Improved Process and Apparatus for Refrigerating and Cooling Air.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 12th July, 1898-Accepted, 1st Oct., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Process and Apparatus for Refrigerating and Cooling Air.
I, HENRY WILLIAMS ABBOTT, a citizen of the United States of America, residing
at the Southern Hotel, in the City of Stockton, in the County of San Joaquin,
and State of California, Physician, 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:-
This invention has relation to a process and apparatus for cooling or refrigerat-
ing air and for maintaining a circulation thereof through the space or apartment
in which it is desired to maintain a low temperature, and is designed to provide
means which are comparatively simple and inexpensive in character and economical
and effective in operation, and which are capable of application generally wherever
it is desired to maintain a low temperature below a certain degree.
These objects are attained by leading the air to be cooled downwardly through
a spiral duct or passage constructed between truncated concentric cones whose
walls of comparatively thin metal, are maintained at a low temperature by means
of ice or other refrigerant placed within the inner cone wall of said duct or
passage and around its outer cone wall, such ice as it melts being kept in contact
with the said walls by reason of their conical form. The lower portion of the
air duct or passage is kept immersed in the meltage, the temperature of which
is thereby to a considerable degree utilized. A distributing pipe is connected to
the lower portion of said duct or passage, and circulation is maintained by means
of a suitable fan or blower, assisted by the natural action of the air.
The invention will now be described in detail, reference being had to the accom-
panying drawing forming a part of this specification, and to letters and figures
of reference thereon. In this drawing in which for purposes of illustration the
invention is shown as applied to a railway refrigerator car:
Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section of a car equipped with the apparatus,
the outer cone thereof being in section and the motor, storage battery, and con-
nections being shown diagrammatically;
Figure 2 is a sectional plan view;
Figure 3 is a vertical section of the refrigerating apparatus proper; and
Figure 4 is a plan view of the same.
Let A represent the body of a refrigerator car or other storage room or structure
which it is desired to supply with cold air.
At some point within this room or structure, preferably at one end, I construct
a separate compartment or chamber B, which may or may not extend across the
full width of the room. Usually however for the conservation of space, it will
be a simple square box-shaped structure, which may be circular, square, or poly-
gonal in the neighbourhood of two or three feet in diameter. In the case of a
refrigerator car I make it extend to the roof of the car, and I make an opening
in the roof directly over it in the usual way of making ice hole openings in the
roofs of refrigerator cars, so that ice may be introduced into the chamber from
the roof through this opening. Inside of this chamber, and resting upon the

page_text: bottom or floor of the chamber, I place a truncated cone-shaped vessel C, with
its largest end downward. This vessel may be of any desired height, but
ordinarily it should not extend above the middle height of the chamber. This
truncated cone vessel I construct proferably with double concentric walls e, el,
so as to leave a space of from one to three inches between them; and this space I
form into a flat spiral passage by a transverse spirally arranged partition f, wind-
ing around the hollow interior wall e from the top to the bottom of the vessel.
The upper end of this flat or rectangular spiral tube I connect by means of a
tube g with a bell-shaped receiver S, at the ceiling in the middle of the room,
and a fan blower H on the outside of the chamber B connects with the tube g,
so as to draw the warm air at the ceiling through the tube gand force it through
the refrigerating coils and into the storage or cooling room through the pipe j,
at or near the floor.
The fan blower H may be driven by any suitable power. I shall usually employ
a storage battery K, located inside the structure. In the case of a refrigerator
car however I shall use a small wind wheel L on the top of the car, and surmount
it with a hood M, so that when the car is in motion, the air gathered by the hood
will act upon the wheel and drive it.
This wind wheel may be connected with the blower by any suitable means,
such as the shaft O, shown in Figure 1, which is connected by bevel
gearing with the wind wheel and blower shafts respectively.
