IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR VENTILATING COMPARTMENTS OF VESSELS, CARRIAGES, BUILDINGS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES BY THE EMPLOYMENT OF COOLED, DRIED, AND FILTERED AIR
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of Southampton Buildings, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS
AND APPARATUS FOR VENTILATING COMPARTMENTS OF VESSELS, CARRIAGES,
BUILDINGS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES BY THE EMPLOYMENT OF COOLED, DRIED,
AND FILTERED AIR." A communication from abroad by Gustave Adolphe
Danet, of Paris, in the Republic of France, and Charles George Viehoff, of
Brussels, Belgium.
Sealed the 20th October 1877, and dated the 8th May 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th May 1877.
_CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR VENTILATING COMPARTMENTS
OF VESSELS, CARRIAGES, BUILDINGS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES BY THE EMPLOYMENT OF
COOLED, DRIED, AND FILTERED AIR." A communication from abroad by Gustave
Adolphe Danet, of Paris, in the Republic of France, and Charles George Viehoff, of
Brussels, Belgium.
This Invention relates to means and apparatus for producing a current of foul air
out of, and a current of cooled, dried, and filtered air into a compartment of a ship,
railway train, building, or other structure, whereby the freshness of the air and
uniformity of temperature may be maintained.
In order that the nature of the Invention may be more clearly understood, a
particular case of its application, as, for example, to the after-hold of a steam vessel,
may be described as follows:-Air from without is admitted by an inlet fitted with
an ordinary ventilator or funnel mouth to a tube leading to a refrigerator consisting
of a chamber lined with non-conducting material, and containing a nest of tubes,
preferably of thin copper or brass, tinned, surrounded by ice when low temperature
is required, or when the conditions do not require so low a temperature, the tubes
may be surrounded by sea water, caused to circulate among them by a circulating
pump or by providing inlet and outlet mouths for the water directed obliquely, so
that a current through them is produced by the motion of the vessel.
In the refrigerator a portion of the moisture of the air is deposited as water

page_text: which flows away by a bent pipe forming a trap allowing the water to escape, but
retaining always a column of water in its bend to seal it against the passage of air.
From the refrigerator the air passes to the desiccator, which is a chamber
containing cheap desiccating material, such as lime. Thence the air passes through
layers of cotton, which filter it, and enters the compartment to be ventilated. The
foul air is extracted by a tube communicating with a casing surrounding the boiler
funnel, the heat of which produces the required draught, causing the inflow and
outflow of the air. In the outlet tube is a regulating valve or damper, which may
be worked by hand or automatically by thermo-electric instruments, so as to regulate
the current according to the temperature in the ventilated compartment.
To provide the required draught when the vessel is not under steam, the outlet
tube may be connected with the chimney of the donkey boiler or galley fire; and in
a sailing vessel a special chimney and fire may be provided, or in this case and in
other structures other known means of producing a current of air may be employed,
such as the ventilators described in Vichoff and Voss's Patent, No. 2151, of 1872.
In applying the means above described to the ventilation of a compartment of a
vessel, such as that containing fresh provisions, it is preferred to make the refrige-
rating chamber of such size as to contain the necessary quantity of ice for refrigerating
during the voyage, without having again to charge it.
The refrigerating chamber is placed under the level of the external water, the
apertures for access to it being provided with covers or scuttles that can be tightly
closed, and the inlet and outlet water passages being fitted with valves, so that the
chamber can be charged, when required, with sea water, or with ice, the sea water
being excluded.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Scal Patent Office on the 29th
October 1877.
CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR VENTILATING COMPARTMENTS
OF VESSELS, CARRIAGES, BUILDINGS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES BY THE EMPLOYMENT OF
COOLED, DRIED, AND FILTERED AIR." A communication from abroad by Gustavo
Adolphe Danet, of Paris, in the Republic of France, and Charles George Viehoff, of
Brussels, Belgium.
This Invention relates to means and apparatus for producing a current of foul air
out of, and a current of cooled, dried, and filtered air into, a compartment of a ship,
railway train, building, or other structure, whereby the freshness of the air and
uniformity of temperature may be maintained.
In order that the nature of the Invention may be more clearly understood, a
particular case of its application, as, for example, to the after-hold of a steam vessel,
may be described as follows:-Air from without is admitted by an inlet fitted with
an ordinary ventilator or funnel mouth to a tube leading to a refrigerator consisting
of a chamber lined with non-conducting material, and containing a nest of tubes,
preferably of thin copper or brass tinned, surrounded by ice when low temperature
is required, or when the conditions do not require so low a temperature, the tubes
may be surrounded by sea water, caused to circulate among them by a circulating
pump or by providing inlet and outlet mouths for the water directed obliquely, so
that a current through them is produced by the motion of the vessel.
In the refrigerator a portion of the moisture of the air is deposited, as water,
which flows away by a bent pipe forming a trap, allowing the water to escape, but
retaining always a column of water in its bend to seal it against the passage of air.
From the refrigerator the air passes to the desiccator, which is a chamber
containing cheap desiccating material, such as lime. Thence the air passes through

