AN IMPROVED METHOD OR METHODS OF FREEZING WATER
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
VALLANCE, of Brighton, in the County of Sussex, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom, bearing
date at Westminster, the First day of January, One thousand eight hundred
and twenty-four, in the fourth year of His reign, give and grant unto mie, the
said John Vallance, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Vallance, my exors,
adiñors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OR METHODS OF
FREEZING WATER;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
that if I, the said John Vallance shall not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of iny said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my land and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent; that then the
said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby
granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same,
relation being thoreunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Vallauice, do hereby describe the nature of my said Invention, and the

page_text: manner in which the same is to be performed, in and by the Drawings
hereunto annexed, and the following description thereof (that is to say):-
It has long been known that evaporation abstracts or carries off heat from
liquids. In the year One thousand seven hundred and fifty-five, Doctor Cullen
discovered that removing the pressure of the atmosphere facilitated evaporation
to a degree which enabled him to freeze water even in summer.
In the year
One thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven, Mr. Nairne discovered that
introducing sulphuric acid, or as it is commonly called oil of vitriol, into an
exhausted receiver, absorbed or took up aqueous vapour from and dried rarefied
air; and by an arrangement on these principles in the year One thousand eight
hundred and ten, by which he got rid of the vapour that rose from the water
and prevented its forming a permament atmosphere, so as to prevent the con-
tinuance of the evaporation, Professor Leslie succeeded in freezing quantities
of water, about a pound or a pound and a half in weight, though he could not
effect the congelation of quantities much larger than this. Now, my improved
method or methods of freezing water consists in combining with Doctor
Cullen's principle of promoting evaporation by removing the atmospheric
pressure, another cause or promotive of it, which, as it enables us to get rid of
or carry off the vapour from surfaces of water vastly wider than by Professor
Leslie's method, also enables us to freeze quantities of water vastly larger than
can be frozen by apparatus on his principle. The cause or means of promoting
evaporation by which we are enabled to do this is a current of dry rarefied air,
which is caused to impinge upon and pass over the surface of the water to be
frozen in the following manner, that is to say:-As the rate at which evapo-
ration takes place, and consequently at which heat is carried off from the water
to be frozen, depends on the surface it exposes, I cause such water to expose
a large evaporable surface, by pouring it into a large flat-bottomed vessel till it
is just deep enough to run over and cover the bottom, forming a very shallow
surface or thin stratum of liquid. From this vessel I then remove the greater
part of the atmospheric pressure by producing a vacuum in it that will support
only about an inch of mercury, thereby facilitating the evaporation from the
water; I then further facilitate the evaporation by causing a current of dry
Tarified (and it may be, of cooled) air to pass over the surface of the water, so
as to carry off the vapour which rises from it as fast as it is formed, and conse-
quently so as to prevent the vapour which has risen from impeding or hindering
the rise of other fresh vapour from it; the joint effect of which operations is to
carry off caloric from the water to a degree that causes its congelation. I then
let or pour more water into the vessel upon that which is frozen till it just covers
it and forms a shallow surface of unfrozen water upon it, and then renewing

