IMPROVEMENTS IN FREEZING, REFRIGERATING, AND COOLING, AND IN. THE MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Bevan George Sloper, of Kentish Town, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the invention of
IMPROVEMENTS IN
FREEZING, REFRIGERATING, AND COOLING, AND IN. THE MACHINERY EMPLOYED
THEREIN
"
County of Middlesex,
rentieman,
FREEZING, REFRIGERATING, AND COOLING, AND IN. THE MACHINERY EMPLOYED
"
THEREIN
Sealed the 19th December 1856, and dated the 28th June 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Bevan George Sloper
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 28th June 1856.
I, BEVAN GEORGE SLOPER, of Kentish Town, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FREEZING, REFRIGERATING, AND COOLING, AND IN THE MACHINERY
EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
The Invention consists in freezing, cooling, and refrigerating by intense
cold, produced by the expansion of air, and in arrangements of machinery
therefor.
The refrigeration is effected thus:-At each stroke of the piston of a steam
engine, or other prime mover, a volume of cooled air, at about 15 lbs. tension,
rushes into a cold reservoir, and by its rapid expansion, to about 8 times its
volume, becomes intensely cold. It is immediately further expanded to about

page_text: 16 times its volume by the action of the piston of an exhausting cylinder,
becomes colder, and communicates its extreme cold to pipes forming the cold
reservoir. The returning stroke of the piston condenses the expanded air
contained in the cylinder, and discharges it to be cooled into the cooling reservoir,
from whence it passes into the air reservoir, thence into the cold reservoir, as
before, and continues to circulate in the same way by action of the machinery,
absorbing heat in the cold reservoir, and giving it up in the cooling reservoirs.
The cooling reservoirs as well as the air reservoirs are constructed on the
principle of cooling by the evaporation of moisture under strong currents of
air, and of the rapid absorption of latent heat by water passing into vapor.
All the pipes of the two réservoirs are wrapped with a fold of cotton cloth or
thin fibrous material, forming underneath each pipe a pendulous lap resting on
the covering of the pipe beneath, and thus forming a continuous surface of
communication from covering to covering, all of which are to be kept moist.
Over the pipes are corresponding troughs of wood or metal, kept full of
water, and over the edges of these water troughs are folds of cotton cloth, dip-
ping-in the water, and hanging over the edges, and resting on the coverings of
the uppermost pipes beneath them. By these means the coverings of the
pipes are kept continually moist. A fan produces a strong draught of air
drawn from the atmosphere, which, rushing between the pipes, covered with
moistened linen, converts the moisture into vapour, cools the pipes, and carries
off the heat of the air passing through them.
The system of refrigeration in the cold reservoir is based on the principle,
that, within certain limits of very high exhaustion or very great condensation, a
volume of air absorbs or gives out by its expansion or contraction increments
of caloric proportionate to the volumes of expansion or contraction, whatever
inay' be the densities.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Lotters Patent, filed
by the said Bevan George Sloper in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 27th December 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BEVAN
GEORGE SLOPER, of Kentish Town, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
send greeting.
*
WHEREAS. Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign, did,

page_text: for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said. Bevan
George Sloper, Her special licence that I, the said? Bevan George: Sloper, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I; the said Bevan
George Sloper, 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 FREEZING, RE-
FRIGERATING, AND COOLING, AND IN THE MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN;" upon the
condition (amongst others) 'that I, the said Bevan George Sloper, 'my execu-
tors 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 per-
formed, 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 Beven George Sloper, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner:'the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in, and by, the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed (that is to
say):
My Invention consists in freezing, cooling, and refrigerating, by intense
..cold-produced. by, the "expansion of air, and in: arrangements of machinery
therefor.
The refrigeration is effected thus:-At each stroke of the piston of a steam
engine, or other prime mover, a volume of cooled air, at about 15/lbs: pressure,
rushes into a cold reservoir, and by its rapid, expansion, to upwards 'of eight
times its volume, becomes intensely cold. It is immediately further expanded
to sixteen times, more or less, its volume and upwards by the action of the
piston of an exhausting cylinder, becomes colder, and communicates its intense
cold to pipes forming the cold reservoir. The returning Istroke of the piston
condenses the expanded air. contained in the cylinder; and discharges it into
the atmosphere..
Figure 1 of the Drawings annexed represents a machine for freezing, re-
frigerating, and cooling. A, A, is a cistern to be filled with water, in which is
placed an exhausting cylinders B, with an air-tight metallic piston; the piston
rod works through a stuffing. box. I prefer that the piston rod should be con-
nected directly with the piston rod of a steam cylinder-B, fixed on the same
bed plate as the exhausting cylinder; but any other means of applying power