page_text: layers of cotton, which filter it, and enters the compartment to be ventilated. The
foul air is extracted by a tube communicating with a casing surrounding the boiler
funnel, the heat of which produces the required draught, causing the inflow and
outflow of the air. In the outlet tube is a regulating valve or damper, which may
be worked by hand or automatically by thermo-electric instruments, so as to regulate
the current according to the temperature in the ventilated compartment.
To provide the required draught when the vessel is not under steam, the outlet
tube may be connected with the chimney of the donkey boiler or galley fire; and in
a sailing vessel a special chimney and fire may be provided, or in this case and in
other structures, other known means of producing a current of air may be employed,
such as the ventilators described in Viehoff and Voss's Patent, No. 2151, of 1872.
In applying the means above described to the ventilation of a compartment of a
vessel, such as that containing fresh provisions, it is preferred to make the refrige-
rating chamber of such size as to contain the necessary quantity of ice for refrigeration
during the voyage, without having again to charge it.
The refrigerating chamber is placed under the level of the external water, the
apertures for access to it being provided with covers or scuttles that can be tightly
closed, and the inlet and outlet water passages being fitted with valves, so that the
chamber can be charged, when required, with sea water, or with ice, the sea water
being excluded.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 of the Drawings shews a part longitudinal section of a steamship with
our before-described Invention applied thereto; Figs. 2 and 3 shew half transverse
sections taken respectively on lines X, X, and Y, Y, on Fig. 1.
At one end of the hold A of the vessel which is to be supplied with cool, dried,
and filtered air, is formed a chamber B, into which air enters from the tube C, the
supply being derived either from an ordinary ship's ventilator, such as D, or from
any other description of ventilator, such as before mentioned, or from the air escaping
from the hold at the opposite end, for which purpose a pipe or passage E is led from
the escape passage F back to the tube C. From the chamber B the air passes into
the refrigerator G, consisting of a number of pipes g fixed transversely in the metal
sides of the compartment H, which is either filled with ice or refrigerating mixture,
or the sea water may be made to circulate through it by providing at each side of
the vessel a sluice valve or sea-cock, as indicated at I, Fig. 2, provided with gratings,
the passage of the one cock or valve being directed obliquely forward and the other
obliquely aft, whereby the necessary circulation of the water through the compart-
ment will be produced. For this purpose also circulating pumps may be employed.
The pipes g are preferably inclined backwards, as shewn, so that any moisture that
may condense from the air as it passes through them may flow back into the
chamber B, whence it can be drained by a siphon pipe.
For the better conduction of the heat from the air to the refrigerating material,
the pipes may be charged with iron filings or other metallic substance in granular
form. The air refrigerated by passing through the tubes g passes through the
dessicating chamber D, which is charged with lime or other cheap dessicating
materials held between porous screens, and thence through a layer 7 of cotton,
whereby it is filtered. The air thus cooled, dried, and filtered, passes through the
compartment A, as indicated by the arrows f, to a tube or channel H leading to the
lower part of the chimney J, which is provided with a casing V forming an upcast
shaft. Under steam the waste heat of the chimney will secure the requisite draught,
and when the boiler is not in use, as when the vessel is in port or under sail, a
special furnace F may be employed to produce the required ventilating current; or
the waste heat from the donkey boiler or from the galley L may be applied for the
same purpose.
For sailing ships having no boiler, a furnace, such as is indicated at F¹, may be
employed to create the required draught, or fans or other mechanical ventilators may
be used, in which case the discharged air may be sent up hollow masts or it may be

page_text: made to return by the passage E to the supply tube C in continuous circulation, the
external supply being closed. The refrigerating chamber G and store compartment A
are lined with non-conducting material m, and the apertures of the inlet and outlet
channels are fitted with wire gauze screens. In passenger vessels the refrigerating
chamber may be used as the ice well, for fresh provisions, or may contain the same.
Although the Drawings hereunto annexed, represent apparatus according to this
Invention arranged on a considerable scale to suit a compartment of a vessel, it may
be readily understood that similar arrangements on a smaller scale are applicable to
a pantry or larder, either in a vessel or on shore. In such a case the whole may be
contained within a piece of furniture occupying the space and height of a table and
divided into the required compartments, that is to say, the supply chamber, with ice
tank, cooling tubes, dessicating and filtering arrangements, the store chamber
provided with suitable doors for access, and the passage for discharge of the air,
which may be led to a chimney or to a flue or pipe in which a draught is maintained
by a fire or flame. In such apparatus the lower portion of the refrigerating chamber
may be conveniently used for cooling bottles, jugs, or other vessels.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed as communicated to me by my foreign correspondents, I
claim :-
The combination of air cooling, drying, and filtering arrangements in a channel
or chamber, through which air is supplied to a compartment of a vessel or other
structure, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.
CHA& D. ABEL. (L.S.)