merman combined Automatic Refrigerator and Ventilated Car
Year: 1889

page_text: A communication from MAX FRIEND, of Calumet Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, United
States of America, Manufacturer.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex,
M.I.M.E. do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
Fig. 1 shows an exterior end view, partly in section, of the improved "Zim-
merman combined Automatic Refrigerator and Ventilated Car," showing the end
or ventilating door closed and one of the roof doors open and the other closed,
also a part of the ice-tank projecting beyond the end of the wall which is broken
away. The corner of the car at said place is shown broken away for the purpose of
showing the details of construction of the walls and the several interior parts of the
car. Said interior parts, hid by said broken wall, are shown in broken lines. There
is also an irregular opening in said wall through which the drip-trough and drip-pipe
are shown in section and through which the drain-pipe is shown passing.
Fig. 2 shows a longitudinal vertical section of Fig. 1 in. side elevation, so much
only of one end of a car being shown as is necessary to show, the ice-tank and its
relation to the other parts the cutting plane being passed just inside of the near wall
of the ice-tank.
Fig. 3 shows Fig. 2 as seen from the interior of the car and only so much of the
right hand part of the car being shown as is necessary to show the several parts in
their respective places.
Fig. 4 shows about one half of the body of a car in longitudinal side view so as to
show a part of the door-frame, the door being shown open, but all the parts in place
as they appear when the door is closed and the rear part of the car is shown in section
by passing a cutting plane through it back of, and parallel to the near wall of the ice-
tank

page_text: Fig. 5 is a cross section of Fig. 4 across the body of the car through the door so as
to show all the working parts of the door in end view.
Like letters refer to like parts in all the figures.
The object of this invention is to so improve the refrigerating mechanism of
refrigerator cars, and the doors to them, as will in the first place secure the greatest
refrigeration with a given amount of material and in the second place by means
of the door arranged and constructed as here shown, to hold such refrigerated air
within the car when desired, or so that the storage-room may be ventilated when
desired and to at the same time make such a car available for the transportation of
materials which do not require refrigeration, but ventilation, and security against
fire from sparks from the locomotive, and like sources, and a further object of this
invention is to construct the walls of this car so as to be better non-conductors of
heat than have heretofore been constructed, and to attain the varied and desirable
ends, above mentioned, to their greatest perfection the said several parts are constructed
in, substantially, the following manner, namely:
The walls of the said car are made of two thicknesses, a, b,. of matched and well
seasoned lumber tightly fitted to its place with paint joints, so as to be sealed against
all motion of the confined air in the air-space c and the external atmosphere; said
dead air-space, as is well known, forms one of the best of nonconductors, and in
addition to said dead-air a sheet of thick felt c', is placed on, at least, one side or
wall of the air-space but where the car passes through great climatic changes, in a
trip, it is advantageous to line both sides of said air-space with such a sheet of
felt. The floor of the car is double and has between its double layer of boards one
or two thicknesses of tarred paper p, which is a good nonconductor of heat and also
impervious to moisture thereby preventing any water from passing into the large
dead-air-space d, formed below said floor, and between, or on the lower edge of the
joist, by sealing the floor at said points with matched boards and lining them on the
inside, in the dead air-space, with felt c.
The general framework of such a car is substantially the same as is made for any
such closed, or box-car. To make it possible to retain perfectly, within the storage-
room, the body of air so confined, by such tight and nonconducting walls it is necessary
to have doors specially constructed and adapted for such purpose and they are
constructed as follows, namely:
The door-frame is bevelled inwardly, as is clearly indicated in figs. 4 and 5, into
which the door is fitted and so as to be flush with the surface of the exterior wall.
Near the upper edge of, and secured by clips m, to, the door is, a rod l, which turns
in said bearings m, and projects a short distance beyond them at each of its ends on
which are attached bell-crank levers 12, at their longer arms. The fulcrum of said
levers is attached to a hanger l, provided with a flanged roller which runs on a track j,
attached to the wall of the car. The shorter arm of said lever projects into a slight
cavity, cut out of the wall, for it, when the door is closed, and to said short arm is
hinged a curved and threaded coupler 13, screwed on the threaded rod 14. By means
of said threaded connection the said rod is first adjusted to its proper length and then
secured by a pin, on which its lower end hinges, to the outer side of a hook 1, attached
to the outer ends of a rod 1', which is fastened near the lower end of the door and
parallel to the rod 1. A lever 18, is attached to said rod 17, which is shown with
a hinge near its base on which it may turn laterally. When the door is closed said
lever 18, is parallel and close to the side of the door, but when the door is to be opened,
the said lever is pulled out from it into the position shown in dotted lines in fig. 5,
and down, if necessary, until parallel with the door, below its shaft 17. Through said
motion the hook 1, is released from the pin or stud 16, in the side of the door-frame,
and, as said hook 15, turns with the rod, it draws the rod 1, down with it and said
motion causes the bell-cranks 12, to turn into the position indicated in broken outlines
and to thereby throw the upper end of the door out of its frame, which must be
sufficiently bevelled to permit such motion freely, and thereby bring upper end of
the door out of its frame, first, and by continuing the motion of said lever still
farther the door will be raised high enough to draw the pins 1º, out of their loops or

