US2064515A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 15, 193.6. c. F. BELSHAW 2,064,515

I REFRIGERATOR Filed Feb. 8, 1934 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENIOR.

: ATTORNEYS Dec. 15, 1936. BELSHAW 2,064,515

REFRIGERATOR Filed Feb. 8, 1934 5 sheets-sheet 2 6' Q 1 (2. iia INVENTOR.

6' liar/e51 Bela/7a n1,

ATTORNEYS Dec. 15, 1936. c. F. BELSHAW REFRIGERATOR 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Feb. 8, 1934 INVENTOR; 677arlesEBeb/2am ATTORNEY5 Patented Dec. 15, 1936 UNITED- STATES PATENT OFFICE 13 Claims.

In refrigerators of various types now commonly in use wherein water ice is the refrigerating medium the rate of refrigeration (volume of ice melting per unit of time) is not only dependent upon the rate of air circulation within the structure but is also very largely dependent upon the current volume of ice, the rate and extent of refrigeration varying directly with the ice volume.

As a consequence temperature in the food compartment varies greatly between icing periods and, unless icing periods are much too short to be commercially practicable (not only from the standpoint of convenience but of expense) the refrigerating temperatures are much too low immediately following icing and these temperatures gradually rise to an ultimate undesirable degree before a supplementing icing.

It has long been well known that substantially uniformity of refrigeration temperatures is highly desirable in various regions of a household re' frigerator and the ability of mechanical refrigerating mechanisms to maintain such uniformity, as well as the lack of periodic visits of the ice man, has been largely responsible for the phenominal adoption of mechanical refrigerators in spite of the well recognized and largely unavoidable destructive dehydrating effect of such refrigeration on many foods.

The object of my present invention is to produce a refrigerator of the water-ice type. of such. construction that, while it may receive, at a single charging, a supply of water ice suflicient toadequately refrigerate during an abnormally long period, substantially uniform refrigerating tem- 3'5 peratures may be maintained in various regions of the refrigerating compartments irrespective of the current volume of the water ice, so that said refrigerating temperatures will at no time be too low or too high whether the ice volume be maximum or nearly exhausted.

The accompanying drawings illustrate embodiments of my invention which have been'actually tested, by well known and standard methods, and demonstrated to have the above-described uni- 45 form-temperature characteristic.

Fig. 1 is a medial f'ront-to-rear vertical section of the refrigerant compartment and part of the subjacent refrigerating compartment;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary section, on line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary section of a modification;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary elevation of the drainage tube holder.

Fig. 5 is a front elevation, in partial vertical section of another embodiment;

Fig. 6 is a vertical section at right angles to the planes of Fig. 5';

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary perspective of parts 5 shown in Figs. 5 and 6; and

Fig. 8 is a perspective of the drip pan air-bafile structure shown in Figs. 5 and 6.

In Figs. 1 to 4 of the drawings l0 indicates the mainshell of the refrigerator constructed in a well known manner of walls adequately heatinsulated and having an open top and a front door H affording access to the refrigerating compartment l2.

The open top is interiorly bounded by the heat- 15 insulating element l3 which projects inwardly from the inner vertical walls M and is provided with the upwardly-presented ledge i5 upon which the ice container is suspended for easy vertical removal.

The open upper end of the shell I0 is normally closed by cover C which is preferably formed of two heat-insulating sections I6, I6 which are hinged together preferably on a line paralleling the front and back of shell I0. With such an arrangement the lifting of one or the other of sections IS, without removal of the cover, will afford ample opening for the introduction of ice, preferably broken into pieces about the size of hens eggs. 30

The ice container I comprises a substantially rectangular shell which may be projected down within element t3 and is composed of sheet metal side walls. 20 out-turned at their upper edges, as shown at 20', to rest upon ledge [5, said walls at their tops lying close to the inner faces of element l3 and substantially dead air spaces 2! being formed between the upper portions of the vertical walls of shell 10 and the upper portions of Walls 20. 40

Two opposite walls 20 (conveniently the front and rear) are perforated in their lower regions, as indicated at 22, in such manner as to permit free air flow but preventing ice out flow. This is conveniently accomplished by making the front and rear walls short and supplementing with a grid. composed of guarded crossed wires 23, 23" welded at their ends to walls 20 and welded together at their crossings.

