MENTS IN REFRIGERATING APPARATUS AND IN THE PROCESS USED THEREWITH
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th June 1877. A communi-
cation from abroad by Lucien B. Woolfolk, of Lexington, in the County of
Fayette, and State of Kentucky, United States of America, Doctor of Divinity.
BENJAMIN JOSEPH BARNARD MILLS, of the Firm of Harris and Mills, of 23,
" IMPROVE-
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent.
MENTS IN REFRIGERATING APPARATUS AND IN THE PROCESS USED THEREWITH.” A
communication from abroad by Lucien B. Woolfolk, of Lexington, in the County
of Fayette, and State of Kentucky, United States of America, Doctor of Divinity.
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the construction and arrange-
ment of apparatus for. cooling or refrigerating articles of a liquid or solid nature,
and in the process employed therein, whereby such articles may be subjected to
a refrigerating action which may be regulated to suit their peculiar nature, or the
degree of cold it may for other reasons be desirable to secure.
The construction of the apparatus and the arrangement of the refrigerating
materials therein is such that its general adaptability to completely refrigerate
articles of all kinds is obtained in a more perfect and economical manner than
hitherto.
.
The Invention is applicable to all refrigerating apparatus in which ice alone, or
ice and salt, are used as refrigerating agents.
The Invention consists in the construction or arrangement of a receptacle, within
which salt may be placed, so that it shall by means of suitable openings come in
contact with ice contained in an ice receptacle, which is preferably formed to
envelop or surround the salt receptacle. This salt receptacle may be of any suitable
material or shape to suit the particular form of apparatus with which it is used,
and may have perforations or openings on either or all sides and in the bottom
thereof, as desired.
The ice receptacle may be of a shape corresponding to that of the salt receptacle,
or of any desired or suitable form. The salt coming in contact with the ice
produces a brine having great strength as a refrigerating agent.
The peculiar arrangement of the salt receptacle, to hold the salt so that it shall

page_text: only come in contact with the ice to a certain extent, ensures its economical use
and prevents its speedy or wasteful dissolution, it being found in practice that
considerable refrigerating power is obtained at a comparatively small expenditure
of the refrigerating materials, owing to their not coming into actual or direct
contact with each other. The salt as it slowly melts falls down into and among
the ice in the enclosing receptacle and forms brine, the warmer portion of which
will descend to the bottom of this receptacle, whence it is automatically drawn off
by means of a waste pipe which enters at the bottom thereof and extending
upwards to a desired height below the top of the refrigerating vessel, keeps the
brine at a uniform level in the refrigerating vessel.
The action of the waste pipe as a regulator of the brine level, may be still further
augmented by placing at suitable intervals in its length, taps or faucets, so that any
desired height of brine may be secured, and the refrigerating power thereof
consequently regulated to act in a greater or less degree on different parts of the
apparatus.
.
The drippings of the waste or off-let pipe may be conveyed through the agency
of a suitable gutter to any desired part of the refrigerator, for further use or for
disposal in other ways.
When it is desired to use ice alone, the interior or salt receptacle may be dispensed
with or left vacant, in which latter-case it may serve to force the ice against the
sides of the refrigerating vessel and thus economise its use by filling the space that
would otherwise be occupied by ice, whose refrigerating qualities might otherwise
be partly lost.
The ice may be contained in crates whose sides are constructed of slats, as in
Venetian blinds, while the bottom is either open or constructed of any suitable
inaterial. These crates are preferably arranged so that their bottoms shall rest upon
the ice compartments proper, and above and at either side of the salt compartment
or compartments between said receptacles when they are divided into compartiments
or are formed to surround said salt receptacle, and air may by suitable arrange-
ments be conducted from the outer atmosphere to and through the ice in the crates
for the purpose of supplying the refrigerator with dry and pure air.
The advantage of the crate is that it permits of an abundant supply of ice being
placed in the refrigerator and ensures a regular and gradual supply to the compart-
ments, while it permits of a large increase of refrigeration being attained at any
time should such become necessary, by the addition to the ice contained therein, of
a-regulated quantity of salt; it also guards against the sudden outgush, of brine on
the addition of fresh ice, which is so general where the ice is added directly to the
.brine on renewing the refrigerating materials...
The refrigerator may be so arranged that the articles to be cooled may be placed
either above, below, or on either side the refrigerating apparatus proper, the
construction of the apparatus being such as will be readily perceived to be suscep-
tible of numerous modifications in the arrangement of position, to suit varied
requirements.
In adapting the Invention to the cooling of liquids contained in or flowing
through pipes or other vessels, the pipes or vessels through which the liquid to be
cooled flows are coiled or arranged around a receptacle, which inay either enclose
another receptacle within which salt is placed, and said receptacle surrounded
with ice, or may contain a mixture of salt and ice, or ice alone, as desired; these
pipes are wholly or partially immersed in water which surrounds the ice receptacle
or refrigerating vessel, so that the chill from the ice and salt or ice alone is
communicated to the pipes and their contents through the medium of the sur-
rounding water, which arrangement moderates the excessive chill of the ice or ice
and salt, and admits of the degree of cold to be applied thereto being regulated.
The coil of pipe or other vessel or vessels surrounding the refrigerating vessel,
is continued up above the top of a waste or off-let, pipe employed to convey the
warmer melted fluid from the bottom of said refrigerating vessel, so that the
liquid to be cooled shall be kept at a higher elevation than the top of the brine

page_text: or melted ice in the refrigerating vessel, and will be prevented from freezing even
though its temperature be reduced below 32° Fahrenheit.
The off-let pipe which conveys the melted and warmer fluid from the bottom
of the refrigerating vessel is carried up so that its top end shall be above the top
of the coil of pipe or vessel for holding the liquid to be cooled, and is sometimes
provided with taps or faucets at intervals in its length, to admit of the regulation
of the height of the brine in the refrigerating vessel, and consequently regulate
the degree or height of cold conveyed through the surrounding water to the pipes.
A further adaptation of these improvements consists in the use of a long
refrigerating vessel, in which either ice or ice and salt is used. This vessel is
divided into two compartments, one of which constitutes the battery or receptacle
for the refrigerating agent or agents, while the other compartment receives the
liquid flowing from the refrigerating material, and the chill of such liquid is
imparted to that compartment previous to its departure through the waste pipe.
A water cooler is placed in this latter compartment so that it may receive a
portion of the refrigerating quality of the liquid.
Other receptacles may be also placed therein if desired without materially
detracting from the degree of frigidity imparted to the other parts of the
refrigerator.
The division of the refrigerating vessel into two compartments may be effected
by means of a moveable partition, or by a receptacle for containing the salt as
found most desirable. The partition between the two compartiments is so con-
structed and arranged as to support the refrigerating vessel, and also permit of
the passage of currents of air from one compartment to the other. The air in the
refrigerator being colder than that surrounding it, the perfect ventilation of the
refrigerator is obtained through the medium of two pipes, one arranged at or near
the top of the refrigerator to supply pure air thereto, while the other is arranged
with one end out of direct contact with the battery, and the other end at or near
the bottom of the vessel. The action of these pipes is automatic.
As the air surrounding the refrigerator is warmer than that inside, as the pure
warm air enters through the upper pipe the impure or tainted air will descend, by
its greater specific gravity, down and out through the other pipe, thus keeping up
a constant current of pure air throughout the refrigerator.