page_text: the process change that also into ice; and this I continue to do till the vessel
is full, when I readmit the air and remove the ice from the vessel (in order to
the repetition of the process) in any convenient manner. Now, the apparatus
for thus freezing water may be varied, and whenever circumstances require it
I do vary it as to shape, size, material, or method of construction in any way
which the combination of the three properties or principles I have mentioned,
viz', that of preparing for copious evaporation by causing water to expose
a surface which is as large and shallow as possible, that of disposing to
evaporation by removing the greater part of the atmospheric pressure, and
that of increasing the tendancy to vaporize by causing a current of dry rarefied
air to impinge upon and sweep over the surface of the water so as to carry
off the vapour as fast as it rises and prevent that vapour from impeding the
formation and assent of other fresh vapour by forming a permament kind of
atmosphere over it. The apparatus for freezing by combining these three
properties or principles I vary in any way that may be desirable as to shape,
size, material, or method of construction; a method, however, which will be
found to answer very well if put in practice on the same scale for (whether
owing to imperfection of apparatus, or what, I cannot say) I have not found
the process answer so well on the small or table scale, is as follows:-
Figure the First of the Drawings annexed is meant to represent a cast iron.
cylinder of about four feet diameter by a about the same depth. It consists of
two pieces or parts, A, A, A, the bottom and side cast in one piece; B, B,
the top or cover bolted to A at the flange flange or lateral projection a, a, so
as to admit of its being unscrewed and removed for the purpose of getting the
ice out. In any convenient part of this cover are three holes each about three
inches diameter to admit of pieces of plate glass (strong enough to bear the
pressure of the atmosphere), being cemented, or in any convenient and air-tight-
manner fixed into them so as to allow light to be thrown into A from gas (or
other) lights over these holes. The joint between A and its cover B is made
air-tight by means of a piece of sheet lead, and putty between them, in the
manner usually followed by engineers to make air-tight joints. C is meant to
represent a stuffing box cast on the top or cover for the tube D to move up
and down in. This stuffing box is leathered or packed so as for the tube D to
work up and down in it without admitting air. This tube D is of drawn brass
made as true and smooth as possible so as to work air-tight in the stuffing box
C. It is about five feet long by three inches diameter connected at top to a
similar but longer tube E by an air-tight joint (made in any way that will
admit of the tubes being unconnected at pleasure) at F. The other end or
bottom of this tube is connected to a disk or circular plate nearly as much in

page_text: diameter as the cylinder A is. This disk is not flat but somewhat raised in
the middle so as to be most slightly conical, as shewn by the two lines d, d,
which are meant to represent (in section) the degree in which the disk is
raised in the middle, this disk may be of sheet iron or other convenient material.
In it are holes corresponding to the sight holes in the cover of the cylinder,
over which are put pieces of glass, in order that what takes place beneath this
disk may be seen. This disk is concentric with and connected to the lower end of
the tube D, and forms a kind of moveable cover to the bottom of the cylinder
capable of being moved up and down as the tube D is drawn out of or pushed
into the cylinder through the stuffing box C. In any convenient situation
adjacent to this vessel A, I have two very large pumps formed of any convenient
metal, and made on the principle of air pumps. These pumps are for the
purpose of exhausting air from the above-mentioned vessel. They are to be
so well and accurately made and put together as is necessary for the purpose
of exhausting air, and in order to conduce to the effect they are intended to
produce, and to guard against inaccuracies and defects in their construction,
I fix them in a reservoir in which they are covered with water, forming a
communication between them and the vessel A by the pipe G. The con-
struction of these pumps and the machinery for working them I do not con-
ceive it necessary to enlarge upon; since as the principle of the air pump is well
known, any engineer, who understands that principle and has apparatus for
fitting up cylinders and pistons of magnitude, will at once perceive how to go to
work, and consequently deem enlargement on their construction supererogatory.
Stating only therefore that these pumps are about thirty inches diameter by
five feet long, that they are worked by such cranks, shafts, and wheels as the
situation may render necessary for driving them, and that the
works them may be a steam engine of thirty horse power, I leave the other
particulars respecting them to be executed as the engineer employed about
them may deem best. Before dismissing this part of the subject it may, however,
be best to observe that as they are intended to produce (what is termed) a
vacuum only while they are kept going, and not like the highly wrought air
pumps made by Cary and others, to support that vacuum for days or weeks
after they are stopped, accuracy such as those pumps evince is not expected,
there being in this particular a difference similar to what takes place between the
elegant and highly finished working models of steam engines which philoso
phical instrument makers produce, and steam engines on the large scale. The
vessel H, shown above A, is meant to represent a cylinder similar to the other,
excepting that it is about twice as deep, in order to allow the tube E to go
into it when the top of A is hoisted up to get at the ice, and that it has a
power
which