To the lower edges of Walls 20 and wires 23 I spot Weld arectangular frame formed of a heavy wire 25 and upon this wire is removably mounted asubstantial. grid composed of heavy cross wires or rods 26 welded at their ends to the Wires or rods 2.1, said grid being readily upwardly removable from the main body of the ice container but afford a substantial support for the cracked ice. It will be noticed that the ice container may be readily removed from shell l0 and dismembered so that it may be easily and effectively cleaned.

Mounted in shell in so as to envelop the lower regions of the ice container to about the level of the upper parts of openings 22, is an air baffle comprising the vertical rear and side walls 30, 33 each with an inturned lower edge 3| considerably below the ice-supporting grid, and a somewhat shorter front wall 32 having its lower edge inturned as shown at 32'.

Slidably supported on the inturned edges 3| is a drip-water tray composed of the shallow bottom pan 35 and the shallower top pan 36 nested closely but removably therein, pan 36 having short circumferentially-continuous legs 31 to space the two pairs so as to form the horizontal substantially-dead air space 38. The bottom of each pan is medially perforated, as indicated respectively at 35' and 36', each perforation being bounded by an upwardly and inwardly inclined flange, as shown, so arranged that the flange surrounding perforation 36 will guard air space 38 from drippage.

The bottom of pan 35 is horizontal with a drainage orifice 39 which leads to a trap conduit 46 attached to the under face of the bottom of pan 35. The bottom of pan 36 is very slightly sloped toward the drainage orifice 4| which registers with orifice 39 and is guarded by a depending flange which insures direct drainage from pan 35 to orifice 39 and conduit 40 so that the upper face of the bottom of pan 35 will be substantially moisture free.

The delivery end of the trapped conduit 40 may be freely shifted into and away from the upwardly and inwardly inclined upper end of the waste pipe 42 which is most conveniently a section of rubber tubing detachably secured to the back of shell it! with its upper end closely but removably fitting within the upwardly and inwardly inclined passage 43 formed through the back wall of shell IS.

The composite pan just described is normally retained in proper lateral position by latch 35 but may be readily withdrawn through the front opening closed by door I! and as readily dismembered, cleansed and replaced.

The wall 33 which flanks a perforated wall 20 is provided, below the lower edge of such wall 28, with an inwardly and downwardly inclined guard 46 which overlies pan 36 so that any ice accidentally projected through perforations 22 will be delivered to pan 36.

The air-bafile shell is removable through the opening closed by door II and is conveniently supported by channelled fingers '50 carried by the front and rear walls of the baffle and resting upon inwardly projecting pins 5! secured to or in the front and rear walls of shell l0.

Overlying perforations 36 and 35, and guarding the same from drippage from the ice, is a horizontal baflie 55 which is supported by a cross strap 56 the ends of which are conveniently spot welded to opposite walls 30.

The walls 36 and 32 are arranged about midway between the lower regions of walls 20 and the vertical walls of shell ill thus forming passages 68 for upward currents of air from the refrigerating chamber and passages SI for downward currents of air.

' I have found, after considerable experimentation, that the best results, as to uniformity of refrigerating temperatures and uniformity of rate of ice melting, are apparently obtained when the upper limit of perforations 22 is not more than one-third the total height of ice receiving space. This relation of dimensions depends somewhat, of course, upon the desired frequency of icing and desired minimum temperatures in the refrigerating compartment because such temperatures depend upon the ice surface which is currently affected by the imposed air currents.

In any event it is quite important, in order to secure the most desirable and economical results, that a major portion of the upper regions of the vertical walls forming the ice container shall be substantially less (and preferably, entirely) imperforate to air currents originating in the refrigerating compartment than are the lower regions.

The operation is as follows:'Ihe ice container having been fully charged with relatively small pieces of water ice, the warm air from the refrigerating space flows upwardly through passages Sll into spaces 2|, thence downwardly through passages BI, and to some extent inwardly downwardly penetrating the ice body below the upper limits of perforations 22, and thence inwardly and downwardly through perforations 38 and 35' into the refrigerating space.

There is, of course, some slight movement of air downwardly against the upper regions of walls 20, and consequent melting of ice in the upper regions of the container, but the major melting takes place in the zone of perforations 22, and even there, so long as ice lies above those perforations, the major melting region does not greatly penetrate the middle of the lower part of the ice body.

