A CERTAIN METHOD OR MECHANISM FOR THE SPEEDY COOLING OF LIQUIDS BEING WITHIN CERTAIN DEGREES OF TEMPERATURE, AND WHICH METHOD OR MECHANISM I TERM A REFRIGERATOR
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
MASTERMAN, of the Dolphin Brewery, Broad Street, Ratcliff, in the County of
Middlesex, Common Brewer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twenty-fourth day of February, in the seventh year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas
Masterman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her especial licence,
that I, the said Thomas Masterman, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
and every of them, by myself or themselves, or by my or their deputy or
deputies, servants or agents, or such other as 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 of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her
Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also within
all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "A
CERTAIN METHOD OR MECHANISM FOR THE SPEEDY COOLING OF LIQUIDS BEING
WITHIN CERTAIN DEGREES OF TEMPERATURE, AND WHICH METHOD OR MECHANISM
I TERM A REFRIGERATOR," in such manner as my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or any of them, should in my or their discretion seem meet; in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Thomas
Masterman, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly

page_text: to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Masterman, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and
ascertained by the Figures or Drawings in the margin of these Presents,
and by the explanations thereof and descriptions and observations herein-after
contained:-
Figure 1 is to be considered as in a perpendicular position. The letters
below refer to the same letters in the Figure. A is a hollow cylinder, which
term "the cistern;" it is eighteen inches in depth, having a flanch at its
lower end, and a short lateral flanched pipe of two inches and a half bore
immediately above this flanch; B is also a hollow cylinder, which I term
"the case;" it is twelve feet in depth, having a flanch at each end, and two
short lateral flanched pipes of two inches and a half bore, one close to the upper
flanch and the other close to the lower flanch, and also having close to the
lower flanch a flanched arm-hole six inches in diameter, with a door thereto
to close it water-tight, when not required for construction or repairs. C is also
a hollow cylinder, which I term "the receiver;" it is four inches in depth,
having a flanch at each end, and two short lateral flanched pipes of two inches
and a half bore between them. The inner diameter of the "cistern," "case,"
and "receiver" is thirteen inches and a half, and they are made of cast iron.
Between the flanch of the cistern and upper flanch of the case is interposed a
circular plate of gun metal one inch and one quarter in thickness; between the
lower flanch of the case and the upper flanch of the receiver is interposed
another circular plate of gun metal one inch in thickness. In each of these
plates are drilled one hundred and sixty-nine holes; the centre of each of these
holes is ascertained as follows:-From the centre of the plate draw a radius
equal to half the inner diameter of the case (being six inches and three-quarters);
set off half an inch from the extreme end of the radius and divide the remainder
into seven equal parts, then from the said centre describe seven concentric
circles intersecting the radius at the several points of division thereon; then
commencing each operation at the said points, and making the parts in each
circle severally equal, divide the circumference of the smallest circle into six
parts, the next into twelve parts, the next into eighteen parts, the next into

page_text: twenty-four parts, the next into thirty parts, the next into thirty-six parts,
and the last into forty-two parts; drill holes five-eighths of an inch in
diameter through each plate, their centres coinciding one with the common
centre, the others with the points of division in the circumferences of the
said seven circles. The holes in the upper part of that plate next the
cistern are countersunk to receive the conical heads of the tubes after
mentioned; each countersink is seven-eighths of an inch in diameter at the
surface of the plate and one quarter of an inch in depth. The two plates
thus drilled are placed in their aforesaid positions and in such manner that the
holes in the upper plate are precisely vertical to the corresponding holes in the
lower plate. This "cistern," "case," and "receiver," with the two plates,
are secured together by screw bolts, as represented in Figure 1, and the
joints made water-tight; the before-mentioned tubes are of brass, each being
twelve feet three inches long, with a half-inch bore, and as thin as a due regard
to proper strength will admit.
Figure 2 represents the upper end of one of these tubes with the brass head
soldered on it; the upper part of this head is conical, of a size to fit into the.
countersinks in the plate next the cistern, and the lower part of it is cylin-
drical and of a size to fit into the holes in the same plate.
Figure 3 is the other end of the tube; over its lower end is soldered a piece
of brass tube one inch in length, and on this is wrought the thread of a screw;
a circular brass nut is made to fit this thread; the lower end of this nut has
two notches for facility in screwing it up; the extreme diameter of this nut is
seven-eighths of an inch. One of the said tubes is passed through one of the
holes in the said upper plate farthest from the said arm-hole, and is directed
into the corresponding hole in the lower plate until its conical head rests in the
countersink; a leather washer is then placed on the said thread and the nut is
screwed up until this washer is pressed tightly against the plate. The space
between the tube and hole in the lower plate inside the case is filled up with a
composition of white and red lead, some of the same is used under the conical
heads and on the washers; thus each of the other holes in the plates is
supplied with a tube, and is thus made water-tight. A cast-iron bottom to
the receiver and the door of the arm-hole are then screwed on to their places
and made water-tight. This bottom has a brass cock affixed to it, as repre-
sented at D in Figure 1. This cock is for the purpose of drawing off that
part of the cooled liquid which remains in the refrigerator after the operation
is concluded, and also for drawing off the water afterwards run into the cistern,
to cleanse the cistern tubes and receiver. The part E, F, G, H, corresponds
with the part A, B, C, D, in construction in every respect, excepting that the

