US1946963A

US1946963A - Cabinet for refreshening biscuits, rolls and the like

Info

Publication number: US1946963A
Application number: US513768A
Authority: US
Inventors: Sr Wilfred A Brouillet
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1931-02-05
Filing date: 1931-02-05
Publication date: 1934-02-13
Anticipated expiration: 1951-02-13

Description

Feb; 13, 1

93 w. A. BROUILLET, SR

CABINET FOR REFRESHENING BISCUITS, ROLLS; AND THE LIKE Filed Feb. 5, 195..

5 Sheets-Sheet 1 gwuentoi CABINET FOR REFRESHENING BISCUITS, ROLLS, AND THE LIKE Filed Feb. 5, 1951 s Sheefs-Sheec .2

glwwmtoc e 34- w. A. BROUILLET, SR 1,946,963

AND THE LIKE ROLLS,

CABINET'FOR REFRESHENING BISCUITS Filed Feb. 5, 1951 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 gwmantoz Patented Feb. 13,1934

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CABINET ron REFRESHENING BISCUITS,

ROLL

SANDTHELIKE Thisinvention relates to devices for reheating and refreshening rolls, biscuits or the like breadstuffs. Biscuits, rolls or other like breadstufis, when baked, must be used at once or they will get 5 hard and dry out. It is an ordinary practice to attempt to refreshen biscuits for reheating by placing the biscuits in a slightly moistened bag or "something of this nature and subjecting the biscuits or rolls to the heat of an oven. This, however, does not render the biscuit or roll fresh but tends rather to unduly moisten the roll or hiscuit without, however, taking away from the hardness or dryness of the biscuit or roll except in spots where usually there is too much moisture.

The general object of the present invention is to provide a steam chamber for the purpose of reheating and refreshening rolls or biscuit which is so constructed that the steam itself does not come :0 in contact with the biscuits, thus making them soggy but in which the biscuits or rolls are subjected to the heat of the steam.

A further object is to provide means within the cabinet for carrying away any condensed mois- 26 ture.

A further object is to provide means whereby the condensed steam may be carried back to the water'pan which is disposed in the base of the cabinet.

l0 Other objects will appear in the course of the following description.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:-

Figure 1 is a front elevation of a refreshening l5 cabinet constructed in accordance with my invention;

Figure 2 is a top plan view but with the top of the outer casing or chamber removed;

Figure 3 is a vertical section on the line 3-3 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a section on the line 44 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a vertical section parallel to the front wall of the cabinet and Figure 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of one corner of the casing showing the guides for the drawers.

Referring to these drawings, 10 designates the outer wall of this steam chamber or cabinet which is preferably formed of metal, though any other suitable material might be used. This outer wall defines a rectangular chamber and the top of this chamber is closed by a cover 11 which may be either united to the walls 10 of the chamber or made so that it may be removable. This top wall 56 is provided with the steam vent 12. Adjacent the lower ends of the side walls and adjacent the lower end of the back wall, there is disposed downwardly extending deflecting flange 13. Below this flange the side walls and back wall are formed with the inwardly extending flange 14 upon which the water pan 15 is adapted to be supported.

This water pan isrelatively shallow and slides in upon the flanges .14, the front wall of the water pan being laterally extended so as to close any opening through which steam might pass.

Disposed within the outer wall 10 and below the top 11 of the chamber or cabinet is an interior casing 16 into which no steam can pass. This interior casing is formed with a plurality of pairs of inwardly extending flanges 17, there being two pairs of these flanges on each side wall of the casing 16 and constituting guides for sliding drawers. The front 18 of the casing is formed with a plurality of openings 19, one for each of the sliding drawers, the upper and lower flanges 1'7 of each pair coinciding with the upper and lower margins of these openings. Extending between each pair of flanges 17 is a longitudinally extending septum or web 20 disposed inward of the outer wall 16 of the casing and coinciding with the ends of the openings 19. The webs 20 extend downward in spaced relation to the wal1.16 so that a space or longitudinally extending passage 21 is formed between each web 20 and the corresponding side wall 16.

The flanges 17 immediately above and below each passage 21 are formed with a plurality of perforations 22. The bottom 23 of the casing 16 is, of course, disposed above the water pan 15 and the top 24 of the casing 16 is disposed below 90 the top 11. Disposed upon this top 24 are preferably two outwardly and forwardly extending deflectors 25 which converge at their rear ends.

Each of the drawers 26 is rectangular in plan view and is just sufliciently wide to slide in through the openings 19 and to rest upon the flanges 1'7 and slide freely between the webs 20.

The outer end of each drawer is laterally extended as at 27 so as to fit over the margin of the corresponding opening 19 and having practically a steam-tight engagement therewith.

The lower end of the outer casing or chamber may be supported upon legs 28 or in any other suitable manner and is designed to be disposed over a gas burner or any other source of heat.

