IMPROVEMENTS IN STRUCTURES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF FRUITS, VEGETABLES, MEATS, AND OTHER PERISHABLE ARTICLES.
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STRUCTURES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF FRUITS,
VEGETABLES, MEATS, AND OTHER PERISHABLE ARTICLES.". -A communi-
cation from abroad by Nathan Hellings, of Philadelphia, Pennsyl
vania, United States of America.
Sealed the 10th September 1870, and dated the 12th April 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 12th April 1870.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STRUCTURES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF
FRUITS, VEGETABLES, MEATS, AND OTHER PERISHABLE ARTICLES," a communica-
tion to me from abroad by Nathan Hellings, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
United States of America, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates both to large permanent structures or buildings
and to smaller structures intended to be fitted into railway wagons,

page_text: or into ships for the purpose of preserving and transporting fruits,
vegetables, meats, and other perishable articles. As the smaller
structure will be constructed on the same principles as the larger one
it will suffice to describe the latter. The outer walls are of brick, stone,
or other suitable material, and support a ridged roof. Inner hollow walls
are constructed all round the building, composed of boards so disposed
as to leave an intervening vacant space between them. A space is also
left between such inner walls and the outer ones, which space is closely
packed with sawdust or other good non-conducting material. The joists
for the basement floor are supported on brickwork, and the spaces
between them are left vacant. Upon boards laid upon these lower joists
other joists are laid with flooring boards on the top of them; the space
between these last joists and between the two surfaces of boards is closely
packed with non-conducting material. Strong posts resting on the
brickwork support an upper floor composed of strong wooden girders
on which joists are laid, such joists being covered by wooden slats or
bars at intervals of about one inch. Other posts rise from the upper
floor and support a heavy double ice floor, composed of wooden girders
or bearers inclining downwards slightly from the side walls towards the
centro line of the building. Joists are laid upon these inclined wooden
girders, and a water-tight sheet metal floor is laid upon the joists to
receive the ice. The spaces between the joists of the ice floor are left
vacant; a species of sunk gutter is formed along the centre of the ice
floor for the purpose of carrying off the water, which drips on to a small
ridge roof and flows thence into other gutters formed on the lower edges
of two suspended inclined drip floors hung immediately under the ice
floor. From these last-mentioned gutters the water flows into a common
central gutter, whence it escapes by pipes leading out through the side
or sides of the building. Ice is introduced through a convenient door
into the ice chamber to a depth of about twelve or thirteen feet, and a
layer of about two feet of sawdust is deposited upon the surface of the
stratum of ice. The entrance at the basement is through an ante-room
of convenient size for containing fruits or other articles for a time
preparatory to their removal to the said storage rooms or to the external
air, the temperature of the said ante-room being purposely kept more
clevated than that of the storage rooms. The ventilation of the storage
rooms is effected by causing fresh air to enter through a door in the ice
room and through a passage enclosed by the ice, and through a hatch in
the ice floor so as to enable the cool fresh air to pass downwards into

page_text: the storage room. Whilst cool fresh air is thus descending into the
storage room the foul air is carried off through another hatch and
passage in the opposite corner of the building into the vacant space
above the ice and out at the ordinary ventilators on the top of the roof.
When no ventilation is required and no foul air exists in the storage
rooms the entrance doors and hatches above referred to are to be kept
tightly closed; carbonic acid gas is allowed to escape when required by
suitable openings made for that purpose in the bottoms of the doors in
the ante room, such openings being capable of being closed when found
requisite, the essential objects of the said Invention being to preserve
the air of the storage chambers pure, to maintain a temperature therein
of from 33 degrees to 37 degrees Fahrenheit, and to prevent the deposit
of moisture on any of the surfaces or walls, and also to prevent any drip
from the ceilings or ice floor, or parts in contact with the icc.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 12th October 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-third'
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said John Henry Johnson, Her special license
that I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Henry Johnson, my
exccutors, administrators, or 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 "IMPROVEMENTS
IN STRUCTURES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF FRUITS, VEGETABLES, MEATS, AND OTHER
PERISHABLE ARTICLES," a comumunication to me from abroad by Nathan
Hellings, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America, upon

