IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPA- RATUS FOR REFRIGERATING OR FREEZING LIQUIDS, AND FOR PRODUCING ICE
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Benjamin Ward Richardson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st February 1866.
I, BENJAMIN WARD RICHARDSON, of Hinde Street, Manchester Square,
in the County of Middlesex, Doctor of Medicine, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPA-
RATUS FOR REFRIGERATING OR FREEZING LIQUIDS, AND FOR PRODUCING ICE," to
be as follows:
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the means of refrigerating
or freezing liquids and for producing ice, and also in apparatus to be employed
therein:
I
The agents which I propose to use are ethers or volatile hydrocarbons, or
other volatile fluids of low boiling point which produce intense cold when
volatilized or distributed in the form of spray or dew in a pulverized state.
also propose to use the hydrocarbon products from gas works which boil at a
low temperature.
The liquid to be refrigerated is contained in a metallic vessel in the form
of an inverted cone; this vessel contains a false perforated small cone attached
to a rod or handle or to two rods in order that it may be lifted out or
removed from the exterior cone, and withdraw the frozen particles of the
liquid.
The conical receptacle is contained in a cylinder or outer casing, at the
bottom of which is a reservoir for containing the volatile fluid, which is with-
drawn therefrom and pumped through a series of tubes or apertures on and

page_text: around the circumference of the conical chamber. The pump to be used
consists of an india-rubber hand bellows or pump actuated by compression, or
by bellows, or cylinder and piston pump, and controlled by suitable valves for
inlet and exit of the volatile fluid, which is thereby impelled in the form of
dew or spray (or as if it were pulverized) upon the surface of the cone, thereby
creating an intense degree of cold. According to this Invention, therefore,
the cold is produced by the contact of pulverized spray of volatile fluid, which
becomes condensed and falls into a receiver underneath the cone wherein it
is collected, and may be withdrawn for further use over and over again.
The apparatus may be made of any size, but the chief object of the
Invention is to supply a portable apparatus for the purpose of refrigerating or
freezing small quantities of liquid. I prefer to use a conical vessel, since by
such a form I can freeze liquid most rapidly.
For refrigerating wine I employ a cylinder of either metal or earthenware,
in which the bottle is placed, and the volatile fluid is impelled thereon by the
process before described. Similar methods of collecting the volatile fluid for
further application may be adopted.
I do not limit myself to the conical form of vessel, or to the mere appli-
cation of one vessel in the apparatus, as in some cases several cones might
be placed in one apparatus, all refrigerating at one and the same time.
So also a series of tubes might be applied in lieu of the cone or cones if
thought desirable; or the cylinder may be divided into partitions of any
desired section, these partitions being hollow and perforated, and the volatile
fluid may be caused to impinge upon the interior cylinders between the par-
titions, and thus freeze the liquid contained in the cylinder; or I may apply
a series of tubes in the interior of the cylinder, and allow the liquid to be
refrigerated to surround these tubes; I then cause the volatile spray to
traverse the tubes, and thus refrigerate the liquid.