page_text: stuffing box for the tube E, connected to the tube D, to work through (so as to
he air-tight) in its bottom instead of in its top, and that instead of a stuffing
box there is in the centre of its top a pipe I, which leads to the top of
another vessel J, shewn by the side of it, which vessel is close at top and open
at bottom; this vessel J may be of stout sheet lead, that not being acted on by
sulphuric acid. It is filled with lead balls similar to musket balls, but, too.
large to fall through the hole K in the bottom. These balls are kept con-
stantly wet with sulphuric acid by its being caused to run upon them by a lead
pipe leading from a leaden vessel above to and through the top of the vessel J,
in any way that may be convenient. In the pipe I, leading from J to H, there
is a cock i. Now with things in this situation, if the air pumps, to which
the pipe G leads from the lower vessel A, be set going, air will be pumped out.
of A; to replace this air other air will rush into A from H and J by the tubo E,
and pipe I. In passing from the tube D this air will, by means of the disk d, d,
be caused to spread over and sweep the whole of the surface of the bottom of
the vessel A; and supposing that the circumference of the disk d, d, should be
lowered to within the quarter of an inch of the bottom of A, and that the air
pumps were worked at the rate of about twenty strokes per minute, and kept
constantly going, so as to pump the air out of A as fast as it came into it from
H and J, a wind or current of air would be caused to sweep the bottom of A
at the rate of above twenty miles an hour. Now the course I take to freeze
water is this:-In any convenient part of the cylinder A is a hole, to which a
cock and pipe are attached, leading from a reservoir of water; by means of
this cock I let water into the cylinder till the bottom is just covered, when
there may be a surface or stratum of water in A about a quarter of an inch
deep; then raising the tubes E and D; and the disk d, d, a little way above.
the water, so as to leave a space about a quarter of an inch wide between tho
water & the edge or circumference of the disk, and shutting the cock i in tho
pipe I leading from J to HI; while the air pumps are going, air is pumped out
of the vessel A to a degree which removes the greater part of the atmospheric
pressure. When the exhaustion has proceeded so far that the rarefied air will
support only about an inch of mercury, I open the cock i in the pipe I a little
way so as to admit air into A just as fast as the pumps take it out, and so as
to keep the guage standing at about an inch above level. The air so admitted
enters A through the other vessels J and H, entering through the hole K in
the bottom. In passing upwards through J it goes through the interstices
between the lead balls, and owing to the tortuous course it is thus obliged to
take it is brought into extended and repeated contact with the sulphuric acid
with which they are wetted. Contact with the acid absorbs the aqueous vapour

page_text: the air was charged with, or held in solution, and the air consequently passes
from J towards E deprived of it and dry. As this dry air passes the cock i
and enters H, it expands and becomes rarefied to the same degree as that in A.
In expanding, its power or capability of holding vapour in solution is increased,
while its temperature is at the same time diminished by its specific caloric or
capacity for caloric being increased. In this state of increased power of
aqueous solution and of diminished temperature, it passes down the tubes
Ê and D, and (in its progress to the pumps) is caused by the shape of the
disk d, d, at the bottom of the tube D, to sweep over the water which has
been let into and covers the bottom of A, the disk being raised a little, as
before stated, in order to cause a small space between it & the water. In
passing over this water it sweeps off the vapour which rises from it, and
carries it to the pumps, by which both the air and the vapour are pumped out
of the vessel into the atmosphere. Now, as twenty-nine-thirtieths of the
pressure of the air have been removed from the water spread over the bottom
of the vessel A, vapour rises from it so rapidly that when carried off by air
which is rarified, dried, and cooled in the way described, sweeping over it in
its
passage to the pumps, as has been stated, caloric is abstracted or carried off
from it to a degree which in a few minutes causes its congelation. As soon as
it is seen by looking through the sight-holes in the top of A (those in the disk
d, d, being brought into the line of vision by moving the tube D round,) that
the water is frozen, the tubes E and D, and disk d, d, are (by any means
that may be convenient, and will overcome the resistance opposed by their
friction in the stuffing boxes,) moved up a little way, and a second quantity of
water being admitted into A, so as just to cover the ice (the pumps being all
the while kept going, so that the humid air and the vapour which has risen from
the water may be carried off as fast as it is formed), a second stratum of water
is frozen on and to the first, and this process being repeated sufficiently
often the vessel A becomes filled with ice. When it is full the screws which
connect the top B to it are taken out, and the top is (in any convenient way)
hoisted up to admit of the ice being got out. In hoisting up, the tubes E and D
and disk d, d, go with it, the tube E going up through the stuffing box into H,
so that room is given for the ice to be broken up by bars, pick-axes, &c. &c.
or as may be most convenient. This is one way of putting my improved
method or methods of freezing water in practice. Another is by making uso
of hydrogen gas instead and in the place of common air and causing it to
impinge on and sweep the surface of the water by admitting it into the lead
vessel J by the aperture K, instead of air. Another is by substituting dried'
oatmeal, or mouldering trap, or whinstone, or muriate of lime, or any other