page_text: to work the exhausting cylinder may be adopted. On the exhausting cylinder,
at its two ends, are placed four valves, C, C, and D, D'; C, C, are exit valves,
opening outwards under a pressure equal to that of the atmosphere; D, D', are
slide entry. valves, worked in closed valve chests by a rod working through
stuffing boxes; the valve chests communicate together by the pipe E, which,
by, its elbow, communicates with what I call the cold reservoir, to be described
hereafter. Over the cylinder, or fixed by supports to the bed plate, are two
vessels or pipes F, F, having at each of their ends a slide valve G', G", being
entry valves, and G, and G, exit valves; from the exit valves G, G¹, is a
pipe H, also communicating with the cold reservoir. The cold reservoir con-
sists of a series of layers of pipes. I, I, I, I, placed one above the other, at inter-
vals of about an inchi or more, and in any number that may be thought necessary
to produce a sufficiently extensive surface or capacity; the whole of this series
of pipes has only two points of communication, one of which is with the pipe E
and the other with the pipe H. This series of pipes, forming what I term
the cold reservoir, is placed in a closed chest, having at one end an open-
ing K, through which air is forced with considerable velocity by a fan W; at
the other end of the chest is another opening L, through which the air passes
into another chest M, which I call the freezing chest, containing vessels with
water or other substances to be cooled or frozen, or pipes to contain air or
liquids for refrigerating purposes. Cold reservoir and freezing chest are shewn
in section at Figure 2. At the opposite end of the freezing chest is another
opening y, which communicates by pipes to the entry of the fan, which is other-
wise made air-tight, and has no communication with the atmosphere; thus, a
current of the same air is made to circulate by the fan between the pipes of
the cold reservoir through the freezing chamber and back to the fan, and so
on. The valves D, D, G, G", G, and Gu are opened and shut simul-
taneously at the end of each stroke of the piston; thus, when D opens D₁
shuts. G and Gu are arranged to open and shut in such a way that G¹ is
opens, and G¹¹¹ shuts before G¹ opens; also G shuts
before G opens, and G" shuts before G opens. By this arrangement, the
pipe H, which communicates with the cold reservoir, receives its limited supply
of air from the air chambers, and is never in direct communication with the
atmosphere. The action of the machine is therefore as follows:-At each
stroke of the piston the air in the cold reservoir is partially drawn out or
exhausted, while at the same instant the limited quantity of air contained in
one of the air chambers rushes into the cold reservoir, and by its circulation
and expansion (to twenty or thirty times its volume) produces intense cold,
and communicates that cold to the interior surface of the pipes of the cold
always shut before G
'

page_text: reservoir; at the same time the air driven by the fan between those pipes gives
up its heat to them and becomes intensely cold, it then passes into the freezing
chest, and circulates between the vessels or pipes containing water or air, and
absorbs their heat, freezing water or other liquids to a very low temperature,
to be distributed as required; the air then passes into the fan, thus circulating
continuously, giving up its heat in the cold chest and absorbing heat in the
freezing chest. Instead of air and a fan, water holding in solution any salt
or substance for which it has a great affinity, and by which it becomes capable
of resisting congelation under great cold, such, for instance, as a strong
solution of muriate of lime, and a centrifugal pump, might be substituted.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as my improve-
ments in freezing, refrigerating, and cooling,-
First, the general arrangement of machinery herein-before described, and
represented in the Drawings annexed.
Second, the employment of air reservoirs of comparatively small capacity,
which open alternately into a reservoir of much greater capacity, partially
exhausted of air, whereby the air expands to fifteen, twenty, or more times its
volume, and produces intense cold.
Third, the employment of the vessel, which I call the cold reservoir, into
which the air from the air receivers rushes at each alternate stroke of the
piston of the exhausting cylinder, expands, and produces intense cold.
Fourth, the arrangement of the cold reservoir herein-before described,
whereby I obtain a large extent of refrigerating surface, exposed to the current
of air from the fan.
And, lastly, I claim the employment of a current of air, or of a liquid
capable of resisting congelation under great cold, circulating or made to
circulate between the pipes of the cold reservoir, and thence between and
among the vessels or pipes containing the matter to be cooled or refrigerated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Bevan George Sloper, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
B. G. SLOPER. (L.S.)