IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF ICE AND TO REFRIGERATIVE PURPOSES GENE. RALLY
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Pierre Charles Nesmond, of Bellac, in the
Department of Haute Vienne and in the Empire of France, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY APPLICABLE TO
THE MANUFACTURE OF ICE AND TO REFRIGERATIVE PURPOSES GENE.
RALLY."
Scaled the 21st June 1853, and dated the 24th December 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Pierre Charles
Nesmond at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 24th December 1852.
I, PIERRE CHARLES NESMOND, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY APPLICABLE TO THE
MANUFACTURE OF ICE AND TO REFRIGERATIVE PURPOSES GENERALLY
be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel mode of producing ice, or refri-
gerating various substances by the application of compressed air.
The refrigerating power of compressed air when allowed to expand
to its original bulk, is well known; and its application to refrige-
rating purposes is not new, but it has not hitherto succeeded, in

page_text: consequence of the compressed air (when allowed to expand and
thereby extract the caloric from surrounding objects) being per-
mitted to pass too quickly over the surface of or in contact with
the substances to be refrigerated, thereby not giving the air time to
act on and abstract the heat.
The object of the present Invention is to correct this defect, and
by means of a moderator or apparatus for regulating the exit and
speed of the compressed air froin the vessel in which it is confined
to give it full time to act on the substances to be refrigerated, and
cause the compressed air to take from these substances the amount
of heat that is necessary to allow it to resume its normal condition,
and by thus doing, to reduce the temperature of the substances thus
acted on. A variety of plans or mechanical arrangements may be
devised for carrying out this object, but they are all founded on the
same principle of regulating the speed of the compressed air, and
thereby obliging it to remain a sufficient time in contact with the
substance to be refrigerated, to cause it to abstract the caloric.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said Pierre Charles Nesmond in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 24th June 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
PIERRE CHARLES NESMOND, of Bellac, in the Department of Haute
Vienne, and in the Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty by Her Letters Patent,
bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of December, One thousand
eight. hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Pierre Charles Nesmond, Her special licence that I, the
said Pierre Charles Nesmond, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Pierre Charles Nesmond, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree

page_text: 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 MACHINERY APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF
ICE AND TO REFRIGERATIVE PURPOSES GENERALLY," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Pierre Charles Nesmond, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 I, the said Pierre Charles Nesmond, do
hereby declare the 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 thereof (that is
to say):
My Invention consists in constructing apparatus for effecting the
alternate compression and dilatation of atmospheric air and other
permanent gases for the manufacture of ice, and for refrigerating
purposes generally.
Figure 1, Drawing I., is a plan of the apparatus.
Figure 2, is a vertical section taken through A, A, of Figure 1.
Figure 3, a section through the line B, B, of Figure 1.
Figure 4, is a front elevation of the apparatus.
Figure 5, is a vertical section of a refrigerator, differing from the
one represented by Figure 2, A, A, is the foundation plate on which
the apparatus is set; it may be of wood, or sheet or cast iron, and
must be mounted on small rollers, as shewn in Figures 2, and 4.
B, is a recipient or condenser, in which the pressure of the air is
effected. This condenser may be constructed of metal or other
material capable of resisting. C, is a cooling reservoir placed above
the condenser B, and containing water for absorbing the caloric
disengaged from the air by condensation in the recipient B. The

page_text: water is retained by a sheet iron, or galvanized iron partition b.
D, is a wooden lid externally lined with sheet iron, and serving
to cover the space C, when the condensation of the air has taken
place in the recipient B, and the water has run out through the
cock 1. E, E, E, E, the surrounding casing, made of non-conducting
substances, such as straw, saw or coal dust, isolating the condenser
B, from the surrounding air. The substances are kept round the
apparatus by an outer sheet iron or wood envelope F. G, G, is the
moderator or pipe of communication between the condenser B, and
the dilatation chamber H, which forms the lower part of the refri-
gerator. The tube G, G, is constructed of the saine material as the
condenser B, and is capable of supporting the same pressure. It
is provided with two taps 1, and 2, which are united together by
means of the levers g, g, Figure 1, and by which they are prevented
from remaining simultaneously open. J, J, is a wood, sheet or cast
iron refrigerator, covered with circular sheet or cast iron bands of
about one eighth of an inch thick. They are set upon the apparatus
when properly heated, and in the same manner as iron bands are
set on carriage wheels. If the refrigerator is made of wood, it must
be dried to a high temperature. This refrigerator is divided into
two parts; H, is the lower part of the refrigerator, which I call the
dilatator, and K, is the upper part. These two parts H, and K, are
separated by means of the iron plate I, but they are put in coin-
munication by the tube L. The dilating recipient H, must have a
capacity equal to that of the condenser B, but the capacity of
the refrigerator K, must be three times larger, including the
volume of the several objects which are to be inserted in it.
I place in the upper part of the refrigerator K, K, the vessels,
which in certain cases are to serve as congelators of different forms,
as shewn in Figures 2, and 5. Their different parts are marked with
the same letters. O, is the foot or basis of the vessel; N, is the
external vessel; R, the internal vessel; P, a valve. The valve
represented in Figure 5, opens from bottom to top, and must be
constructed of substances which no liquid can affect. S, is a tube