When the ice has melted enough to drop below the upper limits of perforations 22, the warm air fiows freely over the top of the ice body and downwardly therethrough and therefore, even though the ice volume has materially decreased the actual melted volume per unit of time continues substantially constant so long as there is a substantially complete layer of ice on grid 26-21. This is probably due to the fact that the permeability of the ice body by the warm air increases as the thickness of the ice layer decreases.

In any event, I have found in actual practice that in a refrigerator such as I have described a given weight of ice will successfully refrigerate more uniformly for a much longer period than has heretofore been considered possible.

It will be noted that the air-baifle shell 39 and drip pan cannot be subjected to any of the ice load and they may, therefore, be made of comparatively light metal which should, of course, be rust-proof.

It will also be noted the ice load is suspended by walls 2% from ledge 15. In practice I have found that these walls may be of quite light metal without danger from the ice load, either due to weight or impact, so long as the grid ZE-Zl and its immediate support 25 are sufficiently sturdy.

The composite drip pan serves not only to receive the water from the melting ice and thereby protect the contents of the refrigerating chamber, but also serves as a horizontal bafile for the air currents to cause the warm air to pass upwardly through passages 60 and the cooled air to pass downwardly into the refrigerating chamber. The upper pan 35 prevents cold water from accumulating in pan 35 and the air in space 38 insulates the bottom of the pan 35 so that sweating does not occur on the under face of the bottom of pan 35, and pan 35 receives any sweat from the under side of pan 36.

In Fig. 3 I show a modification of an ice chamber. In this construction, in order to reduce the weight of the removable portion of the ice containing chamber, I attach, preferably permanently, the walls 20a to the inner edge of element I3 and to a spacer ring I3 attached to the innor faces of the vertical walls Id of shell iO-and supporting heat insulation 2|. The lower edges of walls 20a. are inturned to form an annular lip L to receive the upper edge of a basket B which comprises slightly inclined opposite walls 2% and opposite walls formed of the grid 23-23. The only portion of the ice container, in this form, which is normally readily removable, is the coinparatively light basket B while the upper portion of the ice compartment, formed by the walls 20a, is fixed in place.

The operation and functioning of the modified structure shown in Fig. 3 is, however, the same as that of the structures shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

As previously noted, the pan 35 is substantially horizontal because the amount of moisture which may possibly gather upon the upper surface is practically negligible. The bottom of the pan. 35 is very slightly pitched toward the drainage opening 4| so that the rate of gravity flow of the drippage from the ice across the bottom of this pan to the drainage opening 4! is very slow. As a consequence all drainage from the ice is retained within the refrigerator, before its discharge through the drainage tubes, long enough to permit maximum absorption of heat thereby from the contents of the refrigerating chamber. This arrangement is advantageous not only because of the consequent maximum heat absorption by the refrigerating agent (i. e., the ice and its drippage), but also because the temperature of the water flowing outwardly through the drainage tube 49, will be substantially equal to, or at any rate be very little colder than, the contents of the refrigerating chamber so that there is no substantial tendency to cause sweating on the drainage tube 40 as is the case in the ordinary refrigerators where the temperature of the outflow through the drainage tube, because of its rapidity of outflow, is substantially 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

It will be noted also that, while the tube 40 is preferably metallic, because of commercial struc tural reasons, it is exceedingly short and delivers to the rubber outflow tube 42 which is projected inwardly through the rear wall of the refrigerator. As a consequence the area of metallic surface through which the drainage water is passed lying within the refrigerating chamber is reduced to a minimum, and consequently the area on which sweating might occur is reduced to a minimum. If desired the tube 40 may be heat-insulated by a suitable covering, or it might be made of heat-insulating material such as bakelite.

In order that the drainage tube 42 may be readily withdrawn for cleansing I provide, upon the outer surface of the rear wall of the refrigerator, as shown in Figs. 1 and 4, two clips 10, ill forming upwardly-presented fingers slightly spaced from the rear surface of the rear wall of the refrigerator and arranged to receive the oppositelyprojecting ends of a retaining yoke 1! the middle portion of which is semi-cylindrical to fit over tube 42, asclearly shown in. Figs. 1 and 4.

The perforation 63 through the rear wall of the refrigerator is conveniently upwardly and inwardly inclined at approximately 45 degrees and is of such size as to fit tightly upon, and slightly compress, the inwardly-projected end of tube 42 so that an air-tight arrangement is accomplished, and the outer end of tube 42 is then flexed toward the rear wall of the refrigerator by means of the yoke I! so that the tube 42 is thus held firmly in place against accidental displacement, yet is at all times readily separable for cleaning and replacement.

