IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE of Ice and ApPARATUS FOR THAt Purpose
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Joseph West, of Mason Street, Lambeth,
in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE of Ice and ApPARATUS FOR THAt Purpose."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Joseph West'
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 4th July 1874.
I, HENRY JOSEPH WEST, of Mason Street, Lambeth, in the County of
Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ICE AND APPARATUS FOR THAT PURPOSE," to
be as follows:-
My Invention relates to improvements in the process and apparatus
for manufacturing ice, having for its object the manufacture of thicker
blocks of ice than those usually produced by freezing apparatus. For
this purpose
I employ a number of cells, which are preferably of thin
rectangular shape, placed vertically in a tank of the water to be frozen
at some distance apart. Such cells are of known construction and use,

page_text: and are cooled internally by the evaporation of ether or other volatile
fluid, by the expansion of compressed air or gas, and also by the
circulation through them of cold brine or other uncongealable liquid or
solution, so that ice is formed on their outer surfaces usually to a thick-
ness of several inches. In order to obtain ice by these means of greater
thickness the freezing operation has to be continued for a long period,
every addition to the thickness of the ice requiring more time, the
greater is the thickness already produced.
The object of my Invention is to obtain the increased thickness at a
moderate expenditure of time and labour, which I effect in the following
manner :-Instead of fixing the cells in the tanks at a certain determined
distance apart I mount them on slides or rollers, or suspend them so
that they can be moved laterally nearer to or farther from one another
by means of screws, racks, and pinions, or otherwise. When the ice
making operation is begun the cells may be set some distance apart and
remain stationary till a certain thickness of ice is formed on their walls.
They are then caused to approach each other so that the ice on the one
cell is pressed against the ice on the other cell. The refrigeration being
then continued for a short period the two thicknesses of ice unite into
one thickness, which can be removed in blocks in the usual manner.
When a still greater thickness is desired the blocks made as above.
described after being detached from the cells on either side may be left
standing in the tank and the cells again withdrawn so as to leave a
space filled with water on each side of the block. The freezing being
continued a fresh thickness of icc becomes formed on each cell, and this
may in its turn be pressed against the intermediate block already formed
and so united to it.
%
In constructing the apparatus for this purpose I make the pipes com-
municating with the interior of the cells with telescopic or folding
joints; or when brine or other circulating liquid is used as the vehicle
of cold I sometimes make the communications to the cells by means of
flexible pipes, or pipes of bellows, form, capable of being distended or
collapsed so as to permit the movement of the cells to or from each
other. Such of the pipes as pass through the walls of the tanks may
be provided with slides covering slotted holes in the walls, so that these
pipes may move within the slots without permitting the escape of water
from the tanks.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Joseph West in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 1st January 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
JOSEPH WEST, of Mason Street, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey,
Bend greeting.
I
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in
the thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry Joseph West,
Her special license that I, the said Henry Joseph West, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Joseph West, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ICE AND APPARATUS
FOR THAT PURPOSE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Henry Joseph West, 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 Henry Joseph West, 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, reference being had to the
accompanying Sheets of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
My Invention relates to improvements in the process and apparatus
for manufacturing ice, having for its object the manufacture of thicker
blocks of ice than those usually produced by freezing apparatus. For
this purpose I employ a number of cells, which are preferably of thin

page_text: rectangular shape, placed vertically in a tank of the water to be frozen
at some distance apart. Such cells are of known construction and use,
and are cooled internally by the evaporation of ether or other volatile
fluid, by the expansion of compressed air or gas, and also by the
circulation through them of cold brine or other uncongealable liquid or
solution, so that ice is formed on their outer surfaces usually to a thick-
ness of several inches. In order to obtain ice by these means of greater
thickness the freezing operation has to be continued for a long period,
every addition to the thickness of the ice requiring more time, the
greater is the thickness already produced.
The object of my Invention is to obtain the increased thickness at a
moderate expenditure of time and labour, which I effect in the following
manner-Instead of fixing the cells in the tanks at a certain determined
distance apart I mount them on slides or rollers, or suspend them so that
they can be moved laterally nearer to or farther from one another by
means of screws, racks, and pinions, or otherwise.. When the ice
making operation is begun the cells may be set some distance apart and
remain stationary till a certain thickness of ice is formed on their walls.
They are then caused to approach each other so that the ice on the one
cell is pressed against the ice on the other cell. The refrigeration being
then continued for a short period the two thicknesses of ice unite into
one thickness, which can be removed in blocks in the usual manner.
When a still greater thickness is desired the blocks made as above
described, after being detached from the cells on either side, may be left
standing in the tank and the cells again withdrawn so as to leave a
space filled with water on each side of the block. The freezing being
continued a fresh thickness of ice becomes formed on each cell, and this
may in its turn be pressed against the intermediate block already formed
and so united to it.
In constructing the apparatus for this purpose I make the pipes com-
municating with the interior of the cells with telescopic or folding
joints; or when brine or other circulating liquid is used as the vehicle
of cold I sometimes make the communications to the cells by means of
flexible pipes, or pipes of bellows form, capable of being distended or
collapsed so as to permit the movement of the cells to or from each
other. Such of the pipes as pass through the walls of the tanks may
be provided with slides covering slotted holes in the walls, so that these