page_text: cistern E has two lateral pipes instead of one only, and the receiver G has only
one lateral pipe instead of two. These two parts so constructed are connected
together as follows:-(a, b,) is a pipe two inches and a half in bore, forming,
with the lateral pipes in each of the said two cases, a water-way into and from
both cases.
At each of the intersections of this pipe (a, b,) by the horizontal
branches therefrom, communicating with the upper and lower lateral pipes of
the said two cases, is placed a cock, the water-ways of whose spigot are formed
as represented by the sectional view in Figure 1; by turning this spigot to
different positions, it is evident the current of cold water may be directed to
flow through the said two cases successively, or the current may be divided and
made to flow concurrently through both cases, or it may be directed to flow
entirely through either case without entering the other case at all. One of the
lateral pipes in cistern E in connected by a pipe two inches and a half in bore,
with one of the lateral pipes in the receiver C; the remaining lateral pipe in
cistern E, and the lateral pipe in cistern A, are attached to the feeding pipes
of the liquid to each cistern, and to the remaining lateral pipe in receiver C,
and to the lateral pipe in receiver G are attached cocks I, I. It is by means
of these two cocks that the flow of liquid through the tubes is regulated, so as
to be discharged from the receiver at the required temperature. A convenient
mode of ascertaining this temperature is by inserting the bulb of a thermo-
meter through a hole drilled for that purpose in each of the said last-
mentioned discharging pipes between the receiver and the cock, the said holes
being made water-tight round the stems of the thermometers. In the herein-
before detailed construction of my refrigerator, I have had regard not only to
the greatest refrigerating power to be obtained with a given quantity of cold
water, but also to facility as to construction and eligibility as to materials
and dimensions. It is obvious, however, that numerous modifications in the
materials, form, proportion, and position of the parts, and manner of putting
them together, may be adopted, and still the mechanism or apparatus be sub-
stantially my Invention, and protected by the said Letters Patent.
Where the liquid to be cooled is contained in a shallow cooler, commonly
used in breweries and distilleries, my refrigerator is fixed so that the tops of
its two cisterns are level with or a few inches higher than the upper edge of
the side of the cooler, thus preventing the cisterns (which are open at the top)
from ever overflowing; and, secondly, where the liquid to be cooled is contained
in a vessel placed higher in level than the tops of the said two cisterns, then
the same cisterns may be prevented from overflowing by a float acting by a
lever on a cock or valve in each of their feeding pipes, the discharging pipes
for the said liquid remaining as before described; or, thirdly, those discharging