It will be noted that the air baffle Walls 30 and 32 are laterally spaced from and intermediate between the inner walls of the refrigerator and the ice planes. As a consequence, they function not only as directors for the air, but also as radia tion shields which protect the ice from the radiant heat emanating from the inner surfaces of the side walls (and door) of the refrigerator.

It is well known that water ice is almost a perfect absorbent of radiant heat and if the ice planes are not protected against this radiant heat, a large proportion of the ice will be melted by the radiant heat and thus be unavailable for the refrigeration of the contents of the refrigerator, whereas, in my construction, the interposition of the walls 30 and 32 between the ice planes and the refrigerator walls serves to protect the ice from this radiant heat so that the considerable portion of the ice which would otherwise be melted by radiant heat, is available for refrigeration, by air convexion, of the contents of the refrigerating chamber.

Walls 30 and 32, therefore, should preferably be extended upwardly as far as the lower edges of the walls 20, for the greatest commercial ef ficiency, and their outer surfaces are of such character (such for instance as polished metal surfaces or metllic paint coatings) as to be highly reflectant .of radiant heat. They might even, with some benefit, be extended up alongside walls but from a practical standpoint this is hardly necessary in view of the fact that the surface of ice actually in contact with the walls 20, above the grids Z3, is comparatively small and the walls 29 therefore act, to some extent, as radiant heat shields interposed between the upper portions of the ice and the extreme upper portions of the refrigerator walls.

In Figs. 5 to 8 inclusive, I have illustrated another embodiment of my invention which permits more successful use of block ice, instead of broken ice, and which may be conveniently iced from the front.

In this construction the main shell i0 is provided, in its front wall, with a charging opening l0 closed by door Ill". At approximately the level of the lower part of opening I0 I provide front and rear ledges 15, Hi which serve to support the novel ice container now to be described.

This ice container comprises the rear wall 80 and two flanking side walls 8| arranged opposite the opening I0 and spaced from the adjacent vertical walls of the shell I B. The lower edges of walls 80 and 8! are separably supported upon the upper end of a hopper-like structure comprising the forwardly and downwardly-inclined rear plate 82; the rearwardly and downwardly inclined front plate 83; the V-shaped side walls 84 having the upwardly and outwardly-flared intermediate portions 84; and the bottom rods 85 the ends of which are oppositely upwardly in clined and attached respectively to the lower edges of the plates 82 and 83.

The interior of shell I0 is preferably lined with a liner of porcelain-enameled sheeting 86 the side walls of which are conveniently spaced from shell I9, as shown in Fig. 5, by rigid heat insulation X.

Secured to each of the side walls of liner 8B, slightly above the level of the lower edges of plates 82 and 83 is a depending plate 81 the major portion of which is spaced from the liner 86, and connecting the upper portions of the rear edges of these plates is a downwardly and inwardly-inclined baffle plate 88 spaced from and substantially parallel with the upwardly and rearwardly inclined portions of rods 85, the upper edge of plate 88 being preferably slightly above the lower edge of plate 82 and its lower edge preferably slightly below the level of the lowermost portions of said rods.

Pivoted at 98, to the lower parts of plates 8'! is a double drip pan, comprising parallel bottoms 9| and 92, which is normally held, so that said bottoms are downwardly and rearwardly inclined, by a pivoted spring latch 93 so formed that said bottoms may be held in several positions approximating parallelism with the upwardly and forwardly-inclined portions of rods with the upper ends adjacent the plane of the lower edge of plate 83.

Release of latch 93 permits dropping of the drip pan structure to facilitate cleaning.

Drainage from bottom 92 is through a tube 84 and drainage from bottom 9| is through a tube which is sleeved within tube 94 and the two tubes deliver into the funnel 98 at the upper end of an appropriate water-sealed drainage tube 9'1.

When the drip-pan structure is in operative position as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the upwardly and forwardly-inclined lower edges of the walls 81 lie in troughs I00 between the side walls of the two pans.

The upper edges of the two bottoms 9i and 92 are spaced apart so that an air current may be established between these two bottoms to minimize sweating on the under face of the lower bottom 92.