page_text: the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Henry Johnson, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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 John Henry Johnson, 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, reference being had to the Drawings here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is
to say) :-
The said Invention relates both to large permanent structures or
buildings, and to smaller structures intended to be fitted into railway
waggons or into ships for the purpose of preserving and transporting
fruits, vegetables, meats, and other perishable articles. As the smaller
structure will be constructed on the same principles as the larger one it
will suffice to describe the latter.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood I shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose
shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheet of Drawings,
the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the
Figures.
Figure 1 of the Drawing is a vertical section of a structure illustrating
the Invention, and Figures 2, 3, and 4 are sectional plan views drawn to
a reduced scale, and illustrating the mode of ventilating the building.
The building represented in the Drawing is of the following
proportions, that is to say, eighty feet long, fifty feet wide, and thirty-
five feet high, the outer walls A, A, which may be made of bricks, stone,
or other suitable material, being about twenty-seven inches thick. The
building is covered with an ordinary wooden roof B, strongly framed and
arranged at the usual inclination. The structure has inner walls C, C,
of boards closely fastened together, and upon both sides of suitable
studding, the studding and the two faces of boards forming together a
thickness of not less than six inches. This inner wall is built at a
distance of about twelve inches from the exterior wall of the structure,
the space D between the two walls being closely packed with sawdust or

page_text: other suitable non-conducting material, and the space between the two
faces of boards on cither side of the studding being vacant. The
principal or lower floor of the building is strongly constructed of joists
and planks E, E, supported by cross walls of masonry a and a', the
walls a rising about two feet from the surface of the ground, and the
intervening spaces between the same and the joists, and between the
latter being vacant. Upon this lower section of the floor joists are laid
rising eighteen inches, and on these joists a floor of thick boards is
placed, which is the true floor of the first or lower storage room, the
space between these floors of eighteen inches being closely packed with
sawdust or a similar non-conducting material. This double floor is
represented by E, E, and the storage room above it by F, F. Strong
wooden posts twelve inches square rising from lines or points coincident
with the cross walls a beneath support at a height of eight feet in the
clear the floor G, G, of a second great storage room II, H. This second
floor is made of strong wooden girders, on which joists are laid with a
cover of slats one inch apart, but it is not packed with any non-con-
ducting material. Above the second floor wooden posts 6' rise to a
height of eight feet in the clear in the centre and eleven feet at the sides
of the building to a heavy double ice floor I, I, made of heavy wooden
girders laid at an angle of ten or twelve degrees inclination from the
sides towards the centre of the building, and securely fastened by iron
straps and bolts at the centre. On these girders joists, rising eighteen
inches, are laid, and on these joists rests a water-tight sheet iron floor to
receive the ice. The spaces between the joists of the ice floor are left
unfilled. The sheet iron floor of the chamber is cut at the centre by an
opening about three inches wide and extending the entire length of the
building, except about twelve inches at each end, where the floor is com-
plete to prevent the drainage from wetting the wall. The drainage from the
melted ice passes through this opening, falling first on a fixture K, K, of
a double pitched roof, four feet wide in all, or two feet for each pitch,
which fixture is covered with copper, and fitted in sections between the
girders. From each side of this fixture K the drainage falls upon a drip
floor L, L, the larger sections or parts of which are suspended by iron
hooks at a distance of about ten inches beneath the timbers or girders of
the ice floor, other and smaller sections at each side of the building
being fastened to and between the girders and placed at a greater angle,
so as to discharge any water they may receive upon the larger sectious
suspended, as before described. All parts of this drip floor are water-

