IMPROVED REFRIGERATING Apparatus APPLICABLE FOR PRESERVING FOOD AND OTHER PURPOSES.”
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry Thomas, of New Cross, in the
County of Kent, for the Invention of "IMPROVED REFRIGERATING
Apparatus APPLICABLE FOR PRESERVING FOOD AND OTHER PURPOSES.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry Thomas
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 18th July 1873.
I, WILLIAM HENRY THOMAS, of New Cross, in the County of Kent,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED
REFRIGERATING APPARATUS APPLICABLE FOR PRESERVING FOOD AND OTHER
PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to improved apparatus for producing cold
whereby the temperature in chests or chambers containing meat and
also in brewhouses, buildings, apartments, and other places may be

page_text: lowered in a more convenient and economical manner than has hitherto
been possible.
In carrying out my Invention as applied for the purpose of preserving
meat on ship board or elsewhere the refrigeration is effected by means
of an air shaft rising to a suitable clevation and open at top; through
this shaft a current of air is drawn or forced into a pipe or series of
pipes communicating with the lower part of said shaft, the said pipe
or pipes may or may not be carried through a running stream of cold
water, or through. or into a well or reservoir. Series of tubes lead from
the said pipe or pipes to the chamber or chambers to be cooled; said
chambers are constructed with double walls, floor, and roof, and provided
with tanks upon the inner roof and beneath the inner floor containing
brine or other well known chemical mixture or compound, or the inner
chamber may be entirely or partially surrounded by such liquid. A
certain number of the said air tubes are made to terminate in the said
tank or tanks, and are perforated with minute apertures through which
the air is caused to rise through the brine-in a divided state, and after
encircling the inner chamber is allowed to escape. The remainder of the
air tubes are passed through the tanks and around the inner chamber
into which they lead. The air thus cooled is discharged into the said
chamber displacing the air contained, which passes out at a suitable
exhaust pipe. By this means the temperature of the inner chamber
may be reduced to any desired degree.
.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Henry Thomas in the Great Seal Patent 2
Office on the 17th January 1874.
P
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM.
HENRY THOMAS, of New Cross, in the County of Kent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of July, in the year of our 3
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,

page_text: give and grant unto me, the said William Henry Thomas, Her special
licence that I, the said William Henry Thomas, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Henry Thomas, 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 In-
vention for "IMPROVED REFRIGERATING APPARATUS APPLICABLE FOR PRESERVING
FOOD AND OTHER PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others). that I,
the said William Henry Thomas, my executors, 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 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 William Henry Thomas, 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, that is to say :—
My Invention relates to improved apparatus for producing and main-
taining cold in a more convenient and economical manner than has
.hitherto been practicable, and is more particularly designed for main-
taining a reduced temperature in chests or chambers in which meat or
.other animal food is preserved or conveyed either by railway train or on
board ship, although the Invention is also applicable for cooling the air
in buildings, apartments, and other places.
In carrying out my Invention for the preservation and transmission of
ment I employ a double chest or chamber made air-tight, except as
regards the pipes hereafter mentioned, and to which access is had by
suitable openings or man-holes closed by doors or covers.
Both the inner and outer chambers are constructed of metal plates or
other suitable material, with double walls, doors, floor and ceiling packed
with charcoal or other bad conductor of heat. There is also an air space
between the inner and outer chambers to assist in preventing the trans-

page_text: 4
mission of heat to the inner chamber. Induction and eduction pipes
lead to and from the inner chamber, and the said air space between the
two chambers for the passage of air cooled, as hereafter described, a
constant supply of this fresh cooled air being maintained.
The air to be cooled is forced by means of a fan or air pump through
a series of pipes passing through a tank or tanks, preferably placed upon
or around the inner chamber, and containing a cooling medium by
which the air is cooled as it passes through the pipes.
The refrigerating action is produced either by means of the engine
described in Letters Patent granted to me bearing date February 26th,
1873, and numbered 709, or by means of any ordinary and well known
. freezing mixture or compound contained in the tanks.
If the engine forming the subject of my said former Letters Patent be
employed the tanks would be connected to the hollow diaphragm or
partition of the said engine in which brine or other liquid not con-
gealable at 32 (chloride of calcium in solution for instance) is cooled as
therein described, the said liquid being caused by suitable pumping
apparatus to circulate continuously through the said diaphragm and
tanks, which latter would in this case be closed.
After the chilled air leaves the pipes immersed in the cooling medium
I prefer to pass the same over dry chloride of calcium to absorb any
moisture contained in the air before it enters the inner or meat chamber
by the induction pipes before mentioned, but the employment of chloride
of calcium for drying the air forms no part of my Invention. For
cooling apartments and other places in tropical climates a portion of the
chilled air is not conveyed to the meat preserving chamber but is passed
through pipes which terminate in the tanks. These pipes are perforated
with minute apertures from which the air escapes and passes up in fine
streams through the contents of the tanks, and is then conveyed by pipes
where required.
Having described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I declare that what I claim as the Invention to be
protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
particular construction, arrangement, and combination of apparatus for
producing and maintaining cold, as herein set forth, consisting of a

page_text: double air-tight chamber with an air space, as described, and connected
with pipes passing through a cooling medium through which air is
forced to circulate, all as herein specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Henry Thomas, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.