IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR STORING, TRANSPORTING, AND PRESERVING, FOOD, OR OTHER ARTICLES OF A PERISHABLE NATURE
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edmund Edwards at the Office of
the Cominissioners of Patents on the 17th June 1882. A communication
to him from abroad by Simon Schreiber, of Hannover, in the Empire of
Germany.
EDMUND EDWARDS, of the firm of Edwards and Co., Patent Agents and Engineers,
of 40, Southampton Buildings in the County of Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR STORING, TRANSPORTING, AND PRESERVING, FOOD, OR OTHER
ARTICLES OF A PERISHABLE NATURE [A communication to him from abroad by
Simon Schreiber, of Hannover, in the Empire of Germany]
"
This invention relates to apparatus used for the purpose of storing, and preserving
by refrigeration or other means, food or other articles of a nature perishable or
liable to deterioration under great changes of temperature. It may be applied to
railway or other waggons or carriages, to ships or steamers, or store rooms or other
buildings.
Supposing that the invention is to be applied to a railway waggon used for the
purpose of transporting food, such as meat, fish, fruit, butter, milk or other liquids,
or other articles of a perishable nature, I make the sides, ends, and top of such
waggon of three thicknesses of wood or other suitable material, sufficiently
separated to form spaces into the inner one of which is inserted horse hair, peat
or other material non-conducting of heat, whilst the outer one contains air. Or,
both may be filled with the non-conducting material.
The floor of the waggon is also made double, preferably of wood; sawdust, peat,
or other suitable non-conducting material being inserted into the intervening space.
At the roof of the waggon, and preferably extending from end to end of the latter,
but of a width somewhat less, is fixed a superstructure the top, sides, and ends of
which are made with double spaces, in a manner similar to those already described,
whilst at the bottom, which is open to the body of the waggon, are fitted Reservoirs
extending for the full length of the waggon, or for a part of its length only, leaving
the centre free.
These reservoirs are formed of thin metallic plates, arranged so that at their lower
edges they meet or nearly so, whilst as they rise they diverge laterally, so that in
end view they form a triangle the apex of which is below.

page_text: A sufficient number of these reservoirs are placed side by side, the upper edge of
each being bent and fitted over the edge of the next adjoining one, the reservoirs
being provided with ends, and the lower edge of each resting upon a longitudinal
gutter, preferably of wood, concave on its upper face, and the several gutters
communicating at their outer ends with a transverse gutter or pipe provided with
a discharge pipe having a syphon bend or trap, through which any water in the
gutters can pass away preferably through a regulating cock or valve. A space
above the angular reservoirs described is provided, to receive a sufficient quantity
of Ice when required, and the reservoirs theinselves being filled with Ice are
replenished from such upper space as the Ice in them gradually melts and flows
into the gutters below.
The reservoirs may be filled with ice, cold air, warm water, steam or heated air,
according to the temperature which it is desired to maintain in the waggon; and
from their shape they present a very large surface in a convenient form to impart
heat or cold, as may be desired, to the atmosphere in the waggon below in which
the articles to be preserved are stored.
Any vapour condensed upon the outside of the angular vessel flows down the
outside of the latter into the gutter without dripping upon the contents of the
waggon.
At the sides or ends of the waggon are also sometimes arranged thin auxiliary
reservoirs into which the cold iced water passing into the gutters as above described
may be conducted; or instead of iced water, they may be supplied with cold air,
warm water, steam or warm air, according to the temperature which it is desired
to maintain. These auxiliary reservoirs are provided with suitable cocks or
valves.
Openings fitted with doors are provided in suitable parts of the sides of the
waggon, and also on the top of the latter above the Ice spaces.
These doors are preferably hinged, and are provided with spaces containing non-
conducting material and air, similar to those already described in the sides of the
waggons; and the doors are recessed and rabbeted so as to fit into corresponding
recesses and rabbets in the door frames, a sufficient thickness of felt or other
suitable soft and elastic material being interposed so as to make a close and air
tight joint.
The doors are fastened preferably by means of a bolt passing through them and
having a button or projection upon its inner end which button when the bolt is
turned round passes behind the door frame, or behind a transverse bar of iron or
wood passed inside across the opening and running back when not in use, upon
rollers in a caso or recess provided for it. The bolt is turned by a cross handle at
its outer end, which is also screwed to receive a nut having a handle by which the
door can bo tightly drawn into its place to make a tight joint.
Apparatus of the kind and constructed in the manner described may be applied
to waggons and carriages of different kinds, and to storage chambers in the decks
of ships or steamers, or to other storing rooms and chambers, which it is desired to
keep at any required coolness without freezing or subjection to extreme degrees of
temperature.