page_text: pipes may be carried upwards until they reach just above the level of the
bottom of the cisterns; and in such latter case, the flow of the said liquid
through the tubes can be regulated by a cock placed in each of the feeding
pipes of the said cisterns; the mode of operating in this case will in other
respects be the same as below described.
The construction of my refrigerator having been now described, the mode
of operating with it, where either of the two first of the three above-men-
tioned modes of regulating the level of the liquid in the cisterns is adopted,
is as follows:-Premising that as I shall frequently have to mention the liquid
to be cooled, I shall term it, for the sake of brevity, "the liquid." I firstly
describe the mode of operating, when the spigots of the direction cocks
in the connecting water pipe are turned to the positions which cause the water
to flow through the cases successively, and in which mode, it is presumed,
the refrigerator will be most generally used. The cocks D, H, in the bottom
of each receiver being closed, a current of cold water is made to flow through
(a, b,) at b, into the case F until it be full, then descending through
the connecting pipe (a, b,) between the two cases, it enters the case B
by the lateral pipe at the bottom thereof, and ascends therein until it also
be full, and then flows out through the lateral pipe at the top of the same
case B, leaving the pipe (a, b,) at (a). The current being thus established
through both cases, the cocks attached to the discharging pipes for the liquid
from the receivers being closed, and the orifice of the feeding pipe opening into
the cistern E being plugged up, the liquid is caused to run in a small stream
through the feeding pipe into the cistern A; it descends thence into the tubes
in case B, and ascends the connecting pipe into the cistern E, and thence descends
into the tubes in case F; thus the two sets of tubes and the pipe connecting
them will be full of the liquid. The feeding pipe to cistern A is then opened to
its full bore, and the regulating cock I of the receiver G is opened more or
less throughout the operation, until the liquid be discharged through it at
the required temperature.
I describe, secondly, the mode of operating with either of the said two cases
and sets of tubes therein separately, as follows:-The spigot of the upper
direction cock is turned to the position by which the water flowing into the
bottom of one of the cases is directed to flow from the top of the same case
into the discharging pipe at (a), instead of running down the connecting pipe
(a, b,) between the two cases; then the orifice of the connecting pipe between
receiver C and cistern E, and the orifice of the feeding pipe in the cistern which
is not to be used, are plugged up. That case and its tubes which are to be
used are to be filled and operated with in the same manner as described in the

page_text: instance where both cases and sets of tubes are used, except that the feeding
pipe of cistern E is used if that cistern be used. Thus it is obvious that
A, B, C, alone constitute one of my refrigerators.
I describe thirdly, the mode of operating with both cases concurrently, as
follows: Turn the spigots of the two directing cocks to such a position
that the broad side of the middle divisions forming the water-ways shall
be the nearest to each other, thus closing that part of the connecting
pipe between the two cocks. The narrow edge of the said division in each
cock will then divide the current entering at (b) into two parts, one part
flowing into and out of the case B, and the other part flowing into and out of
case F. The orifice of the connecting pipe in cistern E must be plugged up.
The feeding pipe to each cistern must be opened, and the regulating cock
attached to each receiver must be used to discharge the liquid through each.
By means of my refrigerator the liquid may be cooled from any degree of
temperature below its boiling point to nearly the temperature of the cold water
employed in the process. Where there is a very large quantity of the liquid,
instead of immoderately increasing the number and lengths of the tubes in each
case, it is preferable to connect two or more of the above-described refrigerators
by proper feeding and discharging pipes. A cylindrical case of an inner
diameter of twelve inches, will contain one hundred and twenty-seven tubes of
half an inch bore; and where such diameter is fifteen inches the number of such
tubes may be increased to two hundred and seventeen. The perpendicularity
of the tubes and the said directions of the said currents are essential to the
most beneficial use of my refrigerator, as thereby the forces of expansion and
gravitation of the two fluids will tend to prevent any portion of the gradually
warming water and gradually cooling liquid from mixing with the cooler water
and cooler liquid beneath them respectively as they respectively ascend and
descend through the cases and tubes as aforesaid, and also will tend to cause
the portions of the cooling liquid flowing concurrently through the said aggre-
gations of tubes to be discharged at their lower orifices at the same degree of
temperature, notwithstanding these tubes may severally differ in their power
of transmitting heat. Any other position of the tubes or direction of either
or both of the two currents will give to the said inherent forces a tendency to
counteract these beneficial results. The aforesaid small size and form of the
tubes are more effective in refrigerating than tubes of a larger size or of any
other form so employed can be, because from possessing a greater resistance to
pressure, a thinner substance of metal can be used, consequently a larger surface
of metal is exposed to the cooling influence, combined with a more rapid
transmission of heat through the metal. The perpendicularity and straight

page_text: form of the said tubes afford facilities for cleansing them after use, both by the
force a descending body of water will acquire when run through them, and
also by enabling a rod with a sponge thereon to be passed through them,
and thereby scouring them after the manner in which the inside of gun barrels
are cleansed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Masterman, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Eighteenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.