AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR HEATING RAILWAY AND OTHER CARRIAGES, WHICH INVENTION IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 26th May 1879. A communication
from abroad by Anatole Ancelin, of Paris, France, Civil Engineer.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR
HEATING RAILWAY AND OTHER CARRIAGES, WHICH INVENTION IS ALSO APPLICABLE
FOR SIMILAR PURPOSES." [A communication from abroad by Anatole Ancelin, of
Paris, France, Civil Engineer.]
Among the various methods heretofore employed for heating railway carriages,
the one found to be most advantageous is that wherein boxes or cases containing
hot water are used, for the reason that this method does not require the connection
of the separate carriages forming a train for this purpose. The water which con-
tains the heat effects the warming of the carriage only by virtue of its specific heat,
that is to say, by reason of the caloric which is given off in the proportion of one unit
for each degree of depression of the temperature and for each kilogramme of water.
But if water is the most useful reservoir of heat in comparison with other bodies
by reason of its great calorific capacity, this advantage no longer exists when such
bodies change their condition and pass from a solid to a liquid form.
The method of heating to which this Invention relates is based upon the utili-
zation of the latent heat of fusion, and it comprises the liquefying by heat of such
solid substances as possess a high degree of latent heat of fusion, so that the said
liquefied substances introduced into the objects or places to be warmed give off
not only their sensible caloric but also their latent caloric of fusion.
The said improved method may be employed for railway and other vehicles
and rooms, and for a variety of purposes where heat is required. It may be
applied to the keeping up of heat without fire for a long time in cooking apparatus
or utensils.
It will therefore be seen that this Invention consists essentially in the novel
employment for general heating purposes, and specially for warming railway
carriages, of the heat due to the solidification of substances which were solid and
have been liquefied by heat for the purpose.
The substances to be used may be simple or composite bodies, and of either
animal, vegetable, or mineral origin. The following will be found advantageous,
that is to say, fatty substances, resin, wax, bituminous and tarry matters, mixtures
in which they are combined with other bodies and their derivatives, such as stearic

page_text: acid and paraffine either alone or mixed. I consider as specially valuable for this
purpose solutions saturated when hot, and those salts which melt in their crystal-
lization water. Among these salts I prefer acetate of soda, which fuses at a tem-
perature of about sixty degrees. I may also employ those salts which can be
submitted to igneous fusion without any composition, such as the acetates, the
phosphates, and the like.
It is to be understood that the bodies or substances which are most suitable for
the purposes of this Invention, are those which are fusible at the temperature that
it is desired to give to the boxes or cases when they are in the carriages or other
object to be heated.
I heat the said boxes or cases containing the acetate of soda or potash, or other
analogous salt, or one of the substances hereinbefore named, either by plunging
them in a hot bath or by placing them in an enclosed space into which a current
of steam is directed. This heating will take place without necessitating the
emptying of the boxes whose plugs may even be soldered to prevent all chance of
escape.
The great superiority secured by the said improved method of substituting for
water a solid body or substance is proved by the fact that the boxes containing
acetate of soda remain warm six times as long as the ordinary boxes with water,
and they effect the warming, while remaining at a constant temperature during the
whole of the time the substances therein are becoming solid.