IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE PROVISIONAL SPFICATION
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Gamgee, of Chelsea, in the County of
Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Gamgee at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th December 1875.
I, JOHN GAMGEE, of Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE
TO THE FORMATION AND MAINTENANCE OF SKATING RINKS," to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to produce a solid sheet of ice capable
of supporting numerous skaters, and to enable it to resist the surround-
ing heat.
Various efforts have previously been made to produce artificially ice
surfaces for skating upon, but none of them have been successful.
According to some saline solutions have been caused to flow beneath a

page_text: hollow metal surface, which has been intended as the support for water
to be frozen into ice, but these solutions freeze at a temperature of
18° Fahrenheit when stagnant, and at 8° or 10° when in active circula-
tion, so that if a freezing machine is suddenly stopped, and the moving
brine or saline solution brought to a standstill, it will solidify and destroy
the metal tubes or surfaces. Now instead of a saline solution I employ
a liquid which will not congeal above 0° Fahrenheit, such as glycerine
or glycerine and water, or alcohols, and I cause it to flow beneath a
hollow metal surface upon which the water to be frozen into ice rests.
As it is essential to keep the metal space beneath the ice always full
of glycerine or other liquid which is uncongealable at very low tem-
peratures the ordinary method of direct circulation by pumps is
inadmissible, and as it may be necessary to concentrate the cooling
powers of several machines at special points I employ elevated reservoirs
or accumulators of cold, in which the liquid is first cooled and main-
tained at a very low temperature, and from which it is permitted to flow
evenly under the metal surface.
Sometimes I supplement the power of a freezing machine by immersing
the glycerine in a vessel of copper or other metal containing ice and
salt, chloride of calcium, or other refrigerating salt, or ice through
which strong brine or a solution of some refrigerating salt is made to
circulate. Thus as fast as the ice on the surface of the rink becomes
cut up it may be thrown into the ice tank, and thereby economized.
When freezing machinery cannot be erected I sometimes employ ice
with refrigerating salts to cool the glycerine or other liquid used to make
and maintain the ice on the rink.
For the purpose of increasing the density of the surface ice I apply
pressure thereto in any suitable manner, such for example, as running
over it a heavy roller protected by an india-rubber jacket or tire.
Finally, I cause currents of cold dry air to pass over the surface of
the ice at intervals or continuously, especially in warm weather, and for
the purpose of confining such currents of cold air to the surface I some-
times stretch non-conducting covers temporarily over the ice.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Gamgee in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 20th June 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
GAMGEE, of Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in
the thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Gamgee, Her special
licence that I, the said John Gamgee, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Gamgee, 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
APPLICABLE TO THE FORMATION AND MAINTENANCE OF SKATING RINKS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Gamgee, 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 John Gamgee, 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 thereof, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say:—
The object of my Invention is to produce a solid sheet of ice capable
of supporting numerous skaters, and to enable it to resist the surround-
ing heat.
°
Various efforts have previously been made to produce artificially ice
surfaces for skating upon, but none of them have been successful.

page_text: According to some saline solutions have been caused to flow beneath a
metal surface, which has been intended as the support for water to be
frozen into ice, but these solutions freeze at a temperature of 18°
Fahrenheit when stagnant, and at 8° or 10° when in active circulation, so
that if a freezing machine is suddenly stopped, and the moving brine or
saline solution brought to a standstill, it will solidify and destroy the metal
tubes or surfaces. Now instead of a saline solution I employ a liquid
which will not congeal above 0° Fahrenheit, such as glycerine' and water
mixed in equal proportions by measurement, or alĉoliols, and I cause it
to flow beneath a metal surface upon which the water to be frozen into
iće rests.
As it is essential to keep the metal space beneath the ice always full
of the above mentioned liquid the ordinary method of direct' circulation
by pumps is not efficacious, and as also it may be necessary to concen-
trate the cooling powers of several machines at special points I employ
elevated reservoirs or accumulators of cold, in which the liquid is first
cooled and maintained at a very low temperature, and from which it is
permitted to flow evenly under the metal surface.
Sometimes I supplement the power of a freezing machine by immer-
sing the vessel containing the above-mentioned freezing liquid in or
causing the freezing liquid to flow through a vessel or tank containing
ice and salt, ice and chloride of calcium, or other refrigerating salt or
ice, through which strong brine or a solution of some refrigerating salt
is made to circulate. Thus as fast as the ice on the surface of the
rink becomes cut up it may be thrown into the ice tank, and thereby
economized.
Where freezing machinery cannot be erected, or when a sufficient
supply of ice can be obtained without the use of machinery, I sometimes
employ ice with refrigerating salts to cool the freezing liquid used to
make and maintain the ice on the rink, that is to say, I put ice and
refrigerating salts in a vessel through which the freezing liquid is caused
to circulate, so that the freezing liquid may be reduced to a low tempė-
rature, and I cause it to circulate below the metal floor of the rink so
as to freeze the water thereon. I thus form and maintain an ice rink
without the employment of ice machinery at the spot.
Finally I cause currents of cold dry air to pass over the surface of the
ice at intervals or continuously, especially in warm weather, and for the

