IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH ICE-MAKING APPARATUS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Kyle, of Glasgow, in the County of
•
Lanark, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Kyle at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd September 1874.
.
I, JOHN KYLE, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH ICE-MAKING APPARATUS," to be as
follows, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to the now well known process of making ice
artificially by means of brine or other salt solution cooled in any of the
various known ways.
In the modes hitherto in use for applying the brine an inconvenience
has arisen from the gradually diminishing rate of action as the slabs of

page_text: ice increase in thickness, in consequence of which the brine returns to
the cooling apparatus (the same rate of flow being maintained) in a
gradually less beated state until its return temperature becomes too low
for the proper working of the cooling apparatus. In order to overcome
this difficulty the ice boxes, of whatever size, are separated into at least
four distinct sections with quite separate quantities of water in each, and
pipes and stop-cocks are fitted in connection with the brine cells or
hollow partitions of the several sections for the purpose of leading the
brine to and from them, such pipes and stop-cocks being arranged so
that the brine can be directed through the sections in any succession
whatever. In working this improved apparatus the freezing operation
is carried on in three of the sections at once, but with the formation of
the ice at its carliest stage in one, at a middle stage in a second, and at a
finishing stage in the third, the freshly cooled brine is directed through]
the section at the third stage, but instead of being returned thence to
the cooling machine is next led through the section which is at the
middle stage, and finally through that which is at the carliest stage.
Then when the ice is finished in one section the brine is first led through
what was before at the middle stage, next through what was before at
the early stage and afterwards through the fourth section containing
fresh unfrozen water. When the brine has passed through this fourth
section its temperature will have been so far raised that it may be
afterwards passed through the section containing finished ice for the
purposing of by its warmth detaching such ice from the cells or hollow
partitions, and thus dispense with 'additional apparatus ordinarily required
for that purpose.

page_text: year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said John Kyle, Her special
licence that I, the said John Kyle, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Kyle, 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, usc, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
AND CONNECTED WITH ICE-MAKING APPARATUS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Kyle, 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters

page_text: on, until it finally acts on water
the freshly cooled liquid not
slabs are already of considerable
of which the liquid returns to the cooling apparatus (the same rate of
flow being maintained) in a gradually less heated state until a condition
is reached, such that its return temperature becomes too low for the
proper economical working of the cooling apparatus. In order to
overcome this difficulty I cause the liquid to pass through separate
sections or parts of the ice boxes in a special order which is changed at
intervals in a regular manner, and in such a way as that the liquid on
proceeding from the cooling apparatus first acts in parts of the ice boxes
in which the slabs of ice have attained nearly their full thickness, next
where the ice is not so thick, and so
altogether unfrozen. In this way
abstracting much heat where the ice
thickness is still cool enough to abstract heat where the ice slabs are
thinner, and if by the time it reaches the last part or section of the ice
boxes it has become too heated to actually freeze the water, it can at
least cool the water to near the freezing point. It will be obvious that
in conducting the process in this way there will be a maximum difference
between the temperature of the liquid on its leaving and that on its
returning to the cooling apparatus, and as this difference of temperature
is prevented from varying much, by the regular changes in the order of
passage of the liquid through the several parts or sections of the ice
boxes, the cooling apparatus can be arranged to develop a constant
maximum duty with convenience and economy.
My improvements are economically and otherwise advantageous in
the production of slabs or blocks of ice of the thickness of three or four
inches as hitherto made in freezing machines, but a most important
advantage of the improvements consists in their admitting of the ice
being made in blocks of eight inches thickness, or even thicker, quite
as economically as the thinner slabs hitherto made, the advantage of
having the blocks of an extra thickness being well understood by those
practically conversant with the artificial production of icc.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and showing a set
of ice boxes as arranged and fitted for carrying out my improved system
of working. In these Drawings the same reference letters and numerals
are used to mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.