In the operation of this device, the pan 14 is filled with water. The heat generates steam from this pan of water and steam rises and heats the inner easing of the inner chamber and thus heats the biscuits, rolls or other breadstufis whichare disposed within the drawers without acting to dry out the rolls or biscuits. Any moisture which may arise from the rolls or biscuits condenses on the top wall 24 and iscarried laterally, passes down through the perforations 22 and so on down to the bottom 23. On its passage downward through the perforations 22 or when it reaches the bottom 23 this moisture is again vaporized, carried upward and transmitted to the breadstuff so that moisture is not really dried out from the rolls or biscuits. Furthermore, inasmuch as the pan 15 is in the form of a drawer, some steam will escape at the point where the front of the pan laps over the casing and this steam rises on the outside of the front wall and comes in contact with the front of the lowermost biscuit drawer 26 which is colder than the steam. This prevents a vapor from condensing on the inside of the front plate of the biscuit drawer. If the rolls or biscuits were placed in the cabinet and the steam turned into the biscuit drawers, this would give them entirely too much moisture but the water vapor which forms within the biscuit drawers is just sufiicien't to provide for proper moistening of the breadstufis.

The webs 20 may extend the full length of the cabinet, if desired, that is, the full length of the inner compartment as these webs simply form guides and the flanges keep the drawers from going up or down. The perforations 22 at the top and bottom of the webs and flanges are for the purpose of securing an even distribution of heat, that is, to let the heat circulate all around the drawers and carry away condensation through the bottom of the inner cabinet or casing. I do not wish to be limited to the exact forms of the webs 20 with the guides 1'7 and the perforations 22 as these can be changed to suit any requirements and without in any way interfering with the proper working of the cabinet and without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

The deflector wings 25 on top of the inner compartment and below the top of the outer compartment are so spaced that the steam will be forced to travel around them to the vent hole 12. This deflector 25, therefore, acts to slow up the steam and secure a more even heating for the cabinet.

My refreshener has been tried under service conditions and it has been found that it revives or refreshens biscuits so that they may be used and will have the quality of fresh biscuits even forty-eight hours after baking, making these biscuits moist, fluffy and light. Steam is entirely kept out of the inside section of the cabinet and simply acts to reheat the biscuits. At the same time the moisture that is driven off from the biscuits is heated and rises again to form a dampv atmosphere around the biscuit or roll which gives it just the proper moisture to make it light and fluffy. The steam itself, of course, is condensed and flows down the side wall on the inside face of the outer casing and the strips 13 act to deflect this condensate back into the pan.

While I have illustrated a preferred form of my invention, I do not wish to be limited thereto as obviously many details may be changed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Thus two or more drawers may be used or less than two depending entirely upon the circumstances in which this device is used.

I claim:'

1. A cabinet for refreshening breadstuifs comprising an outer casing having openings in its front wall, an inner casing having its side walls abutting the front wall but spaced at its sides, bottom and top, from the like walls of the outer casing, the inner casing being imperforate, pairs of flanges extending out from the side walls of the inner casing and forming guides, drawers insertible through the openings in the front wall of the outer casing on to said guides and fitting between the pairs of guides, webs extending inward from the openings of the front wall and extending between said guides and spaced from the lateral walls of the inner casing to form passages, the flanges defining the tops and bottoms of said passages being apertured whereby moisture evaporated from the breadstuffs in the drawers may be carried downward through said passages and condensed therein and discharged upon the floor of the inner casing. A i

2. A cabinet for refreshening breadstufis comprising an outer casing having openings in its front wall, an inner casing having its side walls abutting the front wall but spaced at its sides. bottom and top, from the like walls of the outer casing, the inner casing being imperforate, pairs of flanges extending out from the side walls of the inner casing and forming guides, drawers insertible through the openings in the front wall of the outer casing on to said guides and fitting between the pairs of guides, webs extending inward from the openings of the front wall and extending between said guides and spaced from the lateral walls of the inner casing to form pas-' sages, the flanges defining the tops and bottoms of said passages being apertured whereby moisture evaporated from the breadstufis in the drawers may be carried downward through said passages and condensed therein and discharged upon the floor of the irmer casing, the top of the irmer casing being formed with deflectors extending forward and divergently to cause the condensed steam to be discharged downward in said outer casing, the top of the outer casing being provided with a vent aperture.

3. A cabinet of the character described, comprising an outer casing, having a front wall, side walls and back wall, the side walls extending down below the back wall and being provided with longitudinally extending guides and above these guides having downwardly extending deflectors, a water pan adapted to be supported by said guides and removable from the front of the casing, an inner casing smaller than and disposed in spaced relation to the rear and side walls of the outer casing, but abutting against the front wall of the outer casing, flanges extending outward from the side walls of the outer casing but terminating short thereof and constituting guides alining with the upper and lower margins of the openings in the front wallv of the outer casing, vertical webs extending from' the front wall of the outer casing nearly to the rear wall of the inner casing and disposed between said pairs of guides, and drawers insertible through the front walls of the outer casing on to said guides and between said webs, the guides between the webs and the side walls of the outer casing being formed with apertures.

4. A cabinet for refreshening breadstufis comprising an outer casing having openings in its front wall, an inner casing having side walls abutting the front wall but spaced from its sides, bottom and top from the like walls of the outer casing, the irmer casing being imperforate, means extending outward from the side walls of the inner casing to form guides, drawers insertible through the openingsin the front wall of the outer casing on to said guides, and a water pan disposed in the bottom of said outer casing, the] water pan having the form of a. drawer insertible through the front wall of the outer casingand the front wall of the water pan being formed to discharge steam generated therein upward