IMPROVEMENTS IN REFRIGERATORS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Herbert John Allison at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th January 1883. Communicated
to him from abroad by Reuben Alfred Messervey, of Medford, Massachusetts,
United States of America
HERBERT JOHN ALLISON, of 41 Southampton Buildings, Holborn, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN REFRIGERATORS," a communi-
cation to me from abroad by Reuben Alfred Messervey, of Medford, Massachusetts,
United States of America,
This invention relates to that class of refrigerators in which a circulation of air
in a preserving-chamber is maintained by the employment in a suitable part of the
chamber of vertical air-passages communicating at their upper and lower ends with
the chamber, and having their walls cooled by contact with a refrigerant contained
in tanks or receptacles, the warm air from the top of the chamber entering the
upper ends of such passages becoming cooled therein and passing from the lower
ends of the passages to the lower portion of the chamber.
The invention has for its object to provide certain improvements in the
construction of the tanks or receptacles for the refrigerant, whereby when two of
said tanks are placed together S-shaped or tortuous vertical air-passages will be
formed between then, having a large extent of surface cooled by the refrigerant
without encroaching materially on the space for containing the refrigerant. To
this end the invention consists in the improvements which I will now proceed to
describe.
The preserving chamber may be a car or a fixed apartment of any suitable
construction.
The tanks are arranged side by side in contact with each other in any suitable
part of the preserving chamber. Each tank has two corrugated or wavy sides,
which are so formed that when two tanks are placed together said sides will
co-operate in forming a narrow air-passage, which is S-shaped or tortuous in cross
section, having substantially parallel curved sides in somewhat close proximity to
each other. The tanks are contracted in width at their upper ends, the contracted
portious passing through the top of the chamber, and forming spaces, through
which warm air can pass from the upper portion of the preserving chamber into

page_text: the air-passages. The tanks rest upon suitable supports, elevated above the
bottom of the chamber, so that spaces are afforded for the passage of cold air from
the air-passages into the lower portion of the preserving chamber. The corrugated
sides of the tanks are preferably inclined inwardly, so that the air-passages aro
gradually increased in width from their upper to their lower ends. The body of
each tank is composed preferably of galvanized sheet-iron. The top is composed of
cast-iron, having a groove, which receives the upper end of the body of the tank.
The bottom of the tank has two transverse cleats, which are connected to the top
by vertical rods, extending from top to bottom of the tank, near the corners
thereof. The top of each tank is provided outside of the chamber with a suitable
cover.
Among the advantages secured by the S-shaped sides of the improved tank over
others are the following: It is much more easily filled than a tank containing an
air pipe or passago inclosed within the tank, or one having.semi-circular corru-
gations, and the ice or refrigerating mixture lies more closely in contact with tho
walls of the air-passages. By the parallel arrangement of the S-shaped sides of
the passages a large extent of cooling-surface is obtained without encroaching on
the interior of the tanks to any material extent. The form of the air-passages in
cross section, each elongated transversely and having its curved sides comparatively
close to each other, enables a large volume of air to pass through each passage, and
keeps the air in close contact with the cooling-surface during its entire passage.
In a round tube or passage of the same capacity the centre of the column of air
would derive comparatively little benefit from the cooling-surface, on account of
its distance therefrom; but with the improved form all portions of the column are
acted on alike.
! It is preferred to provide the outer and inner sides of the tanks with coverings
of wood or other non-conductor, extending the whole or a part of the distance from
the bottom to the top of the tanks.