A NEW AND. IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING REFRIGERATING CHAMBERS OR CHILL ROOMS IN COMBINATION WITH AN ICE CHAMBER FOR COOLING AND PRESERVING MEAT OR OTHER PERISHABLE ARTICLES OF FOOD BY THE USE OF NATURAL CURRENTS OF AIR, AND FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SANITARY CONDITION OF CURING ROOMS ADAPTED TO BACON CURING AND OTHER PROVISION TRADES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Greenwood and Thomas Edward Redman, of
Calne, in the County of Wilts, Bacon Curers, for the Invention of "A NEW
AND. IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING REFRIGERATING CHAMBERS OR
CHILL ROOMS IN COMBINATION WITH AN ICE CHAMBER FOR COOLING AND
PRESERVING MEAT OR OTHER PERISHABLE ARTICLES OF FOOD BY THE USE
OF NATURAL CURRENTS OF AIR, AND FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SANITARY
CONDITION OF CURING ROOMS ADAPTED TO BACON CURING AND OTHER
PROVISION TRADES.”
Sealed the 18th June 1878, and dated the 23rd March 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Greenwood and
Thomas Edward Redman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
23rd March 1878.
THOMAS GREENWOOD and THOMAS EDWARD REDMAN, of Calne, in the County
of Wilts, Bacon Curers. "A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING
REFRIGERATING CHAMBERS OR CHILL ROOMS IN COMBINATION WITH AN ICE
CHAMBER FOR COOLING AND PRESERVING MEAT OR OTHER PERISHABLE ARTICLES
OF FOOD BY THE USE OF NATURAL CURRENTS OF AIR, AND FOR THE IMPROVE-
MENT OF THE SANITARY CONDITION OF CURING ROOMS ADAPTED TO BACON
CURING AND OTHER PROVISION TRADES."
We divide an ordinary air and heat tight ice house, as commonly used by bacon
curers, or other air and heat tight building or room, by heat and damp proof
wooden partitions into a suite of chambers, one or more for the storing of ice, and
the others for refrigerating or chill rooms. The chambers are of any required
capacity, and are all furnished with air-tight doors. The refrigerating chambers
are connected with the ice storing chamber by continuous openings in the partitions
at the floor and roof levels, and these openings are furnished with flap doors, which

page_text: can be closed or opened at pleasure. The ice in the ice chamber is at all times
kept above the openings in the partitions at the floor level, and open framings are
fixed on the partitions to ensure circulation of air at all points from roof to floor
when the ice chamber is full of ice.
Currents of air are produced in the refrigerating chambers by the heat radiating
from the meat or other cooling body therein expanding, and so causing the air in
the refrigerating chamber to ascend, the colder air of the ice chamber descending
and taking its place, thus upward currents of air are maintained in the refrigerating
chambers, and downward currents in the ice chamber, so long as the conditions as
to temperature are unequal, or until the temperature of the meat or other cooling
body is brought down to the temperature of the ice chamber at the floor level.
The vapours emanating from the meat in the cooling process pass from the
refrigerating chambers to the ice chamber, and condense therein.
It is evident that the above method of constructing refrigerating chambers can
be readily adapted to, ocean-going. vessels for the purpose. of carrying meat.
*SPÉCIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Thomas Greenwood and Thomas Edward Redman in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 3rd September 1878.
THOMAS GREENWOOD and THOMAS EDWARD REDMAN, of Calne, in the County
of Wilts, Bacon Curers. "A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING
REFRIGERATING CHAMBERS OR CHILL ROOMS IN COMBINATION WITH AN ICE
CHAMBER FOR COOLING AND PRESERVING MEAT OR OTHER PERISHABLE ARTICLES
OF FOOD BY THE USE OF NATURAL CURRENTS OF AIR, AND FOR THE IMPROVE-
MENT OF THE SANITARY CONDITION OF CURING ROOMS ADAPTED TO BACON
CURING AND OTHER PROVISION TRADES."