It should be understood that rods 85 are typical of any V-shaped, or approximately V-shaped perforate floor which will sustain the ice and permit the passage of air currents directly to the lower part of the ice supply.

The above-described apparatus may be charged either with broken water ice I I9, either in broken form or in comparatively large blocks, and, after a short interval the lower portion of the ice body will entirely fill the V-shaped lower end of the ice compartment, as indicated in Fig. 6.

Thermal air currents will be set up in the lower portion of the shell, passing upwardly and thence inwardly and downwardly through the space between baflie plate 88 and the adjacent portions of rods 85; between pan bottom 91 and the adjacent portions of rods 85, and between the two pan bottoms 9| and 92, said three last-mentioned air currents passing downwardly and inwardly and thus above plates 88 and 9| directly contacting that portion of the ice body which lies below the plane of the lower edges of plates 82 and 83. The major portion of ice melting therefore occurs below the plane of the lower edges of plates 82 and 83 but there is also sufiicient melting of the ice which is in contact with plates 82, 83 and 84' to permit a gradual descent of the ice mass so as to constantly completely fill that portion of the ice container which is defined by the rods 85.

As a consequence the ice surface which is directly contacted by the air currents remains constant irrespective of the total volume of ice supply and consequently substantially uniform refrigeration is obtained so long as any ice supply lies above the plane of the lower edges of the plates 82 and 83.

In the form shown in Figs. 5 and 6 the floor I I5 of the refrigerating chamber is dropped below the level of the door sill H8 and resting upon supports and spaced therefrom is a ventilated floorrack ill, the upper level of which is at or slightly below the level of sill l 16. This arrangement permits circulation of cold air beneath the lowermost articles in the refrigerating chamber and is especially advantageous in the cheaper types of refrigerators, as it will obviate the necessity of a porcelain enamel bottom for the refrigerating chamber.

Secured to the side liner plates 86, at an intermediate point in the height of the refrigerating chamber, are hooks I28 adapted to separably receive and support rod l2l of a shelf structure I22 which comprises one or more depending arms [23, the lower ends of which contact the liner plates so as to support the main body of the shelf structure I22 in horizontal position. Preferably two of these shelf structures I22 are provided, one at each side of the lower portion of the refrigerating chamber so that either or both may be readily removed in order to afford accommodation for articles of considerable height.

The operation, of this form, is substantially identical with the operation of the structure shown in Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive, but, owing to the V-shaped lower end of the ice container, that portion of the ice container which is so formed as to permit direct contact of air currents with the ice is automatically kept filled with ice even though the charge be in the form of comparatively large blocks, whereas, in the form shown in Figs. 1 to 3, the most efficient operation is only obtained when the ice charge is in the form of comparatively small pieces. It will be noticed that the plates 82 and 83 will prevent the passage of air currents from the refrigerating portion of shell [8 to that portion of the shell 19 above the ledges I5 and 16. The depending plates 8'1, however, are spaced from the adjacent side walls by the ledge 81' which is perforated as is indicated at 81 and, as the side walls 8| of the ice receiving hopper are also spaced from the side walls of the shell, the air, within the refrigerating space, which is heated by conduction through the shell walls, is permitted to rise to the upper part of the shell and descend upon and around the ice in the hopper. As previously noted the downward inclination of plate 88 is less than the downward inclination of plate 82 and as a consequence of this arrangement, and the air flow, mentioned above, through the perforations 81, the melting of the ice block is such that the ice block constantly moves rearwardly as it descends so that, shortly after fresh charging of the hopper, a space between the front end of the ice block and the door 10 becomes available as a storage space for ice which may be chipped from the block and also for bottles, etc., which may be placed between the front edge of the ice block and the door Hi".

This arrangement prevents intense cold immediately adjacent the inner face of the door It!" and thus avoids sweating upon the outer surface of that door.

In practice, I have found that it is quite advisable to have the point of the V formed by bars 85 somewhat closer to plate 9'! than are the upper front ends of said bars so that the velocity of the downwardly moving air currents, in this region, will be greatest at the point of the V. This arrangement serves to increase the velocity so that the rate of melting is greatest at this V point.

In practice, I have found that this arrangement insures a substantially level descent of the ice and in a measure counterbalances the rapid melting of the forward lower corner of the ice where it contacts with the plate 83. v

The latches 93 are of service in adjusting th relation of plate 9i to the upwardly and forwardly inclined portions of bars 85 and the relation of the upper edge of plate 9! to plate 83 so that proper velocities in different portions of the air current, immediately adjacent the upwardly and forwardly inclined portions of bars 85, may be attained.