page_text: eyes 10, after which the entire door will swing out of its frame and may then be moved
aside on its track into the position shown in fig. 4, where, if desired, it may, through
a reverse motion of the lever, bo fastened into another set of eyes 110, by means of
its pins 1.
With a door hung in such operating mechanism there is no possibility of its
becoming bound or stuck fast by the load rooling and resting against it as its first
motion is to move away from such pressure and the next motion at the moment it is
away is to rise upward and out of the way from such load resting against it. In
closing said door the pins 1°, are first placed into their eyes after which the upper door
is swung into place by means of its bell-crank levers and the hooks 15, the said pins 1º,
forming a fulcrum and the hooks 16, and levers 12, and 18, all together forming a
combination of levers operating in a most powerful and favorable manner to place the
door fully in position, however snugly it may fit and thereby become perfectly air-tight
and which may be made still more air-tight by packing its joints with elastic felting
in any well known manner.
After having thus perfected the general structure it is ready to receive mechanism
for refrigerating the air within the body of the car and this is done in the most efficient
manner by means of the following described apparatus, namely:
An ice-tank, made of galvanized sheet metal, is hung on cleats from timbers fastened
to the walls on about a level with the roof plates, thereby leaving free air-spaces on its
side, and rear, walls. The rear wall as, is much longer than the front wall a', to the
lower edges of which the flat bottom is attached forming an inclined plane to the sido
edges of which the side walls are cut and fastened. The said bottom is made of solid
sheet metal in its lower and larger part a³, but the upper part is perforated or made of
wire-screen work, by this means the said lower part forms with the walls a water-tight
receptacle, up to the broken line, which indicates the surface of the water, which is
prevented from rising higher by the open work at, through which the water falls on
the sheet metal apron e, and on it runs down and falls into the trough g, from which
it runs out through the drip-pipe g¹, and when it is desired to empty the water-space
a plug in the pipe g², is turned by the handle g³, which opens a hole o, in the pipe
located in the lowest part of the tank and lets out the water. The sides of said tank
are shown provided with open or wire work a', in figs. 2 and 4 and like features may
be applied to its front and rear walls when desired. By means of these latter features
the air from the storage-room has a continuous free access to the refrigerating substance
and gets its full effect from it instead of it being cooled by contact with the
outside of the walls of a closed ice-tank. On the latter case the air cannot be
cooled below the temperature of melting ice, theoretically speaking, a point never.
attained in practice, as is well known by long experience, the temperature of the
storage-room never falling below 40° F. while by this construction the storage-
chamber may be cooled to any degree below the point of melting ice by means of
any frigorific mixture, as by the use of salt upon the ice, and its full effect attained in
the storage-chamber which with the use of the same frigorific could not be reduced
below the point of melting ice in a closed sheet-metal tank because the moisture of
the storage-room would coat the ice-tank with a thick frost which would absorb the
force of the frigorific substance within the tank in its formation so rapidly that no
effect of it would be left to cool the storage-room below the freezing point. For these
reasons an ice-tank should be open as herein shown, then besides securing the full
effect of any refrigerating agent, no matter how cold, the sides of the tank accumulate
but little, if any, frost, and if it should happen, that cannot prevent the full action of
the refrigerant, besides this the moisture which arises from the articles in the storage-
room is condensed directly on the said refrigerant and thereby is also attained a far
greater degree of purity of the atmosphere and antiseptic qualities than can be attained
in the old form of closed ice-tanks.
To effectually guard against any dripping of any accumulated moisture a sheet
metal apron e, is suspended below the bottom of the ice-tank which serves both to
catch all overflow from the ice-tank and discharge it into the trough and to moderate