'. Our Invention relates to a new and improved method of constructing refrigerating
chambers or chill rooms in combination with an ice chamber for cooling and
preserving meat or other perishable articles of food by the use of natural currents
of air, whereby (amongst other objects) currents of cold, dry, and pure air may bo
produced by natural means in chambers constructed within air-tight buildings,
rooms, or vessels, and the sanitary condition of curing rooms as commonly used by
bacon curers is improved.
For the above purposes we divide an ordinary air-tight and heat-tight ice house,
as commonly used by bacon curers, or other air-tight and heat-tight building,
room, or vessel by heat and damp proof wooden partitions into a suite of chambers,
one or more for the storing of ice, and the others for refrigerating or chill rooms.
The chambers are of any required capacity, and are all furnished with air-tight
doors. The refrigerating chambers are connected with the ice storing chamber by
continuous openings. in the partitions at the floor and roof levels, and these openings

page_text: are furnished with flap doors, which can be closed or opened at pleasure. The ice
in the ice chamber is at all times kept above the openings in the partitions at the
floor level, and open framings or studdings are fixed on the partitions to ensure
circulation of air at all points, from roof to floor, when the ice chamber is full
of ice.
Currents of air are produced in the refrigerating chambers by the beat radiating
from the meat or other cooling body therein expanding, and so causing the air in
the refrigerating chamber to ascend, the colder air of the ice chamber descending
and taking its place; thus upward currents of air are maintained in the refrigerating
chambers, and downward currents in the ice chamber, so long as the conditions as
to temperature are unequal, or until the temperature of the meat or other cooling
body is brought down to the temperature of the ice chamber at the floor level.
The vapours emanating from the meat in the cooling process pass from the
refrigerating chambers to the ice chamber and condense therein.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention we will now proceed to
describe more particularly and in detail the best means at present known to us for
carrying the same into effect when our said Invention is applied to the trade of
bacon curing, and for this purpose we have annexed hereunto Drawings, in each
of the Figures whereof the same letters of reference indicate the same or similar
narts
Fig. 1. is a ground plan of combined ice and refrigerating chambers adapted for
the trade of bacon curing.
Fig. II. is a transverse section of the said combined ice and refrigerating cham-
bers, the ground plan whereof is represented in Figure 1.
Fig. III. is a transverse section of one of the refrigerating chambers on an
enlarged scale.
Fig. IV. is an elevation of the wooden partition between the ice chamber and
the refrigerating chambers, showing the openings at the upper and lower portions
of the partition, and the doors for closing the same, and the open framings or stud-
dings fixed on the face of the partition for securing circulation of air in the ice
chamber.
A represents the ice chamber, which must be both air-tight and heat-tight to
the external atmosphere, the opening to which is closed by a triple door as shewn
in Fig. I.; B represents the refrigerating chambers which must be also air-tight and
heat-tight to the external_atmosphere, and the openings to which are closed by
triple doors as shown in Figure I.
These refrigerating chambers are separated from the ice chambers A by the heat
and damp proof wooden partitions C, and are furnished with flap doors D, which
flap doors may be opened and closed simultaneously by pulleys E and chains in the
same manner as is hereafter described, for opening and closing the lower flap doors of
the wooden partition; the floors of the said refrigerating chambers, if placed above
the lower openings in the partitions, are formed of open gratings to allow of the
air cooled, dried, and purified in the ice chamber to pass up through the refriger-
ating chambers.
