US1907121A - Incubator - Google Patents

Description

J. L. ROBBINS May 2, 1933.

INCUBATOR Filed May 13, 1930 Patented May 2, 1933 I I UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE JOHN L. ROBBINS, or D NVER; COLORADO i I .nvouna'roa Application filed May is, i930. Serial no. 451,930. 7 7 This invention relates to improvements evaporator comprising a piece of water ab;- I incubators of the type described and claimed sorbent fabric which is preferably supported in United States Letters Patent No. 1,728,- in vertical position between the rear wall 980,. granted to me on September 24, 1929. of the incubator and one of the fans. Means .5 In incubators of the type now in general is provided for maintaining this fabric'moist use where a large number of eggs are incuat all times so that when. the fan is operatbated at one time, it is customary to provide ing there will be considerable evaporation the incubators withelectric heaters for maintaking place, which will tend to lower the taining the temperature at'predetermined temperature within the incubator, as it is 10 value, as well as with fans for circulating well known that any liquid evaporating at the air and with means for supplying moisa high rate absorbs heat and therefore reture to the air. The electric heaters are duces the temperature; In addition to its controlled by means of thermostats which function of lowering the temperature, this automatically cut off the current when the evaporator also serves to impart to the air ,15 temperature reaches a, predetermined value the necessary moisture. f

.- 35 the desired value.

and which will again close the circuit to Having thus briefly described the inventhe electric heater when the temperature tion, the same will now be described in defalls below this value. tail and for this purpose reference will be It has been found that in large incubators had to the accompanying drawing in which 20 of the type referred to, the heat generated the preferred embodiment of the invention.

by the eggs themselves during the incubation has been illustrated and in which: period often times raises the temperature to Fig. 1 is a transverse section of an incubaa point higher than that which is necessary tor of the type to which this invention refor incubation. This occurs, of course, only fers, the section being taken online 1-1,. 25 during hot weather or where the incubators Fig. 2; r are maintained in a room where the tem- Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section taken on perature is quite high. In order to prevent line 22, Fig. 1; and V the eggs from becoming spoiled, due to ex- Fig. 3 is a view looking in the direction of cessive temperature, :I have found that it is arrow 3, Fig. 2.

30 necessary to provide some means for nor- In the drawing a portion only of the inmally maintaining the temperature at a cubator has been shown, as it is not my value lower than that necessary for incuba- V intention to describe .the incubator which has tion so thatthe heaters must be periodically beenfullydescribed and claimed'in the patemployed to maintain the temperature at ent above identified. The incubator is provided with a bottom 1, a front side 2, which.. It is the object of this inventionto propreferably is formed by'ajplurality of doors, duce a cooling means that can be applied a backwall 3 and a top 4. 1 Located within to incubators of the type described. and the incubator is an egg tray support 5 that claimed in the patent above referred to and has been indicated by dot and dash lines 4 any other incubators of this general class and whichis adapted to support a plurality 35 and which will tend to lower the temperaof egg trays 6. This support is carried by ture and to maintain it normally below the an axle 7 and can be tilted about this axle temperature needed for incubation. for the purpose of turning the eggs. A fan This invention, briefly described, consists of the propeller type and which has been 45 in securing to the inside of. the incubator an indicated as a whole by reference numeral the latter at the center, due to the fact that the propelling action of the fan blades is greater near their peripheries than at their center point, and due to the further. fact that the fan is located quite near the rear wall and therefore does not permit air to come to the back of the fan to any appreciable extent. Secured to the inside of the rear wall 3, is an evaporator which consists of a piece of fibrous material, such as cloth, and which has been designated by reference numeral 14:. The upper end of this cloth is wrapped around a wire or rod 15 and has secured to opposite sides thereof, sheet metal strips 16. The upper edges of these strips are flared outwardly as indicated at 17 so as to form a trough in the manner shown in Fig. 3. The upper end of the absorbent material is fastened to the rear wall by means of screws or bolts and these pass through spacers 18 that space the parts from the wall surface. Secured to the lower end of the fibrous material is a trough 19 that extends upwardly on the back side of the cloth and has its upper edge flared rearwardly as indicated by numeral 20. This trough isv held in place by means of screws or rivets 21 and is secured to the rear wall by means of bolts or screws passing through the spacers 18. Trough 19 is inclined in the manner shown in Fig. 2 and located underneath the lower end of this trough is a short trough 22 that projects over and terminates above the water pan 23. Water may be supplied to the space between the upwardly extending flanges 17 by any suitable means and where city water under pressure is available, a. pipe is connected with the water system and provided with a valve that can be slightly opened so as to let water drop into the space between the plate 16 in sufficient quantity to maintain the fibrous material 14' moist. In the embodiment shown, means has been provided for supplying "water-in the absence of available water under pressure and for this purpose a water tank 24 has been shown. This tank is secured to the outside of the rear wall of the incubator and held thereto by means of straps 25. A small valve 26 is secured to the bottomof the tank and located directly beneath this valve is a pipe 27 whose upper end is provided with a funnel-like extension 28. This pipe extends inwardly through the wall of the incubator and terminates in a downwardly extending portion 29, which terminates directly above the upper edge of absorbent fibrous material in the manner shown in Fig. 3. Valve 26 is opened slightly so as to permit water to drip into the funnel and this water will then pass through pipe 27 and be deposited in the space be tween flanges 17 and if more water is supplied than can be evaporated the surplus will flow through the trough 19 into the pan 23. The water pan 23 may be provided with an overflow pipe 30 and therefore if water is supplied in excessive amounts, there will be no danger of overflowing into the incubator.

lVhen the incubator is operating and the fan is in motion, there will be a constant movement of air through and past the fabric 14, which is maintained moist at all times and this air will cause the Water to be evaporated at a high rate, thereby absorbing a large amount of heat which, in

turn, serves to reduce the temperature of theair in the incubator. If the temperature falls below that required for incubation the thermostats to which reference has been made, closes the electric circuits to the heaters and in this manner the temperature is always maintained at the right value, re-

gardless of the temperature of the building in which the incubator is located.

Although the invention has been described in connection with the incubator that forms the subject matter of the patent above identified, it can be applied to incubators of any other specific construction and I therefore do not limit myself to the exact construction shown as it is believed that,

this means is broadly new in incubators'of this type.

From the above description it will be :seen that by the simple means described above, it is possible tomaintain the ternperature of an incubator at the proper value, regardless of the fact that the incubator may be located in an atmosphere of a higher temperature than that required for incubation and regardless of the fact that a greater amount of heat is given off by the eggs than is necessary to maintain the air at the required temperature.

Having described the invention what is claimed as new is:

A moistener foruse with incubators hav ing a closed incubating compartment, a fan of the propeller type located within the compartment and mounted for rotation in a vertical plane spaced a short distance v In testimony whereof I affix my signature. JOHN L. ROBBINS.

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