IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COOLING AND VENTILATING MINES, TUNNELS AND OTHER SPACES
Year: 1885

page_text: I, EMIL CAPITAINE of Berlin in the German Empire, Civil Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of said invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
COOLING AND VENTILATING MINES, TUNNELS AND OTHER SPACES," and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement:-
The object of this invention is the provision of means for placing the most
remote parts of mines and other places at a very low degree of temperature,
thereby preventing the formation of explosive air or fire damp.
For this purpose lye or other suitable chemical solution which has been brought
to a temperature considerably under 0° Celsius, is caused to fall down a shaft
which is in communication with the workings of the mine or other places-in the
form of fine rain, the lye or solution after dissipating heat from its vicinity being
conducted back to refrigerating apparatus for use over again.
Referring to the accompanying sheet of illustrative drawings:-
The installation consists of a shaft A at the top or in the immediate vicinity of
which is arranged a refrigerating apparatus of a known kind in which the lye or
solution is refrigerated, and caused to pass through the pipe E to a sprinkling
device so placed that the lye or solution falls down the shaft in the form of fine
rain by which the air may be refrigerated in the vicinity of of the cold rain, which
cold air gradually displaces the warm air, and causes fresh air to continuously
enter the shaft from above. A collecting vessel B is placed at the bottom of the
shaft A for the reception of the lye or solution as it rains down, and which will
then have had its temperature increased. Thence it is pumped back up the shaft A
by the pump C through the pipe D to the refrigerating apparatus for use over
again as before.
For those places in which it may not be convenient to employ fixed apparatus as
before described, the arrangement shewn in Figs 2 & 3 may be employed. The
reservoir M serves for holding the refrigerated lye or solution, it is provided with
a supply inlet at N. At C, is a pipe through which the refrigerated liquid passes
to the pump by which it is forced through a rose or other sprinkling device
immediately over the reservoir. It ascends through the air in the form of fine rain
and falls back on to the top of the reservoir which is made concave, for the purpose

page_text: of facilitating the passage of the returned liquid through the aperture H into the
reservoir. The pump and reservoir are mounted on a travelling carriage so that
the apparatus may be moved to any required position.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
1. The apparatus for the prevention of injurious effects from explosive and other
air in mines, and the method of attaining this object substantially as described
with reference to Fig 1 of the accompanying drawing.
2. The portable apparatus substantially as described with reference to Figs 2
and 3 of the accompanying drawing and for the purpose specified.
Dated this 9th day of May 1885,
CAPITAINE & VON HERTLING,
Agents,
89, Chancery Lane, London, W.O.