page_text: Figure 1 is a transverse vertical section of a set of four simple ice
boxes A B, CD, EF, G H, each with a single hollow partition 1, 2, 3, 4,
in it. Each box or section may have in it two or more of the hollow
partitions for the passage of the liquid; Figure 2 is an end elevation of
the ice boxes, and Figure 3 is a vertical section as at right angles to
Figure 2.
The hollow partitions 1, 2, 3, 4, are, by preference, of one of the
kinds described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to me
and dated the 12th July 1873 (No. 2410), and at one end of the boxes
the top and bottom of each partition are connected by short pipes 5, 6,
to three-way stop-cocks 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Each stop-cock has
a conical plug, the smaller end of which is bored to communicate with
the pipe 5 or 6 leading to the partition, and a single port is formed
through the side of the plug to communicate according to the position
into which the plug is turned with one or other of two diametrically
opposite branch pipes, whilst any plug may be set in a position to stop all
passage through it. The several stop-cocks communicate by the branch
pipes just referred to with transverse horizontal pipes 15, 16, 17, 18,
above and below them. The liquid coming from the cooling apparatus
by a pipe 19 can have access by the bottom horizontal pipe 18, to the
several lower stop-cocks 8, 10, 12, 14, and supposing the ice to be
thickest in box or section A. B, thinner in CD, and thinnest in EF,
whilst G H is just filled up with fresh water, the liquid will be first
entering the bottom of the partition 1 in A B, the stop-cock 8 being
suitably set for that purpose. The other stop-cocks will be set so that
the liquid leaving the top of AB, will proceed by the pipe 16 to the top
of CD, and passing through the partition 2 therein will proceed from
the bottom thereof by the pipe 17 to the bottom of E F. The liquid
after passing through the partition 3 in E F will proceed by the pipe 15
to the return pipe 20 leading it back to the cooling apparatus. In short
the liquid passes through the boxes in the order and in the upward and
downward direction in each box, which may be simply indicated by the
arrangement of the reference letters thus B A,-C D,-FE. As soon as
the ice in box A B is thick enough the several stop-cocks are turned in
such a way that the liquid may pass in the course DC,-EF,-H G,
and in a similar way the third course will be FE,—G H,-BA, and the
fourth will be HG,-A B,-D C. The four courses will then be repeated
in the order already given:

page_text: It will be noticed that at each change the upward or downward
direction in each box is reversed, which will correct the tendency to
form ice of different thicknesses in the upper and lower parts of each
box.
The horizontal pipes 15 and 17 are connected by a branch 21, having
a stop-cock 22 to admit of the boxes being worked singly or in pairs if
wished at any time, but the stop-cock 22 is closed when working on the
triple system herein-before described, and which I believe to be the best
as regards quantity of ice produced for the power employed, although
the advantage gained by it may be obtained in a less degree by working
with two boxes in each course, and at each change causing the liquid to
pass first through the box in which ice has been partly formed, and then
through the box freshly filled up with water.
When working according to the triple system herein-before described
with three boxes or sections in each course, and with a fourth box from
which the ice is being removed and in which fresh water is being filled
in, the ice may be loosened from the partitions in the ordinary way by
pumping comparatively warm water or liquid through the partitions,
such water or liquid being separate from the liquid by means of which
the freezing is effected. My improved arrangement however admits of
a more convenient and economical mode of loosening the ice being
adopted. Supposing the ice to be thick enough in box A B, then before.
setting the stop-cocks for the second of the four courses herein-before
described, they are set so that the course of the liquid may be D C,-GH,
-BA. The heat of the freshly supplied water in G H will raise the
liquid some degrees above the freezing point, so that on passing through
the partition in A B, it will have a thawing effect on the ice attached,
then the stop-cocks are set for the second course DC, EF, HG, as
herein-before described. To obtain a similar action when the ice is to
be removed from the other boxes CD, EF, GH, the stop-cocks are to be
arranged for the following courses respectively, namely, second, FE,-
A B, DC; third, HG,-CD,-FE; and fourth, BA,-E F,-H G.
E
If considered desirable additional branch pipes and stop-cocks may be
fitted in connection with the ice boxes to admit of the liquid passing in
succession through all four sections when being used for detaching
finished ice, so that its temperature may be still higher on passing
through the fourth box; or even with pipes and stop-cocks fitted as
1

page_text: herein described and delineated, the stop-cocks may be set so that
instead of missing a box or section as herein-before described, the liquid
may pass downward through two adjacent boxes or sections instead of
one, the current being divided between the two.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the
manner of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict
myself to the precise details herein described and delineated, but that
what I believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
arranging and working of the ice boxes and their connections, so that
the heat abstracting liquid passes in succession through boxes or parts,
or sections of boxes which have less ice in them in proportion as
its heat becomes greater, substantially in the manner and for the
purposes
herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Kyle, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Third day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JOHN KYLE. (L.S.)