IMPROVEMENTS IN SKATING Rinks
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Joseph West, of No. 40, Stockwell Park
Road, in the County of Surrey, and Grosvenor Calixte Joseph de
Jacobi du Vallon, of Llancayo, Epsom, in the County of Surrey,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SKATING Rinks.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Joseph West
and Grosvenor Calixte Joseph de Jacobi du Vallon at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the
18th June 1875.
We, HENRY JOSEPH WEST, of No. 40, Stockwell Park Road, in the
County of Surrey, and GROSVENOR CALIXTE JOSEPH DE JACOBI DU
VALLON, of Llancayo, Epsom, in the County of Surrey, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SKATING
RINKS,” to be as follows :—

page_text: construct a shallow metal tank or a metal floor with a raised rim all
round, and of a size corresponding to that required for the rink, upon
the upper surface of which tank or floor is introduced a thin sheet of
water, while below the same are formed a series of cells or chambers,
through which brine or cold air or other refrigerating fluid is made to
circulate that has been reduced to a temperature below the freezing
point of water by any know apparatus for freezing or producing cold,
such as that described in the Specification of a Patent granted to
H. J. West on the 28th March 1873, No. 1158. The cold brine or
other fluid in circulating against the under surface of the metal tank
or floor will freeze the thin sheet of water upon the same, thus pro-
ducing a sheet of ice suitable for skating.
The tank or floor may be made of thin wrought-iron plates that may
either be bolted or rivetted together, or we construct the same of
separate plates, each of which is made to rest with its edges in a water-
tight manner upon a bed of india-rubber placed upon walls or
supports that form at the same time the divisions of the brine cells
below.
In order to allow the ice to assume an undulating motion or spring
action somewhat similar to that which a sheet of ice on a pond assumes
when skated upon we sometimes support the plates of the tank upon
metallic or other springs or air cushions, which will yield somewhat to
the pressure of the skaters, or we float the tank together with its brine
cells upon a bed of water below the same. The last-named arrangement
would afford the advantage of obviating noise, and of maintaining the
floor at a true level.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Joseph West and Grosvenor Calixto Joseph
de Jacobi du Vallon in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th December 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
JOSEPH WEST, of No. 40, Stockwell Park Road, in the County of Surrey,
and GROSVENOR CALIXTE JOSEPH DE JACOBI DU VALLON, of Llancayo,
Epsom, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eigth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Henry Joseph West and Grosvenor
Calixte Joseph de Jacobi du Vallon, Her special license, that we, the
said Henry Joseph West and Grosvenor Calixte Joseph de Jacobi du
Vallon, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said Henry Joseph West and Grosvenor Calixte Joseph de
Jacobi du Vallon, our 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 SKATING RINKS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Henry Joseph West and Grosvenor
Calixte Joseph de Jacobi du Vallon, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or
under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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, on behalf
of myself and the said Grosvenor Calixte Joseph de Jacobi du Vallon, 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
thereto, that is to say :—
This Invention relates to the construction of skating rinks with a
surface of natural ice produced by artificial cold. For this purpose we
construct a shallow metal tank or a metal floor with a raised rim all
round, and of a size corresponding to that required for the rink, upon
the upper surface of which tank or floor is introduced a thin sheet of
water, while below the same are formed a series of cells or chambers,
through which brine or cold air or other refrigerating fluid is made to
circulate that has been reduced to a temperature below the freezing