The wooden partitions C extend from the floor to the roof of the ice chamber,
and are kept in position by the cross stays F, and in the lower and upper portions
of the partitions C there. are openings furnished with flap doors G; these lower
flap doors may be opened or closed simultaneously by pulleys H, and chains
mounted and working on shaftings 1, extending the whole length of the refri-
gerating chambers, and actuated by a worm wheel and worm K, or by any other
convenient means; the upper openings in the partitions are also furnished with flap
doors which may be opened or closed at pleasure by chains working on pulley's fixed
to the roof of the ice and the refrigerating chambers. Open framings or studdings

page_text: Lare fixed on the face of the partitions in the ice chamber, which framings or
studdings may be sheeted with strong iron wire netting, if necessary, as in the
case of the Invention being applied to an ocean-going vessel, or railway van, or
other vehicle. The partitions, in order to be as heat-tight as possible, are made of
a double set of studdings, sheeted on both sides with boards, as is clearly repre-
sented in Fig. I.; and the spaces between the inner boardings are filled with fine
powdered charcoal or other non-conducting material; the face of the centre
boarding of the partition next the ice chamber must be covered with damp-proof
felt or other waterproof material for the purpose of keeping the non-conducting
material in a perfectly dry condition; the walls of the ice chamber and of the
refrigerating chambers are also sheeted with boards, and the spaces between such
sheetings and walls are filled with nonconducting material as before mentioned ;
the boardings of the partitions and of the walls of the ice chamber, and of the
refrigerating chambers, are made as damp-proof as possible by coating them with
oil, paint, or varnish; the floor of the ice chamber is so formed as that the water
produced by the melting of the ice may drain off into channels on each side of the
ice chamber.
Above the roof of the ice chamber may be formed a store chamber M, the floor of
which in that case forms the roof of the ice chamber and of the refrigerating
chambers, and is made of a double sheeting of planks, which planks are movable for
convenience in storing ice. The lower sheeting of planks rest on runners fixed to
the beams N, as is clearly shewn in Fig. IV., and are made as damp-proof as possible
by coating with oil, paint, or varnish, as before mentioned. Upon these lower
planks are laid sheets of damp-proof felt or other waterproof material, which may
be protected by being covered with inch boards. The spaces O between such boards
and the upper sheeting of planks are filled with non-conducting material, as before
mentioned, and the store chamber, being an air space between the external roof and
the roof of the ice chamber and of the refrigerating chambers, will considerably
protect the ice chamber and the refrigerating chambers from the external atmospheric
heat or sun's rays.
The mode of using our improved apparatus for the cooling of meat is as follows:
The ice chamber A is filled with ice through the opening A, Fig. 1, which opening
is then closed by the triple door; the meat is suspended in the refrigerating
chambers B on the bars, and the openings b, b, Fig. 1, to the said refrigerating
chambers are also closed by the triple door. The flap doors in the refrigerating
chambers and the lower flap doors in the partition are then to be opened, and the
heat from the meat will cause the air in the refrigerating chambers to expand and
rise in the refrigerating chambers, and pass through the upper openings into the
ice chamber. The place of the hoated air so removed will be supplied by cold, dry,
and pure air passing through the lower openings from the ice chamber into the
refrigerating chambers, and so a constant circulation of cold, dry, and pure air will
be inaintained in the refrigerating chambers. As soon as the meat has been suffi-
ciently deprived of its heat the flap doors in the refrigerating chambers and the
lower flap doors in the partitions are closed, and the doors of the refrigerating
chambers are then opened to allow of the removal of the meat from the refrigerating
chambers, and by thus closing the flap doors the ice in the ice chamber is protected
from the external heat of the atmosphere, whilst the refrigerating chambers are
open for the removal of the meat.
It is evident that the above method of constructing combined ice and refrigerating
chambers may, by merely altering the relative dimensions of the several parts, be
easily adapted to domestic or other food receptacles, or to ocean-going vessels, or to
railway vans, or other vehicles for the purpose of cooling or preserving meat and
other perishable articles.
Having thus described our said Invention, and the method of carrying the same
into effect, we declare that what we claim as our Invention,, and desire to have
protected by the above in part recited Letters Patent is, the method of constructing

page_text: refrigerating chambers or chill rooms in combination with an ice chamber in the
manner and for the purposes herein-before described, and illustrated in the Drawings
hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, the said Thomas Greenwood and Thomas Edward Redman,
have hereunto set their hands and seals, this Twenty-sixth day of August,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
MHAL