page_text: serving to conduct the dilated air from the apparatus, and is provided
at its upper part with a tap 4; T, is the lid of the air refrigerator;
it is kept by means of screwed bolts. An ordinary air pump X, put
in motion by a crank arm, injects the air into the condenser, and
the safety valve V, placed between the pump and the condenser,
protects the apparatus from the danger of exploding. A manometer
shows the tension of the air in the apparatus, but a whistle set on
the top of the safety valve V, will effectually replace it. A ther-
mometer placed within the refrigerator, but in such a manner that
the scale may be examined, exhibits the degrees of temperature in
the refrigerator. I would remark that the air pump X, shewn in
the Drawing, must have a diameter four times larger than the
apparatus in order to produce all the useful effects from an appa-
ratus constructed of the proportions shewn in the Drawing. The
apparatus is to be worked with a forcing pump of the power of one
nan. The mean velocity of the crank being thirty-six rotations
per minute, which give an equal number of piston strokes, and the
stroke of the piston being about four inches per minute, the diameter
of the piston should be about three inches and a half to render the
motive power efficient, and allow the air in the recipient to be con-
densed to twenty atmospheres in eight minutes and one third of a
minute, or three hundred turns of the crank arm or piston strokes.
If I employ two apparatus, working together, so as to fill one con-
denser whilst the other is emptying, and have two workmen to
attend them, I could perform six operations per hour, which
would produce thirteen to twenty pounds of ice, or its equivalent of
cooling of another fluid, and at a minimum of fifty operations per
day of ten hours would produce four to five hundred weight per
day at a considerable reduction of price.
My Invention may be applied to numerous purposes.
For the production of ice, either with common sea water, pure
water, or any other liquid.
"Firstly." If it is required to obtain water free from all particles
of salt, it is necessary to filter the water with the greatest care before
introducing it into the apparatus, and not to congeal it entirely, in

page_text: order that the saline agents may be concentrated in the remaining
liquid, and for that purpose the temperature should not be
lowered to more than twenty-two to twenty-four degrees Fah-
renheit.
Secondly, for cooling every kind of fermented or distilled drinks
without congealing them. In that case the vessels, bottles, or other
recipients are placed in the upper part K, of the refrigerators J, J,
from which the congelator is removed, and left there until the ther-
mometer of the apparatus marks - twenty-four degrees Fahrenheit.
My apparatus serves also to cool public establishments, such as
theatres, ball rooms, butchers markets, the medical amphitheatres,
hospitals, and other like places. For that purpose I inject the
currents of cold air direct into them from the moderator tube,
through the taps 2, and 3.
Thirdly, for the preparation of ices, sorbets, and other similar
preparations. In that case the congelator Figure 5, is not
employed.
Fourthly, for the concentration of all kinds of saline, alkaline
acid, and alcoholic solutions containing water or other congealable
fluids. The whole or part of the liquid is separated from the
solution, and in certain cases I cause the precipitation of the
substances contained in a state of suspension in them, to obtain
certain substances in a state of entire purity, or modified advanta-
geously in their composition, which is often necessary in the manu-
facture of concentrated acids, alkalies, and essences, brandies, and
alcohol.
For the amelioration of wines and fermented drinks, which are
flat or weak, I effect the total or partial separation of the water in
combination, or the acids they may contain, by reducing them to a
state of ice, and when they are too tart and harsh, I precipitate and
expel their excess of tartar and lie by momentary congelation of
their water held in combination.
For purifying salts and sugar from canc and beetroots, and
various other substances susceptible of being reduced to a greater
state of purity, I operate as follows: The vegetable from which

page_text: sugar is to be extracted (beetroot for instance), is cut into thin
slices, and I fill up the upper part K, of the refrigerators with them
(the congelators N, O, P, R, S, Figure 2, being withdrawn), and I
place the slices so as to expose them to the action of the cold air.
They are left there whilst the recipient B, is filled and emptied
several times with condensed air, and until the thermometer of the
apparatus shows about twenty-two degrees Fahrenheit. I then
withdraw them, and place them in a vessel above the condenser B,
in which I gradually pour at the part C, about four times their
weight of pure water at a temperature not higher than one hundred
and four degrees Fahrenheit.
When the slices are completely thawed and softened, and the
liquid which saturates then appears to have separated a sufficient
quantity of saccharine matter from them, the liquid is taken off, and
replaced by an equal quantity of pure water at thirty-two degrees
Fahrenheit. I place it in the congelator J, Figure 2, where it is
reduced by concentration to one tenth of its volume. I then take
the first liquid, and pour it with the second liquid on the pulp,
and I concentrate it to the same degree as in the first operation,
which operations are repeated a third time.
The liquid being sufficiently purified, the chrystallising can be
procceded with at once. The sugar chrystallises at the bottom of
the vessel, as the water is congealing above it.
Fifthly, it is also applicable for the complete preservation of all
kind of animal matters by effecting their congelation at a high
degree of cold, and covering them afterwards with non-conductors
of heat.
Sixthly, it frequently happens that saccharine juice of beetroot
contains a certain proportion of foreign salts, which are dangerous
to the health of the consumers of the sugar. This deliterious quality
is removed by congealing briskly the greatest part of the saccharine
liquid so as to leave a sufficient quantity for maintaining the useless
salts soluble.
And having now described my Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do

page_text: not confine myself to the precise proportions of the apparatus, or
modus operandi, herein laid down, but what I claim as my Inven-
tion, and intend to be protected by the said Letters Patent, is, -
Firstly, the construction of apparatus for the manufacture of
ice, and for cooling purposes generally; also applicable to cooling
apartments, purifying, concentrating, and modifying the degrees of
strength of acids, alkalies, essences, alcoholic and fermented liquors,
salts, and sugar from beetroot or other similar vegetable sub-
stances, as herein-before described and referred to in the Figures of
the Drawing.
Secondly, the moderator tube G, G, putting in communication
the recipient for condensing air with the dilating recipient as
herein-before described, reference being had to Figures 1, 2, and 4,
of the Drawing.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal,
this Fourteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
P. CH. NESMOND.
(L.S.)