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figs. 1, 2, and 3 represent respectively a plan, a longitudinal section,
and a transverse section of a freezing tank arranged according to my
Invention with moveable cells subject to the circulation therein of
cooled brine or other uncongealable liquid.
.
A is the tank, preferably made as usual of wood, to contain the water
to be frozen; B, B, are the cells of ordinary construction in which the
cooling liquid circulates, the inlets and outlets to the several cells
communicating by flexible pipes C, C¹, with each other and with the-
supply pipe D and the brine tank E, when such a tank is used. The
outflow pipes C¹ however may be connected directly to the suction
of the brine pump when a tank such as E is not used. The cells B are
provided with rollers F at their upper corners running on bars G. They
may also have rollers H at their lower edges running on rails fixed on
the bottom of the tank; or when they are thus supported the upper
rollers F may be dispensed with and guide eyes substituted for them to
guide them along the bars G. The rollers H are preferably mounted, as
shewn, upon wooden strips fixed to the cells, so that there may be
no such formation of ice about the rollers as to interfere with their
working.
For moving the cells towards one another in order to bring the sheets
of ice I formed on their walls close together they may be moved by hand
by means of hooked rods catching into eyes K provided at the ends of
the cells. Or a ratchet screw apparatus, such as is shewn in end view
and in side view at Figs: 4 and 5 respectively, may be employed to move
the cells. In this case the eyes K on the ends of the cells are made
with vertical holes, as shewn in Fig. 6, and the projecting pins of two
nuts L can be dropped into these holes. The ratchet screw M³ having
a right-hand thread at the one end and a left-hand thread at the other end
being then turned up by its pawl lever M, which is made long enough
to extend above the water in the tank the cells can be drawn towards one
another. The pawl lever M is provided with a duplicate pawl, so that
the direction of turning the screw may be reversed when it is necessary
to push the cells apart. Instead of making the ratchet screw with two.

page_text: opposite screw threads it may have only one thread at the one end, the
other end being merely swivelled into one of the nuts L.
Fig. 7 represents a plan, and Fig. 8 an end view partly in section of
an ice tank with moveable cells, in which cold is produced by direct
evaporation therein of a volatile liquid. In these Figures the same
letters are employed to indicate parts corresponding with those above
referred to. In this case, as it is difficult to obtain flexible pipes such
as will withstand the action of the volatile liquids usually employed in
freezing apparatus, the pipes by which the moveable cells B are con-
nected to the fixed pipe O may be made with telescopic joints N
provided with packing, so that the pipes can slide thereon without
leakage. Also where the branch pipes pass through the tank wall under
the water level they are provided with slides P which cover the slots
made through the tank wall to allow for the movement of the pipes.
To keep these slides water-tight cross bars p are provided outside the
tank wall with bolts that are generally screwed up, but which can be
slacked for the time during which the cells are in movement. The cells
may be conveniently moved in pairs by means of screwed spindles Q
worked by winches from outside the tank. The screwed parts of these
spindles at Q and Q³, work through nuts secured respectively to the
ends of two of the cells. By making the pitch of the screw thread
at Q¹ greater than that at Q³ on turning the screwed spindle Q the two
cells at either side of the tank are moved towards one another, and at
the same time are both caused to approach the other pair of cells.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I hereby declare that I make no
claim to freezing by means of the circulation of a cold uncongealable
liquid or by the evaporation of a volatile liquid in cells immersed in the
water to be frozen, nor to any particular construction of the tanks or
cells used for that purpose, except in making the cells moveable so as to
operate as above described, but I claim,-
First. The method, substantially as herein described, of producing
thick blocks of ice by bringing together the sheets of ice formed on the
freezing cells and subjecting them to cold so as to unite them.

page_text: with such cells being made flexible or jointed so as to permit of the
required movement.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Joseph West, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
HENRY JOSEPH WEST. (L.S.)