US1937009A - Refrigerating cabinet - Google Patents

Description

R. w.' DAVENPORT REFRIGERATING CABINET Nov. 28, 1933.

Filed May 8, 1930 INVENTO. Rc1/750m /4/. Dave/7pm# MWM ' ATTORNEY.

. Patented Nov. 28, 1933 1,937,009 REFRIGERATING cAnmE'r Ransom W. Davenport, Detroit, Mich., assignor to Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New Jersey Application May s, 1930. serial No. 450,093l z claims. (c1. ias-24) This invention relates to refrigerating apparatus and more particularly to storage and display cabinets for frozen foods which must be maintained in a frozen condition until prepared for consumption.

Heretofore display refrigerators have been called upon merely for the maintenance of temperatures at or near freezing or higher. For such relatively mild temperature service it is entirely feasible to provide glass windows of considerable area through which the contents of the cabinet may be seen and selected for purchase. The heat4 losses through such glass exposures are ordinarily not excessive, particularly when two or more panes or thicknesses separated by air spaces are used. With the development, however, of the Birdseye process of fast low temperature freezing of foods which require storage temperatures at least twenty degrees and more below those which were 20 formerly suitable, the well-known display cabinets vfail to maintain the necessary low temperature to preserve the food due to excessive heat losses inherent in exposing the contents for inspection and display through the usual glass covered openings. y

One object of the invention is to provide eicient means for keeping on display frozen foods requiring extraordinarily low temperatures. Another object is to arrange a low temperature storage cabinet so that the contents may be seen without exposing them to heat from the outside temperature. Still another object is to enable such display and storage cabinets to be cheaply built and economically operated. Other objects will be apparent from the detailed description which follows.

Instead of displaying the contents of the cabinet through glass windows or other transparent enclosures of considerable area, the present invention involves the thorough and complete insulation of lall sides of the cabinet. To display the contents suitable means are provided for effecting an external optical projection of the same in plain view of the customer. Such a projection is so arranged as to require merely an aperture of insignicant area in the cabinet through which heat losses can be effectively prevented. 'Ihe screen or the like upon which the image is projected lmay be arranged as a false front on the cabinet thereby giving tothe customer the illu- 'sion of looking directly into the cabinet. Suitable doors on the cabinet on the side opposite the screen may give access to the contents whose image appears on the screen as well as to a large storage space for additional foods. Suitable means are provided for illuminating the interior without appreciably heating it either from without or from within. r l

In order to illustrate the invention one concrete embodiment thereof is shown in the accompanying drawing the single view of which is a vertical transverse sectional view of a storage and display cabinet.

The drawing shows a cabinet A of the general` type used in stores for the storage and display of refrigerated foods. Since the refrigerator is intended to keep frozen foods,at a temperature between zero and 15 F., it has thick walls thoroughly and completely insulating all sides of the same as with several inches oi slab cork or other efficient insulating material 2. One or more doors 3 also with thick walls of insulating material 2 give access to theinterior of the cabinet. The latter may be maintained at the desired low temperature by any known or suitable refrigeratin'g apparatus. In the present instance an evaporator 4 comprising coils lof pipe is shown adjacent the top' of the refrigerator with removable drip pans 5 disposed immediately therebelow. The remainder of the refrigerating apparatus ,(not shown) may be housed in a compartment at one end of cabinet A or immediately adjacent thereto or may be disposed at a remote point, as' in the basement of the store. The lower portion of the interior of cabinet A provides a large storage space in which the frozen foods b, either packaged or otherwise, may be disposed.

Since it is an aid to merchandising to permit the customer to see what he is buying, suitable means comprising an important feature of the present invention are provided for making the contents of cabinet A visible to the purchaser. Optical means are provided for this purpose which will not expose the interior ofthe cabinet to excessive loss of heat. To this end a relatively small aperture 6 is provided in the upper front face of the cabinet which aperture may be closed on its outer and inner sides by sheets '7 of heavy transparent material, such as plate glass. Within the aperture is provided one or more lenses 8 arranged to transmit an image of the contents of cabinet A upon the exterior of the same, somewhat after the principle of the camera obscura. In order to give the customer the illusion of looking directly into the cabinet, a superstructure 9 of some kind is mounted upon the wall of theLcabinet containing aperture 6 to support a screen 10 upon which the image of the interior of the cabinet is directly projected. By preference the superstructure is in the form of a complete closure 110 false front is preferably disposed within the vertical and horizontal projections of the cabinet.

The interior of cabinet A may be illuminated in any suitable or desired manner preferably withoutl appreciably heating the same. While this can be done from the exterior by the use of one or more incandescent lamps equipped with a heat filter, such an arrangement would involve ting additional apertures in the Wall of the cabinet and it is preferable toprovide illuminating equipment Within the cabinet in the form of mercury vapor or neon tube lamps 11 having reflectors 12.

To give the customer view of the foods sold,

a substantially full sized it is also preferable to A bring those which are displayed relatively-close cabinet at a temperature below 15 to the lenses 8 of the optical system. Accordinga shelf 13 is provided within the cabinet adjacent the apertured wall upon which the display foods c are disposed. Shelf 13 is arranged to hide from the optical means the storage space in which foods b are placed without preventing free access thereto through door 3.

It is to be understood that the arrangement herein shown and described merely embodies the essence of the invention in an operable form and that the latter is capable of wide variation and modification without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention which are set forth in the accompanying claims.

, I claim as my invention:

1. A refrigerator cabinet for frozen foods having heavily insulated walls on all sides and providing alarge storage space and a smaller space for display purposes, means for maintaining said F., one of the walls of said cabinet adjacent the top being at an cuti 1,987,009 providing a false front on the cabinet and the incline and having `an aperture therethrough, a support beneath said aperture for articles to be displayed and dividing the display space from the storage space, a superstructure including a screen above said inclined wall and aperture but withinthe vertical and horizontal projections of said cabinet, optical 'means within said aperture for throwing upon said screen a substantially full-size image of the articles on said support, said optical means including a lens, and sheets of thick transparent material across said aperture on opposite sides of said lens but in spaced relation thereto for restricting heat losses through said aperture.

2. A refrigerator cabinet for frozen foods having heavily insulated walls on all sides and providing a large storage space and a smaller space for display purposes, means for maintaining said cabinet at a temperature below 15 frigerating coils adjacent the top of said cabinet, one of the side walls of said cabinet having a portion inclined from the perpendicular and havingan aperture therethrough, a shelf below said aperture dividing the display space from the storage space and concealing the latter from said aperture, a superstructure including a screen above said inclined wall and aperture but within the,vertical and Ahorizontal projections of said cabinet, optical means within said aperture for throwing upon said screen a substantially fullsize image of articles on said shelf, said coils being out of range of said optical means, means preventing heat losses through said aperture, and illuminating means for said articles between said coils and said aperture but out of range of said optical means. f

RANSOM W. DAVENPORT.

F. including re-

Images