IMPROVEMENTS IN COOLING AND IN FREEZING WATER AND OTHER BODIES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles William Siemens, of John Street, Adelphi,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN COOLING AND IN FREEZING WATER AND OTHER BODIES."
Sealed the 30th October 1855, and dated the 16th May 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles William Siemens
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th May 1855.
I, CHARLES WILLIAM SIEMENS, of John Street, Adelphi, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COOLING AND IN FREEZING WATER AND OTHER BODIES" to
be as follows:
My Invention is based upon the well-known fact that in or during the dis-
solving of certain chemical salts or compounds a considerable decrease of
temperature is produced, and consists, firstly, in causing water gradually to
percolate through or flow over or against a mass or quantity of crystalline
chloride of calcium or other suitable chemical salt or compound, so as by
passing through or against the mass to form a strong solution of the said
chloride or compound, and to absorb or abstract the heat from the bodies to be
frozen or cooled; and, further, in cooling various bodies, or the water to
be employed in the above process, and previously to its use, as above described,

page_text: by means of a solution which is produced as above described, and which either
has or has not already performed its office of freezing or cooling the bodies to
be acted upon.
Secondly, in producing crystals of the chloride of calcium or other com-
pound from a solution, whether formed as above, or otherwise, by evaporation
produced by a boiler, or in a heated pan or open vessel, or by both of
them combined, that is to say, the boiler being connected with pipes or other
communication in or with the pan or pans, so that the steam or heated vapour
passing off from the solution in the boiler may serve to heat or evaporate
or partially evaporate a separate quantity of solution in the pan or pans.
Thirdly, in the combination of the foregoing improvements in such manner
as alternately to dissolve and re-crystallize the chloride of calcium or other
compound, and use the same material over and over again, and in the use of
apparatus for conveniently performing the above operations, either separately or
in combination.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles William Siemens in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 15th November 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
WILLIAM SIEMENS, of John Street, Adelphi, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles William Siemens, Her special licence that I, the said Charles William
Siemens, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Charles William Siemens, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN COOLING AND IN FREEZING WATER AND OTHER BODIES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Charles William Siemens, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain

page_text: 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 Charles William Siemens, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say):-
My Invention is based upon the well-known fact that in or during the dis-.
solving of certain chemical salts or compounds a considerable decrease of:
temperature is produced, and consists, firstly, in causing water gradually to:
percolate through or flow over or against a mass or quantity of crystalline
chloride of calcium or other suitable chemical salt or compound, so as by
passing through or against the mass to form a strong solution of the said
chloride or compound, and to absorb or abstract the heat from the bodies to be
frozen or cooled; and, further, in cooling various bodies, or the water to
be employed in the above process and previously to its use, as above described,
by means of a solution which is produced as above described, and which either
has or has not already performed its office of freezing or cooling the bodies to
be acted upon.
Secondly, in producing crystals of the chloride of calcium or other compound-
from a solution, whether formed as above, or otherwise, by evaporation produced
by a boiler, or in a heated pan or open vessel, or by both of them combined,
that is to say, the boiler being connected with pipes or other communication
in or with the pan or pans, so that the steam or heated vapour passing off
from the solution in the boiler may serve to heat or evaporate or partially
evaporate a separate quantity of solution in the pan or pans.
Thirdly, in the combination of the foregoing improvements in such manner
as alternately to dissolve and re-crystallize the chloride of calcium or other
compound, and use the same material over and over again, and in the use of.
apparatus for conveniently performing the above operations, either separately or
in combination.
Having thus set forth the nature of my said Invention, I will now proceed
to describe the manner in which it is to be and may be performed, reference
being had to the accompanying Drawing, which I have given as an illustration
of the best description of apparatus for its performance that I am at present
acquainted with, and to the figures and letters marked thereon.
Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of the apparatus, and Figure 2 a plan of

