US1541271A - Freezer case or refrigerator - Google Patents

Description

June 9, 1925. 1,541,231

L. B. MOORE I FREEZER CASE OR REFRIGERATOR Filed Feb 2; 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR.

105 Moore ATTORNEY.

Em a mass 154mm L. BMQORE FREEZER CASE OR REFRIGERATOR ATTORNEY.

Patented June 9, 1925 UNITED STATES LOUIS 3. Icons, or an LOUIS, mssoum.

FREEZER CASE OR REFRIGERATOR Application filed February To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, LOUIS B. Mooiua'a citizen of the United States, residing at St. Louis, State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful. Improvements in Freezer Cases or, Refrigerators, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to refrigerators or ice boxes, and particularlyto an ice box or refrigerator of the character'used by dealers in meats and other commodities, wherein the refrigerator or 'freezen has the form of a relatively long and relatively low counter.

- The general object of the invention is to provide a construction of this character which is particularly effective in use by reason of the fact "that means has been provided for securing a more positive circulation of the air past the ice and overand around the commodities disposed on the shelves of the refrigerator than is the case with any other construction known to me.

A further object is to provide a freezer or refrigerator of this character having means whereby a constant current of air is caused to pass past the ice compartment or compartments beneath the, several refrigcrating chambers and upward through and around these refrigerating chambers and 1 back to the ice compartment, the refrigerator are" no being so constructed. that there sluggish pockets or dead places which cause or stagnant, dead air. v 'A still further object is to provide a con-. struction of this character having two series of food compartmen means whereby the air in each 'compartment of theseries 0. compartments is caused to circulate past the ice without any danger of the air from one compartment contaminating or otherwise affectmg the air from the other compartment or compartments. I

Other objects will appear in the course of the following descri tion; My invention is il ustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein 1 Figure 1 is a. front elevation of a refrigerator constructed in accordance with my invention;

Figure 2 is a plan view thereof; Figure 3 is an end elevation thereof; Figure a is a perspective view of the. icd com artment; f -F1 iron is a detail view showing the air circu ating mechanism; l

2, i924. 'seriai No. 690,246.

is an enlarged longitudinal see- Figure 6 through the refrigerator;

tional v1ew Figure 7 is a section taken onthe line 7-7 of Figure 6, the ice compartment being omitted; g f i Referring to these drawings, 10 designates an outer-casing which may be of any sultable construction and which is shown as rectangular and formed with'a base 11, the front, rear and end walls 12, and the top,

13. The front walls are shown as provided 1 with two panels, ably transparent and designated 14. These panels permit inspection of the contents of the two .food com art-ments'. of the front wal is provided the. panel '15 which also may be, if desired of transparent material and which is disposed opposite the refrigerating or ice compartment. The rear wall of the refrigeratorv is provided with double doors 16 permit-tingentrance to the ice compartment and the double doors 17 permitting access to th food compartments.

Referringparticularly' to Figure 6, which is a longitudinal sectiqnal' view, it will be seen that within the outer casin inner casingfdesignated genera y. inner casing having practically the same form as the outer caslng and two casings there is disposed a filling or non-conductive or insulating material 18. I do not wish. to be limited to any particular construction for the outer inner casing or to any these casings, as these details-form nopart of my invention.

which panels are prefer there is an 10, this etween the particular filling for At the middle casing or forthe n will be noted from Figure 3 thatthe f front walls of the food compartments are extended downward and forward at an 1m clination, while the front wall of the ice compartment extends directly downward.

This is a mere detail, however.

space 19 f m which Dispose ls are also out The bottom of the casing 10 is formed with a draina e This chamber 22 portions 24. I

away to form inverted V-shaped notches 25. The bottoms of theice compartments 21 are provided with corrugated sheets 26 upon which the ice is supported, and these sheets and supports have openings at intervals whereby the water may trickle out from the ice compartment and pass downward to the drain.-' These conjoined compartments 21 are supported 'upon angular braces 27 mounted within the case or box in any suitable manner. The con o1ned compartments '21, it will be seen from Figure 6, act to divide the interior of the casing 10 in effect into three compartments A, B, and C as mentioned heretofore, the compartment A being for the ice and the compartments B and C being for the food.

Supported upon the bottom of the main 7 ice chest or refrigerator is a deflector 31.

This deflector, as shown particularly in Figure 6, is approximately triangular'in cross section but preferably the sides of the triangle are concavely curved and the peak of this deflector extends up into the notches 25 so that the ice in the ice chambers 21 to all intents and purposes rests upon and is .supported by this member 31. This member A 31 may be made solid or hollow and is prefs erably made removable and is supported above the floor of the ice chest or refrigerator so as to permit the passage of water into the drainage basin 19 and out through the drainage pipe 20. A triangular deflector 32 is disposed in-the inverted ll-shapedv notches 24 and-extends up above the top of the ice compartments 21, as illustrated in Figure 6, and the lateral wings of this triangular deflectorextend nearly up to the lower face of the lid of the ice chest. I

Disposed immediately above this V-shaped I deflect-or and between. the Walls thereof is a fan 33 which is formed with longitudinally extending radial blades mounted upon a shaft, this'shaft being driven by an electric motor 34 having a very low speed. I

do not wish to be limited to an electric motor for'driving the fan or to any particular means whereby the speed of the motor may be reduced to the properspeed for the fan.

.This motor and the fan are supported preferably in bearings carried by a removable lid or door 35 which normally closes an opening in thetop of the ice chest.