page_text: point of water by any known apparatus for freezing or producing cold,
such as that described in the Specification of a Patent granted to H. J.
West on the 28th March 1878, No. 1158. The cold brino or other fluid
in circulating against the under surface of the metal tank or floor will
freeze the thin sheet of water upon the same, thus producing a sheet |
of ice suitable for skating.
The tank or floor may be made of thin wrought-iron plates, that may
either be bolted or rivetted together, or we construct the same of
separate plates, each of which is made to rest with its edges in a water-
tight manner upon a bed of india-rubber placed upon walls or supports
that form at the same time the divisions of the brine cells below.
In order to allow the ice to assume an undulating motion or spring
action somewhat similar to that which a sheet of ice on a pond assumes
when skated upon we sometimes support the plates of the tank upon
metallic or other springs or air cushions, which will yield somewhat to
the pressure of the skaters, or we float the tank together with its brine
cells upon a bed of water below the same. The last-named arrangement
would afford the advantage of obviating noise and of maintaining the
point of water by any known apparatus for freezing or producing cold,
such as that described in the Specification of a Patent granted to H. J.
West on the 28th March 1878, No. 1158. The cold brino or other fluid
in circulating against the under surface of the metal tank or floor will
freeze the thin sheet of water upon the same, thus producing a sheet
of ice suitable for skating.
The tank or floor may be made of thin wrought-iron plates, that may
either be bolted or rivetted together, or we construct the same of
separate plates, each of which is made to rest with its edges in a water-
tight manner upon a bed of india-rubber placed upon walls or supports
that form at the same time the divisions of the brine cells below.
In order to allow the ice to assume an undulating motion or spring
action somewhat similar to that which a sheet of ice on a pond assumes
when skated upon we sometimes support the plates of the tank upon
metallic or other springs or air cushions, which will yield somewhat to
the pressure of the skaters, or we float the tank together with its brine
cells upon a bed of water below the same. The last-named arrangement
would afford the advantage of obviating noise and of maintaining the
floor at a true level.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 represents a longitudinal section, Fig. 2 a plan, and Fig. 3 a
transverse section of a skating rink according to our Invention.
A, A, is a metal floor with edges B, B, projecting upwards so as to
‹form a shallow tank, which can be charged with water. Beneath this
floor is another floor C, C, made water-tight by cement or in any other
known manner supporting by transverse girders D, D, the floor A, A,
'such girders dividing into compartments the shallow space between the
two floors. This space is charged with cold brine or other uncongealable
liquid, which is introduced into and discharged from the various com-
partments by the pipes E. These pipes communicate with refrigerators
of ordinary construction, preferably such as operate by the evaporation
under reduced pressure of a volatile liquid, such as ether. The brine
cooled in such refrigerators is caused by pumping to circulate through
the compartments bencath the floor A, A, so as to freeze the water
above the said floor as above described.
Figs. 4 to 13 inclusive shew various modes of jointing the floor A, A,
so as to keep the fresh water above it clear from the brine beneath.

page_text: It is to be understood however that any known method of jointing
and supporting metal plates may be employed for this purpose.
According to the method shewn in Fig. 10 the brine compartments
are made each as a complete cell, which may be of cast iron or thin
metal sheet rivetted up.
"
In Fig. 8 the middle part of the plates between their supports is
shewn supported by springs F, which may be either helical, as shewn,
or bent blade springs, the effect of such springs being to give a little
flexibility and elasticity to the skating surface.
According to the arrangement shewn in Fig. 14 the rink is floated on
water, so that it can assume its level with a certain amount of spring
dependent on the local load.
It is obvious that the form of the rink may be varied as desired, as
well as the arrangements of the building or space in which it is situated,
and its connections with the refrigerating apparatus.
The arrangements shewn in Figs. 1, 2, and 8 are given as an example
of how a rectangular rink with adjoining apartments may be laid out
and worked.
The rink however might be made of other forms, as for example,
circular or annular or of irregular shape, so as to imitate natural pieces
of water.
Although we have described the use of brine or other uncongealable
liquid as the vehicle for conveying to the water to be frozen the
refrigerating influence, it is obvious that with a similar construction
of rink cold air or other gaseous fluid might be employed for this
purpose.
Also the refrigeration might be directly produced in the cells
themselves by evaporating a volatile liquid therein under reduced
pressure in the manner described in the Specification of a Patent
granted to me, the said H. J. West, on the 4th February 1874, No. 451.
For this purpose the cells under the floor A, A, might be supplied with
the volatile liquid admitted to them by pipes, and a partial vacuum
being produced in the cells by pumping, the liquid admitted would be
thereby volatilised, the evaporation producing the required refrigeration
3 within the cells.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we claim, the construction of a
skating rink with a floor of natural ice produced by artificial cold, the
said ice being formed by freezing water on a metallic floor, which is
refrigerated by cold fluid in a space or cells beneath it, substantially as
herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Joseph West, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-
five.