In con-
nection with this wind wheel I employ also an ordinary ball governor P
mounted on the upper end of the shaft O. This governor is provided
with a circuit in which is the storage battery K and motor K', the latter being
belted or otherwise geared to the shaft of the blower. When the wind wheel is
in operation, the governor acts through the device 0 to keep the said circuit
open, but as soon as the car stops and the wind wheel ceases to operate, the
device 01 acts to close said circuit, and thereby start the blower. In this manner
I provide for a continuous operation of the blower and air circulation. I do not
however limit myself to this described arrangement, since any suitable motor or
motors with connecting devices may be used to maintain the operation of the
blower. The wind wheel is swiveled as indicated at L¹, so as to be operated with
the car going in either direction.
In the operation of my refrigerator ice is filled into the chamber B through its
open upper end, until the space inside of and surrounding the vessel C and above
it is filled with ice. The fan blower is then set in motion, so that the warm air
is drawn from the receiver at the ceiling and caused to pass from the top to the
bottom of the vessel through the spiral tube or passage and be discharged into
the room A from the pipe j. The air is thus circulated from the refrigerating
room through the ice-surrounded coil and back into the refrigerating room until
any required reduction of temperature is obtained.
The conical form of the vessel C is an important feature of the apparatus, for
the reason that as the ice melts around the same, the remaining ice clings or
adheres closely to the outer wall of said vessel, its descent being opposed by the
sloping surface of said wall instead of falling away from it as would be the case
in a vessel having a straight wall. By keeping the ice in this manner in close
contact with the said wall, the requisite low temperature of the air passage is
maintained with a very material saving in ice.
An almost equally advantageous effect is derived from the cone-form of the
inner wall e¹ of said vessel, since the ice contained in said vessel being buoyed
up by the water therein (said vessel being always partly filled), is caused to wedge
or pack more or less closely in the upwardly tapering space, and is held in closer
contact with the inner surface of the wall than in a straight-walled space where
the ice floats more or less loosely in the water.
As the ice in the chamber B melts new ice can be supplied through the open
top and an overflow pipe r is arranged to carry away the surplus water from the
chamber after a certain depth is obtained, which will be regulated by the location

page_text: of the said overflow pipe, the lower portion of the vessel C being thereby kept
submerged in the meltage. U is a ventilator pipe, which is located at some point
in the roof or upper part of the storage room to exhaust or supply air as required.
U is a trapped discharge pipe to carry off the water of condensation from the
air duct or passage.
If it is desired to medicate or sterilize the air a wash bottle containing the
necessary medicament can be connected with the extremity of the discharge
pipe as represented in Figure 1, or jars containing absorbent cotton or sponges
saturated with any substance adapted to destroy germs can be substituted for it.
The air from the discharge pipe is caused to pass through this vessel or jar,
and through or over its contents; and to the point of distribution through any
suitable duct or conduit.
By this apparatus I utilize the refrigerating effect of the ice to the highest
degree. The conical refrigerating vessel will give a large tube surface for the
air to pass over and the cold water which results from the melting ice is utilized
by the superior diameter of the lower end of the vessel to aid in cooling the air.
This apparatus is especially well adapted for providing cold purified air for
preserving perishable substances.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. The refrigerating devices, consisting of the cooling air-duct between outer
and inner conical walls, and the ice chambers adjacent to said walls, whereby the
ice is caused automatically to hug said outer and inner conical walls, thereby
inducing the full cooling effect of the refrigerant, as described.
2. In an air-refrigerating, apparatus, the combination of the ice chamber, the
open truncated cone therein of less diameter than the chamber, and the spiral air-
flue formed about the outer surface of said cone, substantially as described.
3. In an air refrigerating apparatus, the combination of the ice chamber, the
open truncated cone therein of less diameter than the chamber, and an air flue
formed about the outer surface of said cone, means for forcing air through said
flue, and an overflow pipe communicating with said chamber considerably above
the bottom thereof, whereby the lower portion of the chamber is kept submerged
in the meltage, substantially as described.
4. In an air-refrigerating apparatus, the combination of the ice chamber, the
truncated cone therein of less diameter than the chamber, a second cone surround-
ing the first named cone, and a spiral air flue formed between said cones, sub-
stantially as described.