MENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR MAKING ICE, REFRIGERATING, OR REDUCING TEMPERATURES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Skene at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 12th December 1876.
ROBERT SKENE, of Union Street, Boro', in the County of Surrey.
" IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR MAKING ICE, REFRIGERATING, OR REDUCING
TEMPERATURES."
My Invention relates to that class of apparatus for refrigerating and making
ice in which volatile liquids are evaporated in vacuo, and has for its object the
more economical application of cold resulting therefrom, and to simplify and cheapen
said apparatus.
Another part of my improvements is the production of ice of any desired thick-
ness, thick, clear solid ice being formed according to my improvements in less time,
weight for weight, than thin ice has been heretofore made. This is accomplished
by using cold air along with brine, glycerine, or other liquid as the cooling
agents.
Hitherto the cold or low temperature is transmitted to the water to be frozen
through the ice in course of formation; ice, being a bad conductor of cold makes the
process a slow one, and the thicker the ice the slower the process. Now by my
improved process the cooling liquid, such as brine or glycerine or other liquid, is
first used to refrigerate air and afterwards to reduce the temperature of the water
to be formed into ice to, say, 32 degrees Fahrenheit; the cold air is then used to
cause congelation.
The manner in which my improvements may be carried into practice is first to
conduct the cooling liquid medium from the refrigerator to another vessel or
chamber which I will call the "air refrigerator," said chamber to be as near as
convenient to the refrigerator, and to be made of non-conducting materials to pre-
vent abstraction of cold and air-tight; in this chamber is placed a series of tubes
or hollow partitions or other appliance that will give a large surface, and
through or over which the cooling agent is caused to circulate for the purpose of
refrigerating air.
The air having been refrigerated is conducted into another large chamber placed
as near as may be convenient to the air refrigerator, or connected therewith, and
made of non-conducting material, and as air-tight as is convenient for egress and
ingress, which chamber I will call the "ice-making chamber;" the liquid cooling

page_text: agent is also conveyed into this chamber and caused to circulate in thin inclined
tubes or cells of any desired length or breadth, and of the required number, placed
horizontally one over the other longitudinally; the brine or other liquid is caused to
enter at the lowest point and circulate to the highest point of elevation, from which
it returns to the refrigerator to be again recooled.
At that point where the brine or other liquid leaves the tubes the water to bo
frozen is caused to flow over the tubes or cells, and will run by gravity in a contrary
direction to the cooling liquid to the lowest point where the cooling liquid enters,
the tubes or cells being so placed that the water will fall from the one on to the
other; the flow of the water must be so regulated that it will on leaving the tubes
or cells be reduced to the desired temperature, say 32 degrees Fahrenheit, or to as
low a temperature as it will remain liquid.
The water to be frozen is then conducted into a number of boxes or moulds
placed side by side, and made of any desired size or shape, but advantageously of
oblong form, and having a moveable cover or lid shorter than the box; parallel to
the ends of these boxes the tube containing the refrigerated air from the air refriger-
ator is arranged, and an aperture is made opposite to each box, and a current of the
cold air is forced through the box, entering at the top of one end, going out at the
top of the other end, and thus freezing the water as it runs into the box.
The supply of water may be so regulated that the whole will be frozen, or a
greater quantity may be allowed to run in than the cold air can freeze, and small
perforations are made in the opposite end of the box or mould from which the
water enters for the exit of the water which is not frozen, and it can be conducted
to the cistern from which the water supply is taken, or be run into moulds to remain
until frozen by the low temperature maintained in the ice-making chamber by the
air which is kept constantly circulating between the air refrigerator and the ice-
making chamber by means of a fan, blower, or pump; the same air is returned
from the upper part of the chamber where it is warmest to the air refrigerator
and returned after being again refrigerated and made to repass through the
ice boxes.
I do not confine myself to any special method of applying the refrigerated air,
for instead of its being forced through the boxes it may be caused to circulate
through a large chamber or chambers containing moulds, boxes, or vessels of any
desired size or shape, containing the water previously brought to a low temperature
to be congealed by the cold air circulating around the moulds or boxes; or the cold
air may be conducted on to the tubes or cells containing the brine or other liquid,
and thus freeze the water upon them without entering boxes or moulds at all.
It is not essential that the cooling liquid agent should always circulate in the ice-
making chamber where the refrigerated air is circulating. There may be two or
more ice-making chambers, and whilst the water in one is being frozen by the cold
air in the other the moulds may be filling with water reduced to 32 degrees
Fahrenheit, and thus the process may be reversed alternately by changing the
current of cold air and brine from one chamber to the other.
Attempts have been made, but with little success, to make ice by refrigerated air
alone by causing it to pass through or over the refrigerator, but the refrigerator was
liable to get so coated with ice from moisture abstracted from the atmosphere as to
prevent the circulation of air, and by the use of brine or other freezing liquids
alone as the medium ice was formed on the outside of the vessel before the centre of
the water was reduced to the freezing point; consequently the cold had to be
transmitted through the ice, which being a bad conductor prevented rapid con-
gelation.