The circulation of air within this refrigper end of the deflector '31 is deflected laterally in two portions or currents, one passing laterally in one direction and the other laterally in the other direction along the bottom of the chest or. refrigerator and beneath the open ends of the compartmentsB and .C., This cold air is forced upward through these compartments and out the top thereof and then travels back again and;

strikes the deflector 32, being again forced downward into the air channel.

The action of the fan is also to draw this warmed air from over the tops of the compartments B and C and force it downward and thus a constant circulation of air is kept up, this fan acting to increase the circulation of air within the separate provision chambers, forcing the extreme cold air into the upper part of the case by the draft of air being driven down through the central channel, constantly changing the air. I have found by actual experiment that a. lower temperature by 10 is secured in my apparatus than in other refrigerators known to me, and in proof of the equalization of the temperature I may say that I have found the temperature on the upper shelf to be the same as the temperature on the lower shelf where the egualizer is operating. lVhere this equalizing an and the deflectors are'not in use, however, the temperature of the lower shelves is lower than the temperature of the upper shelves. I have found in actual practies that I can obtain a lower temperature by 6 than other devices on the market under equal conditions, that is with an equal a number of pounds of ice and with'less salt to the hundred pounds of ice, I can secure a temperature lower by 6 than with other devices known to me-and preserve the vol-' ume of ice for a longer-number of hours, thus saving from 10% to 15% on operatmg. The construction is such that less cleaning is necessary than with the ordinary refrigerator or ice chest and thus saves time and money.

Preferably the ice tanks or receptacles 21 will be mounted upon rollers so that they may be readily rolled into or out of the ice chest to permit the convenient placing of ice therein. With this construction. I secure double the amount-of refrigeration due to the fact that I utilize the convection from .the walls of the air chamber or passage 22 as Well as conduction through the outer walls of the ice compartments. It will be seen that with my construction the entire circulation of cold air is directed through one has a tendency to draw the returning air from overhead and hasten its descent and re cool it as it passes through the central chamber 22, to be again driven out into the provision chamber. By using the V-shaped deflectors, -I keep an even, unbroken and-unmolested air channel, free of any pockets or air holes, giving the air free passage, the

bottom deflector dividing the air equally and carrying the air entirely into the provision chambers before striking a level, allowing the air to distribute in the provision chamber instead of pocketing under the ice tank. The overhead deflector, extending as it does down into the central air channel. hastens the circulation of'the warm air returning from the farther end of the provision chamdo not mix.

While I" have illustrated a construction which I have found to be particularly efl'ec tive in actual use,-as before stated, I do not wish to be limited to the: details thereof as it is obvious that many changes might be made in .these'details and arrangement ofparts without departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim 1. An ice chest of the character described .comprising an outercasing, a pairof ice compartments arranged in the middle of said outer casing, each of said compartments being spaced at its upper and lower ends from the top and bottom of the outer'ca sving and the'ice compartments being se aa vertically disposed'air channel, the c annel being open at its upper and lower ends, the remainder .of the chest on each side'of the ice com rated from each other b partment beingformed to provide food compartments, means for directing air from the air channel laterally across the lower portions of all of said ,food compartments up through said compartments and back to the upper end of said channel comprising approximately V shapeddeflecting members disposed respectively at the upper and ,lower ends of the air channel, the upper. deflecting member being hollow and open at lts lower end intosa-id air channel,;

a and a motor operated fan disposed above the channel, i

upper ,deflecting member and causing a.

draft of air downward through said air 2. In refrigerator, a medially disposed ice chamber, mounted within said chamber and formed to providetwo compartments, the compartments being separated by an air space and the air space being bounded by end walls and the upper ends of the end walls having downwardly extending V- shaped cutbeing bounded by end walls, the u ametallic ice container away ortions and the lower-ends of the walls aving V-shaped cut-away portions, a deflector sup orted above the floor of the chest and V -s 'aped in cross section and having a length equal to the width of the two ice containers projecting upward intov the cut-away portions of the end walls of the air space, a deflector V-shaped in cross walls of the air deflector being ho ow and havin an opening at its lower end, the deflector aving its end walls extending above the ice container and into proximity to the top of the ice chest, the remainder. of the ice chest being "section andhaving its ends disposed in the cut-awayportions of the upper ends of the Lpassage, the last named divided into compartments for food open at the top and bottom, the deflectors acting to cause a circulation of air. downward throu h the air space, laterally in opposite directlons beneath the food compartments,

. upward through the food compartments,

and back to the upper end of the .air 5 ace,

the top of the chest being provided wit an opening immediately above the up er defiector, and a removable door norma y disposed in said opening, a motor, and a fan operated by the motor and carried by said door and normally disposed between the two upwardly divergent walls of the upper deflector and acting to force air downward between thewalls of the upper deflector into the upper .end of the air space, and tracks extending transversely .across the walls of the refrigerator disposed in proximity to said door, the ice container having walls engaging said tracks and the ice container being independently movable throughthe door openin 3. In an ice chest or-refrigerator, an ice ments, the compartments being separated by a vertical air space and the air space er and lower ends of the end walls having -shaped cut away portions, 2. deflector supported above the 'floor of the refrigerator and V -shaped in cross section and having a length equal to the widthv of the two ice containers and having the cut away portion .of the endwalls of the air s ace accomm'odating. the deflector, a ho ow deflector V-shaped in crosssection mounted within the refrigerator above the top of the ice container, the V-shaed cut away portion erated fan disposed within the hollow efiector'and forcing air downward through the same into the space between the two ice compartments.

container formed to provide two compart- .1 20 I at the upper ends 0 the air space accommodating' said deflector, and a motor 0 -In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

LOUIS MOORE.

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