lower vessel B', connected by the pipe T.
The two upper vessels A and A¹ are connected by the pipe E, in the
centre of which is the box F divided into two parts by the mid-feather c.
In the branch pipes of the box F are the slide valves r, r, and the glass
tubes n for indicating the level. The box F is connected to the air
pump P by the pipe T². The vessel A¹ containing sulphuric acid is
lined with lead, and is placed in a cistern C full of cold water. The
acid is also kept cool by the pipes in the vessel A³, and a current of
cold water circulates through the said pipes t. The axle O which is
turned round in any convenient manner passes through the vessel A',
and on it are fixed the glass discs D. The vessel A' is connected to tho
pump P by the pipe T³. The two lower vessels B, B', are provided with
the pipes T and T³, in which are the taps R², R³, to connect them when
required to the pump P. At the bottom of the vessel A' is fixed the
pipe T, with a tap R' which is carried into the vessel V in which the
diluted sulphuric acid is concentrated. This acid when concentrated
is conveyed by the pipe T into the vessel V', from which the stong
acid is conveyed to the vessel B₁ by the pipe T³.
The mode of operation is as follows:-The vessel B is provided with.
water from which the air has been excluded by boiling, and strong sul.
phuric acid is put into the vessel B'. The taps R, and R³, and valves r, r²,

page_text: are opened, and all the other taps are closed; the pump P is then set to
work. The liquids from the vessels B, B³, rise up the pipes T, T¹, and
soon fill the vessels A, A', then the pipe E, and box F; but the ascent
of the liquids is arrested by the valves 7, 1¹, as soon as they are near the
5 level of the mid-ſeather c, which can be ascertained by the glass tubes n.
The taps R and R³ are then opened, and the pump then draws air from
the vessels B, B¹, by the pipes T', T. The exhaustion or depression
thus effected ceases to support the columns of liquid, and produces the
barometric vacuum. The exhaustion is continued until the level of the
water stands at m in the pipe T, and a little below the axle O in the acid.
The taps R, R', R³, and R³ are then closed. As the water recedes from
the vessel A it fills all the trays a; the valves 7, 71, are now opened, and
the
pump is set to work. The vapours given off at A are partly carried
off by the pump and absorbed by the acid in A', and as the discs D are
caused to revolve there is a constant supply of fresh acid for the absorp-
tion which takes place rapidly, and soon converts into ice the water
contained in the trays a. The vessel A' is in communication with the
pump P by tho pipe T³, which exhausts the vapours and forces them
between the discs D, thereby greatly facilitating the action of the acid.
When the acid is spent the tap R' is opened to convey it to the concen-
trating vessel V by the pipe T, from which vessel it passes by the tap
R and pipe T into the vessel V, from whence the vessel B' is supplied
by the pipe T and tap Ro, thus bringing the apparatus back to the
point from which it started.
Icc obtained in this manner can be applied to various purposes; the
apparatus can also be used to cool air by carrying it through the freezing
vessel A.
It is also evident that the apparatus above described, instead of being
used to make ice, may also be used as a refrigerator, and the principle
on which the apparatus operates may be modified according to the par-
ticular purpose to which it may be applied, as hereafter described.
The apparatus above described may be adapted to the following pur-
pose:-When the blocks of ice are to be removed from the freezing
vessel A it may be desirable to reduce the temperature several degrees
below freezing point before the ice is removed, and this is effected by the
Introduction of a current of compressed cold air into the vessel A. This
air in expanding produces an intense cold sufficient to refreeze the
blocks of ice, and these blocks, when used, are less liable to melt, owing

page_text: to the refreezing process they have undergone; also if a lot of these
refrozen blocks are placed in a mould, and the mould put in the freezing
vessel with a current of compressed air, it will be sufficient to fill the
mould with water at freezing point to unite the small blocks, and
produce a block of any required size. These large blocks are casy to
transport, and would not readily melt.
The second part of this Invention is illustrated on Sheet 2, and it
refers to some modifications in the arrangement of the barometric
refrigerators to render it available for producing a large amount of cold
air, to be used in breweries, or for cooling large rooms.
The freezing vessel A is not filled with small trays, as before, for
making ico; it is provided with sheet metal discs fixed on a revolving
shaft dipping into water and producing rapid evaporation. The vessel
A' with acid being like the one shewn in Fig. 1, the liquid contained
in A will be cooled, or even frozen. If, by the side of the freezing
vessel A, a large vessel B be placed, also provided with discs of sheet
metal which present a great surface, and revolve slowly in water at the
freezing point, and if air be also admitted at the orifice E, and dis-
charged at E¹, it will be very much cooled, and can be used for various
purposes.
In order to make this apparatus act continuously it is necessary to
draw water at freezing point from the freezing vessel A by the pump P¹,
and to force it into the vessel B. This water will circulate through the
vessel B in the contrary direction to that of the air, and it will be drawn
by the pump P, and returned comparatively warm into the vessel A
where it will be again cooled.
The above apparatus acts as a refrigerator in the contrary manner to
the ordinary warming apparatus, and by it rooms or chambers can be
ventilated and kept about at freezing point.
In many cases it would be more economical to dispense with tho discs
and the orifices in the vessel B. By pulverising the water at freezing
point from the vessel A, and returning it in a liquid state, the pul-
verising of the water produces in B an immense surface for cooling the
air from cellars, and returns it when cooled.
In order to cool liquids below freezing point without freezing them, it
is only necessary to use salt water instead of fresh water. By this
means the liquid can be brought to ten degrees below freezing point.