page_text: the effect of the refrigerant on the apron f, placed below the apron e. so that no
moisture can form on its lower side and cause any dripping into the storage-chamber.
The apron e, is hung from the bottom of the ice-tank and is of about the same area as
said bottom but the apron, extends to the side walls and there rests on cleats, as shown,
or may be otherwise fastened, and also extends beyond the wall a. Said aprons are
air-spaced and parallel to the tank bottom so as to permit the free circulation of the
air and the lower one is made of wood or other similar nonconductor to prevent
condensation of moisture on its lower side.
It is usual to provide each end of a car with an ice-tank as shown and described and
said tank or tanks are charged through doors i, on the roof which meet at the apex, or
ridge, of the roof and form a tight joint and are hung and operated on hinged rods,
bent into form as shown more clearly at ', and operate in blocks the former
secured to the door and the latter to the roof. By hanging the said doors on such
rods or hinges, which must be made strong, the doors may always be forced open
when frozen to the roof by means of a crowbar or lever without being broken.
The walls of the ends of the car-body are also provided with doors, which are hung
on hinges h¹, secured by means of blocks h³, to the door and by means of blocks h³, to
the wall operating in every respect like the hinges, before described for the doors i,
and when such doors are made use of the wall a, of the ice-tank is made of open work
of the full area of, and over said door h, which serves for the purpose of ventilation
and is particularly useful in carrying perishable goods which do not need the more
exponsive refrigeration but only need a current of cool fresh air which may thus be
provided by opening the said doors h, at each end of the car, and, where such
goods, or materials, are inflammable, so that there might be danger of fire from the
sparks from the locomotive, or other sources, the water space of the ice-tank may
be filled with water which will catch and quench their fire as they are sure to be
caught in said tank where they will lose their force and fall because it is much larger
than the opening through which they entered, the only precaution necessary would
be to cover the screen in the wall a³, should it so happen that it was provided
with one.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :
1st. A refrigerator car provided with double walls having an air-space lined with
felt, an air-spaced roof and an air-spaced floor. Said floor being double thick and
lined with tarred paper, substantially as specified.
2nd. A refrigerator car provided with a sheet-metal ice-tank suspended in the upper
part of the car at its ends. Said ice-tank having free air-space between its sides and
those of the car-body, a short front and a long rear wall connected by an inclined
bottom to which the sides are fitted and whereof the lower part of said bottom
forms with the rear and side walls a watertight reservoir the upper part thereof
being formed of open work as are, also, the side and rear walls formed of like open
work, and said bottom provided with an apron, air-spaced, and parallel thereto, and
said apron provided with an apron, air-spaced, and parallel to it, and of nonconduct-
ing material, a drip-trough with a drip-pipe and a drain-pipe from the ice-tank with
a plugged outlet passing through said drip-pipe, substantially as specificed.
3rd. A refrigerator car provided with a sheet-metal ice-tank suspended from its
roof having short front and long back walls connected by an inclined bottom to which
the sides of said tank are fitted, the upper part of said bottom and the sides and
back wall, in whole, or in part, made of open work above the part of the bottom
which forms said water-tight reservoir and said side and back walls air-spaced from
the car walls and said ice-tank provided with doors for entering the ice-tank
through the roof of the car and with a ventilating door on the end of the car
swinging on the specially constructed hinges, and ¹, substantially as specified.
4th: In combination with a car-body provided with a track for carrying a door

page_text: nd pins in its side frame and eyes at the lower edge of the door-opening, of a
door hung on carriers running on said track to which are hinged bell-crank levers
to which the door is hung at its upper end and the other and inner ends of said
bell-crank levers connected, each, by means of a rod, to a hook, attached to a shaft
near, or below, the centre of the door and which with the hooks, by means of an
operating lever is turned which through said motion releases said hook, or hooks,
and throws said door upward and outward from its frame and releases the pins
from their sockets at the lower end of the door whereby it may be moved away
from its opening on said track, substantially as specified.
Dated this 9th day of December 1889.
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents.