AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR FORMING VACUUM IN FREEZING APPARATUS.
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Thomas Hughes, of the Firm of Hughes
and Son, Patent Agents, 123, Chancery Lane, London, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR FORMING VACUUM IN FREEZING
APPARATUS.' -A communication from abroad by Charles Parker, of
Meriden, State of Connecticut United States of America.
Sealed the 24th February 1871, and dated the 29th August 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Thomas Hughes
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 29th August 1870.
I, EDWARD THOMAS HUGHES, of the Firm of Hughes and Son, Patent
Agents, 123, Chancery Lane, London, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR FORMING VACUUM IN FREEZING
APPARATUS," a communication to me from abroad by Charles Parker, of
Meriden, State of Connecticut, United States of America, to be as.
follows:-
This Invention relates to an improvement in the process for forming
the vacuum in apparatus for making ice. Heretofore this has been done
by exhausting the air from the vacuum chamber. In practice it is found
impossible to produce a perfect vacuum, inasmuch as the exhausting
pump at each stroke takes only a certain number of inches of the con-

page_text: tents, that is to say, supposing the vacuum chamber to be the capacity
of 100 and the pump 1, each stroke of the pump would remove one per
cent. of the contents of the chamber; but as the air expands as fast as
any portion is removed, it follows that it is impossible to form even a
theoretical vacuum by pumping.
The devices which have heretofore been used have been of an extensive
and complicated character, necessitating a large outlay.in making the
freezing apparatus, which by my Invention is almost entirely avoided,
and the vacuum is theoretically perfect.
This Invention consists in forming the vacuum in freezing apparatus
by filling the vacuum chamber with a fluid and removing the said
liquid-by-force-or-gravitation.-
-
In order to illustrate this Invention I will show it as applied to a
freezing apparatus.
A and B are two vacuum chambers, by preference in such relative
position to each other that a pump C may be connected to both by
respective tubes A¹ and B¹, each fitted with stop-cocks; D, D, are the
freezing baths arranged outside the vacuum chambers, and are filled
with brine or other non-congealing liquid, by preference brine; E, E,
are ether receivers, from which a number of tubes a extend up through
the baths D, D, and turn into the vacuum chambers at or near the top.
The said chambers also communicate into the ether receivers through
tubes d, each provided with a stop-cock. One of the chambers (say A)
is filled with a liquid which will not congeal, as for instance, alcohol,
and the receiver E supplied with ether, the pump is then started, drawing
the liquid from the chamber A, and forcing it into the chamber B until
the liquid is removed from one chamber and transferred to the other,
thus forming theoretically a perfect vacuum, as the pump will at each
stroke remove the same quantity of liquid until all is removed. The
ether (in consequence of the vacuum) passing up through the tubes is
vaporized into the vacuum chamber, which so far reduces the temperature
of the freezing liquids in the baths D, D, that water in suitable vessels
immersed in the said baths will quickly congeal, then when the full effects
of the first vacuum have been attained reverse the pump, open the stop-
cock from the vacuum chamber to the ether receiver, and the inflowing
liquid condenses the ether, which flows directly back into its receiver
and a vacuum is formed in the second chamber causing the circulation
of the ether, as before described.

page_text: To condense the ether and cause it to return to the receiver; air may
be forced in the receiver instead of the liquid, then when the ether has
all returned to the receiver the vacuum may be again filled with liquid,
and this process I prefer. A single vacuum is all that is necessary, and
this may be entirely surrounded by the freezing bath, and instead of a
pump to draw out the liquid to form the vacuum, the chamber may be
set so high (32 feet) that the liquid will run out by its own gravitation,
and produce the vacuum without any apparatus.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edward Thomas Hughes in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th February 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
THOMAS HUGHES, of the Firm of Hughes and Son, Patent Agents, 123,
Chancery Lane, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty.
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, Her special licence
that I, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, my
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 "AN
IMPROVED PROCESS FOR FORMING VACUUM IN FREEZING APPARATUS," a com-
munication to me from abroad by Charles Parker, of Meriden, State
of Connecticut, United States of America, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, 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

page_text: Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, 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 accom-
panying Drawing, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to an improvement in the process for forming
the vacuum in apparatus for making ice. Heretofore this has been
done by exhausting the air from the vacuum chamber. In practice it
is found impossible to produce a perfect vacuum, inasmuch as the
exhausting pump at each stroke takes only a certain number of inches
_of_the_contents, that is to say, supposing the vacuum chamber to be the
capacity of 100, and the pump 1 each stroke of the pump would remove-
1 per cent. of the contents of the chamber; but as the air expands as
fast as any portion is removed it follows that it is impossible to form
even a theoretical vacuum by pumping.
The devices which have heretofore been used have been of an extensive
and complicated character, necessitating a large outlay in making the
freezing apparatus, which by my Invention is almost entirely avoided,
and the vacuum is theoretically perfect.
This Invention consists in forming the vacuum in freezing apparatus
by filling the vacuum chamber with a fluid and removing the said liquid
by force of gravitation.
In order to illustrate this Invention I will show it as applied to a
freezing apparatus.
The Drawing represents a sectional view of an apparatus in which my
process is introduced.
A and B are two vacuum chambers, by preference in such relative
positions to each other that a pump C may be connected to both by
respective tubes A' and B, each fitted with stop-cocks; D, D, are the
freezing baths arranged outside the vacuum chambers, and are filled
with brine or other non-congealing liquid, by preference brine; E, E, are
ether receivers, from which a number of tubes a extend up through the
baths D, D, and turn into the vacuum chambers at or near the top.
The said chambers also communicate into the ether receivers through the
tubes d, each provided with a stop-cock. One of the chambers (say A)

page_text: is filled with a liquid which will not congeal, as alcohol, &c., and the
receiver E supplied with ether. The pump is then started, drawing the
liquid from the chamber A and forcing it into the chamber B until
the liquid is removed from one chamber and transferred to the other,
thus forming theoretically a perfect vacuum, as the pump will at each
stroke remove the same quantity of liquid until all is removed. The
ether, in consequence of the vacuum passing up through the tubes, is
vaporized into the vacuum chamber, which so far reduces the temperature
of the freezing liquids in the baths D, D, that water in suitable vessels
immersed in the said baths will quickly congeal; then, when the full
effects of the first vacuum have been attained, reverse the pump, open
the stop-cock from the vacuum chamber to the ether receiver, and the
inflowing liquids condense the ether, which flows directly back into its
receiver, and a vacuum is formed in the second chamber causing the
circulation of the ether as before described.
To condense the ether and cause it to return to the receiver, air may
be forced in the receiver instead of the liquid, then, when the ether has
all returned to the receiver, the vacuum may be again filled with liquid,
and this process I prefer. A single vacuum is all that is necessary, and
this may be entirely surrounded by the freezing bath, and instead of a
pump to draw out the liquid to form the vacuum the chamber may be
set so high (thirty-two feet) that the liquid will run out by its own
gravitation, and thus produce the vacuum without any apparatus.
Having now described the Invention as communicated to mc, I
claim the herein described process of forming the vacuum in freezing
apparatus, which consists in filling the vacuum chamber with a liquid,
then removing the same therefrom by gravitation or otherwise, sub-
stantially as set forth and shewn on the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of
February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-one.