page_text: convenient substance; for depriving air of aqueous vapour in the place of sul-
phuric acid in the lead vessel J. Such is or are my improved method or
methods of freezing water, and it is an improved metod or methods because
it (or they) enables us to freeze quantities of water vastly larger than by either
Dr. Cullen's or Professor Leslie's method. The operation is facilitated and
the surface of ice formed much more even if the water to be frozen be pre-
viously freed from air by long boiling and cooling, or distillation, or in any way
that may be convenient. It is also facilitated (in hot weather) by cooling the
sulphuric acid to the temperature of deep well water (50° to 55° in our
climate,) by passing it through a lead worm previously to admitting it into
the vessel J, as then the air admitted into H and A may be lowered to that
temperature before it expands, the purpose of the lead balls in J being to
cause small interstices through which the air may have to rise in order to
cause much contact with the acid in its passage, and consequently its complete
desiccation, and (when necessary), diminution of temperature. It is also facili-
tated in hot climates by using any convenient freezing mixture composed of
salts and water to cool the acid, and air instead of the well water just
referred to. It is also facilitated by causing the air more rapidly to sweep
over the surface of the water to be frozen, the rate which has been stated
being only that of a good brisk wind; a more rapid current of air or
stronger wind will facilitate the effect. Such is or are my improved method
or methods of freezing water, which (as has been before stated) consist
in adding to and combining with Dr. Cullen's principle of promoting evapora-
tion, by removing the pressure of the atmosphere that cause or promotive
of evaporation, a current of desiccated rarified and cooled air or gas, such
air or gas being caused to impinge upon and sweep over the surface of the
water to be frozen, so as to carry off the vapour which rises from it as
fast as it is formed, and consequently to prevent its forming a kind of
atmosphere over the water so as to impede the assent or formation of fresh
vapour from it. The apparatus for putting this method or methods in prac-
tice I have stated may be varied as to shape, size, material, and construction,
as circumstances may render desirable; I do therefore vary it (whenever
desirable) in any way that the principle of causing a current of rarified dried
air (or gas) to impinge upon and sweep rapidly over the surface of water,
from which the greater part of the atmospheric pressure has been removed,
will admit of.
And what I consider as my Invention, and claim as my right is or are the
method or methods, by which a current of rarified desiccated air (or any con-
venient gas) may be caused to impinge upon and sweep rapidly over the

page_text: surface of the water intended to be frozen, so as to carry off the vapour as it
rises and admit of our freezing quantities larger than by either Dr. Cullen's or
Professor Leslie's method of artifical congelation. It will be seen that neither
the lead reservoir nor the pipe by and from which the sulphuric acid is to be
supplied to the vessel J, that reservoir and pipe and cock, by and from which
the water to be frozen is to be supplied to the cylinder A, the air pumps, the
beams or bearers, by which the different parts of the apparatus are carried,
the bolts by which it is screwed together, the method by which the tube D is
moved up when it is wanted to raise the disk d, d, during the process, nor the
tackle for hoisting the top of A up when the ice is taken out, are shewn in the
Drawing. The reason of this is because every different situation may require
these things to be differently, placed or fixed; so that arrangements of this kind
must be left to .the judgment of the engineer superintending the work, care
being taken that the vessels and pipes for the sulphuric acid are of lead or
otlier material that. will not be corroded by it.
In witness whercof, I, the said John Vallance, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of June, One thousand eight hundred