page_text: the same, both Figures being drawn to a scale of about one inch and a half
to a foot.
A is a cistern of wood or other suitable material, lined with a metallic
plate a, the spaces which are left at certain parts between the sides of the
cistern and the lining, and between its floor and the lining, being filled with
charcoal powder, or other non-conducting material. is a metallic partition
plate, extending along two sides of the cistern, and dividing off a chamber B
from the remainder of the cistern, and c is another metallic partition plate on
the two opposite sides, again dividing off a smaller chainber H, which com-
municates with a central or salt chamber D (formed by tho metallic partition
plato y), by means of a pipe d on the under side of both. This central
chamber contains a series of guides or tubes e, e, arranged alternately close on
to and a little above the bottom plate a, so as to cause an upward and down-
ward current of the cooling solution, as shewn by the arrows in the Figure 1.
g is an insulating partition on all the four sides, composed of two similar
metallic plates with charcoal powder between them, and dividing off the sur-
rounding chamber I from the space or chamber immediately around the
central chamber D, which space is occupied and filled by the forms E, E, for
containing the water or substances to be frozen.
The Figures 3 and 4 are detail representations of one of these forms drawn
upon a larger scale, in which it may be seen that they are constructed so as to
afford a number of separate passages or channels for the passage of the cooling
solution, and a great amount of surface for it to act upon. F, F, are a series
of insulating covers, fitting over the forms E, E. is an overflow or outlet
pipe for the solution. The cistern A, containing the apparatus above described,
rests upon a second cistern K, which contains a worm or coil of pipes L, and
the discharge or overflow from the first cistern is conducted into the second,
and lies therein, and surrounds the said worm. M is a pump for raising the
solution at intervals, as may be required, from the cistern K to a third
cistern N, which is conveniently mounted over a boiler O. P is a pipe leading
from the bottom of the cistern N into the boiler, and p is a ball tap for
regulating the supply thereto. 7 is a pipe passing upwards from the interior
of the boiler, and extended into a worm or coil within the cistern N. is a
continuation of the same pipe extending downwards to and communicating
with one end of the worm or coil L in the cistern K, the opposite end of the
said coil terminating in a pipe 7, which extends upwards, and bends over and
into the chamber II of the cistern A.
R is a discharge tap from the boiler,
and P a crystallizing vat beneath it.

page_text: upon
The working of the apparatus is as follows:-The chamber D is filled with
crystallized chloride of calcium, and the forms E are filled with the water or
other substance to be frozen or cooled, and are placed in the space or chamber
around it, and covered with the insulating covers F. The chamber II is there-
filled with water, which passes through the pipe d into the chamber D,
where it is obliged to penetrate a considerable mass of the chloride of calcium
crystals in passing upwards and downwards between the tubes or guides e, e, e,
into the space or chamber around. This it fills up to the level of the overflows:
of the insulating partition g, and passing between the several passages of the
forms E, E, descends into the narrow surrounding chamber I, and when this
last chamber is filled it discharges by the pipe h into the cistern K. In
passing through the crystals of chlorido of calcium, the water dissolves the
salt until it is completely saturated. This dissolution is accompanied by a
considerable decrease of temperature, about 30° Fahrenheit, and if therefore
the water and the salts were near the freezing point on entering the chamber D,
it follows that the solution on entering the chamber containing the forms E, E;
will be considerably below the freezing point, and will congeal the water or
other substances contained in the forms, by abstracting the heat from them.
On reaching the overflows f, the solution will still be slightly below the freezing
point, and although no longer fitted to congeal water, it may nevertheless be
still advantageously employed to reduce the temperature of the water and salt
previous to their entering into the dissolving chamber. For this purpose the
solution fills the narrow chamber I, which is separated by only a metallic
division from the water chamber II and the salt chamber B. On reaching the
cistern K the solution absorbs a further portion of heat from the worm L,
containing condensed water from the boiler. By means of the pump M, the
solution is raised into the cistern N, from whence it passes through the pipe
and ball tap p into the boiler O, until it has reached its proper level, when the
ball tap closes, after which the solution accumulates in the cistern N. A fire
being lighted below the boiler O, the solution is made to boil. The steam
passes away through the pipe and worm q, wherein it condenses by contact
with the solution in the cistern N, which is raised thereby nearly to the boiling
point, and is already partly evaporated before it passes into the boiler below, in
proportion as it is either drawn out through the tap R or evaporated. The
condensed water passes from the worm 9 through the piper into the coil L,
where it is considerably cooled by contact with the solution in the cistern K,
and thence it ascends through the pipe into the chamber U, to be then
almost reduced to the freezing point previous to its again entering the dis-

page_text: solving chamber D, as before described. The concentrated solution is drawn
from the boiler from time to time, its proper point of concentration being
ascertained by means of a salometer. It is received in the crystallizing
vats P, wherein it remains for from twelve to twenty-four hours, when it is
crystallized. The crystals thus obtained are put into the chamber B, to be
cooled down to nearly 32° Fahrenheit, and to be again dissolved in the
chamber D. If it is desired to produce intense degrees of cold in the appa-
ratus (for freezing vegetable or animal substances into blocks of ice, &c. &c.,)
it is necessary to put a small proportion of ice or snow into the chamber D,
mixing the same with the salt.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles William Siemens, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of November, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-five.
CHARLES WILLIAM SIEMENS. (L.s.)