page_text: tight, and at the inner edges of the said floor are copper troughs or
conductors d, into which the water falls, and which empty into copper
pipes d', by which the water is conveyed to the level of the second floor
and out at the sides of the building. Above and upon the ice floor is
the ice chamber M, M, occupying all the upper area of the building, and
into which through an elevated door e, shewn by red lines in Figure 1,
ice is conveyed filling it to a depth of twelve or thirteen feet, as indicated
by the line x, and this ice carefully packed down is covered with
sawdust to the depth of two feet, as shewn by the line y. The entrance
to the above-described building is through a door f at the level of the
lower floor closing air-tight and opening into an ante-room g, large
enough to contain seventy-five barrels, which ante-room is purposely.
kept at a higher temperature than the storage rooms F and H, and in
which fruits or other articles may remain for a time preparatory to
removal to the said storage rooms or to the external air. In a building
of the above proportions the storage rooms F and H have each a capacity
of from thirty thousand to forty thousand cubic feet, and they are
ventilated as follows, reference being had to the red lined parts of
Figure 1, and to the horizontal sections Figures 2, 3, and 4. An upper
"side entrance "h, see Figure 4, on the north side of the building opens
on an enclosed space about six fect by four through the ice, and admits
air downwards into the storage room H through a hatch in the floor I
opening upwards, at the same time that fresh air is thus admitted through
the side entrance h, a hatch i (Figure 4) at the south-east corner of the
building, and also opening upwards carries out through an enclosed
ventilating space six feet square a current of air equal in volume to that
admitted through the entrance h. The foul air in the case from the
hatchi passes into the vacant area above the ice and out at the window
of the observatory j; but it may also, when the conditions of the weather
require it, be expelled at the eastern "end entrance", or at the northern
"side entrance" h. When no ventilation is required and no foul air
exists in the storage rooms the entrance doors above described and the
hatches are kept securely closed. The horizontal sections, Figures 2,
3, and 4, represent respectively the first, second, and third floors, and
clearly illustrate the ventilation through the same. In Figure 2 g
represents the space enclosed as an ante-room at the foot of the doors
opening from this ante-room to the lower storage room and to the open
air, moveable sections or blocks are cut off three inches high, and the
full length of cach door to permit the outward ventilation of carbonic

page_text: acid gas or other heavy air, these blocks however being only removed
when ventilation is necessary. In Figure 3 represents a hatch opening
upwards at or above the ante-room g, and m represents stairs descending
from the floor above at the other side of the building, and beneath the
ventilating entrance on the north side, which stairs are also shewn in
red lines in Figure 1. In Figure 4 i represents the hatch previously
alluded to as opening upwards into an enclosed ventilating space [assing
through the ice, and into which the castern "end entrance" k may be
opened from the outside, but which is usually kept closed while foul air
is passed upward through the hatch and ventilator. In Figure 4, also h
represents the above-described "northern entrance door used chiefly to
admit cold air for ventilation, and opening into the space enclosed from
the ice chamber above the hatch and staircase m.
"
The main object of this Invention and the end actually attained is to
preserve the air of the storage chambers pure to maintain a temperature
of from thirty-three degrees to thirty-seven degrees Fahrenheit therein
(whatever quantity of fruits may be in store) and to prevent the deposit
of moisture on any of the surfaces or walls, and also to prevent any
dripping from the ceilings or ice floor, or parts in contact with the ice.
It has been fully proved by practice that in a structure in which these
ends are attained fruit and other perishable articles can be preserved
without change for long periods of time.
Although in order to thoroughly illustrate the Invention it has been
herein described as embodied in a large permanent and stationary
structure and certain proportions of parts have been given, it is evident
that the Invention may be embodied in structures of dimensions suitable
to being placed or built in or to form a part of vessels, railway cars, or
other vehicles for the purpose of preserving fruit, meats, or other
perishable articles during transportation from place to place. It will
be also evident that the relative proportions of the structure can be
altered as circumstances may require without departing from the features
of the Invention.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider
to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-

page_text: First. The peculiar construction and arrangement of ventilated
chambers for the storage of fruit, vegetables, meat, or other perishable
articles when used in combination with a separate compartment or
compartments situate above the said chamber or chambers, and con-
taining a body of ice or freezing mixture, substantially as herein-before
described and illustrated by the Drawings.
Second. The peculiar combination and arrangement of the walls,
floors, and ventilating apparatus, substantially as herein-before described
and illustrated by the Drawings.
Third. The arrangement of ventilating entrances at the level of the
icc floor with hatches opening to the storage rooms, and enclosed spaces
-to carry off-the lighter-portions of bad air upwards through the mass.
of ice and the space above the ice, whence it may escape through
suitable apertures in the roof or walls of the building, as herein-before
described.
Fourth. The method of providing for the escape of carbonic acid gas
or other like heavy foul air through the lower portion of the building, as
herein-before described.
Fifth. The combination and arrangement of ice floor, narrow pitched
roof, and suspended drip floor, as herein-before described.
Sixth. The inclined metal covering of the ice floor I resting on joists
placed at suitable intervals, substantially as and for the purpose herein-
before described and illustrated by the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to this
my Specification set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of
October One thousand eight hundred and seventy.