AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS ON OR IN REFRIGERATORS FOR COOLING FLUIDS
Year: 1827

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
WHEELER, of High Wycombe, in the County of Buckingham, Brewer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-second day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, in the eighth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Robert Wheeler, His especial licence that I, the said Robert Wheeler,
my executors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert
Wheeler, my executors, adiñiors, and assigns, should at any time agree. with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in
all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "AN
IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS ON OR IN REFRIGERATORS FOR COOLING FLUIDS;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Robert
Wheeler, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
inmediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
Robert Wheeler, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say) :-
:-
My improvements in refrigerators for cooling fluids consist in forming the
chambers for the passage of the fluids in spiral channels winding round a
central tube, through which spiral channels the hot and cold fluids are to be
passed in opposite directions.
Figure 1, in the accompanying Drawing, represents the external appearance
of the refrigerator, enclosed in a cylindrical case; Figure 2, the same, one
half of the case being removed to shew the form of the apparatus within; and,
Figure 3, a section cut through the middle of the apparatus perpendicularly,
for the purpose of displaying the internal figure of the spiral channels. The
apparatus is proposed to be made of sheet copper, tinned on its surface, and is
formed by cutting circular pieces of thin copper, or segments of circles, and
connecting them together by rivets, solder, or by any other convenient means,
as coppersmiths usually do. These circular pieces of copper being united one
to the other, in the way of a spiral or screw, form the chambers through which
the fluids are to pass within in an ascending or descending enclined plane.
In Figs. 2 and 3, a, a, is the central tube or standard (of any diameter that
may be found convenient) round which the spiral chambers are to be formed.
b, b, are the sides of the outer case, to which the edges of the spiral fits closely,
but need not be attached. c, c, are two of the circular plates of copper, con-
nected together by rivets at the edges, in the manner shewn, or by any other
suitable means.
d is the chamber, formed by the two sheets of copper, and
which is carried round from top to bottom in a spiral or circular enclined
plane by a succession of circular plates connected to each other. The hot
fluid is admitted into the spiral chamber d through a trumpet or wide mouth'd
tube e at top, and is discharged at bottom by an aperture and cock f. The
cold water which is to be employed as the cooling material is to be introduced
through the pipe g in the center, from whence discharging itself by a hole at
bottom. The cold water occupies the interior of the cylindrical case b, and rises
in the spiral passage h between the coils of the chamber until it ascends to
the top of the vessel, and then it flows away by a spout i, seen in Figure 1.
It will be perceived that the hot fluid enters the apparatus at top, and the cold
fluid at bottom, passing each other, by means of which an interchange of
temperatures takes place through the plates of copper, the cooling fluid
passing off at top in a heated state by means of the caloric which it has

page_text: abstracted from the hot fluid, and the hot fluid passing off through the pipe
and cock at bottom in a very reduced state of temperature by reason of the
caloric which it held having been given out to the cooling fluid.
I have described this apparatus as made of thin sheets of copper tinned, but
do not mean to confine myself to that material, as copper, without tinning,
will answer the purpose; or under some circumstances I should make them
of pewter, or perhaps tin plates; and for the cooling of some chemical fluids
I should make some of earthen or pottery ware. These various materials
being worked by different means, I cannot set forth the precise mode of
manufacturing my refrigerators therefrom, nor do I confine myself to any
particular mode of making the said spiral chambers, but rest my claim of
Invention solely upon the form of the apparatus, which I call the Archimedes
Refrigerator. Though I have described this apparatus as enclosed within a
cylindrical case, which forms. the sides of the ascending channel, yet I do not at
all times employ a case, but close the external parts of the channel h by strips
of metal, soldered or otherwise attached to the plates. This apparatus is
applicable to the cooling of worts for brewers, or wash for distillers, and other
chemical operations where the cooling of fluids is required. It is also appli-
cable to the condensing of vapours, whether steam or spirituous fluids, and is
employed with great advantage in place of the ordinary condensing worm of
distillers, and is likewise applicable to steam engines.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Wheeler, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.
ROBERT (L.S.) WHEELER