page_text: purpose of confining such currents of cold air to the surface, or of
confining the cold air to the surface when artificially produced currents
are not passed over it, I sometimes stretch a non-conducting cover
temporarily over the ice at a distance therefrom of, say, 6 or 8 inches or
thereabouts.
And in order that the manner of carrying my Invention into effect
may be fully understood I annex a Sheet of Drawings shewing how I
prefer to arrange the rink and the apparatus connected therewith.
In these Drawings Figure 1 is a plan of a rink; and Figure 2, a
vertical section through the rink and machine room. A is the floor of
the rink, on which the freezing pipes B are laid. These pipes are of
U shape, one branch opening into the general supply pipe C, and the
other into the general outlet pipe D. E is the refrigerator for cooling
the freezing liquid; F is the pipe conducting the freezing liquid from
the refrigerator to the pump G, by which it is elevated through the
pipe H to the reservoir or accumulator I. . The pipe J conducts the
freezing liquid from the reservoir or accumulator I into the general
supply pipe C; K is the return pipe from the general outlet pipe to the
refrigerator. The pipes B are covered with water to a depth of about
2 inches, more or less.
The action is as follows:-The freezing liquid flows from the reservoir
or accumulator I by the pipe J into the supply pipe C, whence it passes
into one branch of each U shaped freezing pipe B, traversing which it
passes at the further end into the second branch of the freezing pipe,
and after traversing this branch it enters the general outlet pipe D. . It
next passes by the pipe K to the refrigerator E, where, being cooled, it
passes by the pipe F to the pump G, which forces it through the pipe H
into the reservoir or accumulator I to be again sent into the rink, and so
on. Sometimes I place the refrigerator or an additional refrigerator in
the reservoir I.
;
Figure 3 shews how the power of a freezing machine may be supple-
mented either by immersing the freezing machine itself or the elevated
reservoir or accumulator in a vessel containing ice and salt, ice and
chloride of calciun, or other refrigerating salt or ice, through which
strong brine or a solution of some refrigerating salt is made to circulate.
A is the refrigerator or reservoir, as the case may be, placed in and
surrounded by a vessel B containing the ice and salt or other ingre-

page_text: dients C above named. The solution of brine or other refrigerating salt
may be made to circulate through the said ingredients C as shewn by
the arrows. Or instead of immersing the refrigerator or the reservoir in
a vessel, as shewn in Figure 3, I cause the freezing liquid to pass
through a vessel containing ice and salt, ice and chloride of calciun,
or other refrigerating salt, as represented in vertical section in Figure 4,
in which A is the vessel; B, the return pipe from the rink; C, a set of
smaller pipes by which the liquid from the pipe B passes to an upper
pipe D leading to the refrigerator.
In Figure 2 L represents the non-conducting cover stretched over the
ice surface. Between it and the surface of the ice the cold air is retained,
or currents of cold dry air may be forced by a fan or blower between
the surface of the ice and the cover for the purpose described. This
cover may be rolled on a roller M when not in use, and if large must be
supported at intervals in the manner usual in awnings or tent covers
to prevent it sagging or resting on the surface of the ice.
Having now fully described my Invention, and the means or method
I prefer of carrying it into effect, I would remark that in the Specifi-
cation of Letters Patent granted to me, the said John Gamgee and
Robert Allee Purkis, dated the 27th day of July 1874, No. 2621, claim
was made to the employment of an aqueous solution of glycerine in lieu
of brine or saline solutions in the manufacture of ice, and that therefore
I do not claim broadly as part of the present Invention the use of
glycerine as a substitute for brine in ice making. I would also remark
that in the Provisional Specification of the present Invention I stated
that for the purpose of increasing the density of the surface ice on the
rink I applied pressure thereto in any suitable manner, such for example
as running over it a heavy roller protected by an india-rubber jacket or
tire, but I have since found by practice that this rolling or pressing is
attended with difficulties, and is not worth the expense and trouble, and
therefore I do not recommend it, and I make no claim thereto. What
I do claim under the present Letters Patent is,-
Firstly. The employment in the formation and maintenance of ice
skating rinks of elevated reservoirs or accumulators of cold, in which the
freezing liquid used for freezing the water is maintained at a very low
temperature, and from which it is permitted to flow evenly through the

page_text: herein-before. described.
Fourthly. The employment above the floor of ice rinks of the non-
conducting cover, substantially as and for the purpose herein-before
described.
Fifthly. The combined means and apparatus for forming and main-
taining ice skating rinks, as herein-before described and represented in
the accompanying Drawings or any mere modification thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Gamgee, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of June One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-six.
5 Witness,
JOHN GAMGEE. (L.s.)
J. C. MEWBURN,
Patent Agent,
169, Fleet Street,
London.
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