The side walls 8| of the ice receiving hopper are spaced apart a distance slightly greater than a maximum dimension of commercial ice blocks and the wall is also spaced from the inner face of door Hi". The portions 84 incline inwardly and downwardly and the dimension between the lower edges of these portions is somewhat less than the minimum corresponding dimension of commercial ice blocks so that by this arrange ment, in conjunction with the inward inclinations of the plates 82 and 83, the ice block is kept centered between but spaced from the hopper walls 80 and 8|. By this arrangement it is absolutely impossible for a hurrying ice man to charge the refrigerator with a heavy block of ice in such a manner as to subject any portion of the ice hopper to heavy impacts and the bars 85 are thus thoroughly protected from such impacts.

Referring again to Figs. 5 and 6, it will be noted that the upper level of the frame of the rack H1 should be at or slightly below the level of the sill H6, the front bar of said frame lying as close as possible to the inner vertical wall of the sill.

By this arrangement the cold air beneath the rack is prevented from spilling out of the refrigerated space when the door H is opened. In practice, with this arrangement, the lowest temperature in the refrigerated space is immediately beneath the rack H! while the temperature immediately adjacent the surface I I5 is several degrees higher, this difference being about four degrees in a degree room.

The pocketing of the cold air immediately beneath the rack H! has been found in practice to be quite important in maintenance of temperatures of articles placed upon the rack through periods of service where the door II is opened, as is usual in ordinary household service.

I claim as my invention:

1. A refrigerator comprising a main shell, an ice container comprising substantially vertical walls all spaced from adjacent walls of the main shell and a perforate ice-supporting bottom, at least one of said ice-container walls being perforate only adjacent its lower end, means between the shell walls and said container below the top thereof and above the perforations of said perforate wall to prevent substantial air flow from the interior of the main body upwardly against the upper imperforate regions of the ice container and thence downwardly into the upper region of said container, upwardly extending air-baffle walls arranged between the main shell and the lower portions of the ice-container walls and extending upwardly from a region substantially below the bottom of the ice-container to a region substantia-lly above the perforate wall portion, and a horizontal air bafile adjacent the lower end of said first-mentioned air-bafile and extended inwardly therefrom but short of complete obstruction to downward air flow from the lower end of f the ice container.

2. A refrigerator comprising a main shell having an open top bounded by an inwardly projecting upwardly presented ledge, an ice container suspended upon said ledge and projected downwardly into said shell, said ice-container having an ice-supporting perforate bottom and side walls substantially imperforate in their upper regions and at least one wall substantially perforate closely above the ice-supporting bottom, and all of said side walls out of contact with the shell side walls, substantially vertical air-baille walls interposed between the shell walls and the lower regions of the ice-container walls and spaced therefrom, said air-bafile walls extending from a region below the ice-supporting bottom of the ice-container to a. region substantially above said bottom, and a substantially horizontal annular air-baffle adjacent the lower ends of the firstmentioned air-bafile walls and extending inwardly therefrom.

3. A refrigerator having the characteristics specified in claim 2 and wherein the horizontal air-baille is a laterally withdrawable tray.

4. A refrigerator having the characteristics specified in claim 2 and wherein the horizontal air-baffle is a laterally withdrawable tray having a drainage conduit with a downwardly and outwardly inclined delivery end, and an upwardly and inwardly inclined drainage conduit carried by the main shell with its mouth arranged to register with and receive the delivery end of the tray-carried drainage conduit.

5. A refrigerator having the characteristics specified in claim 2 and wherein the ice container is readily vertically withdrawable through the upper end of the main shell; the first-mentioned air-bafile is detachably suspended in the main shell and withdrawable through a dooredopening in one side wall of the main shell; and the horizontal air-bafile tray is supported by and separable from the first-mentioned air-bafile and withdrawable through said doored-opening.

6. As an article of manufacture an integrated readily removable refrigerator element comprising a shallow tray having an annular bottom and a second shallow tray nested therein and provided with a similar annular bottom vertically spaced from the bottom of the first tray and substantially air-sealed relative thereto circumferentially adjacent the outer rims by a depending annular flange, the two trays having registering drainage passages and the first-mentioned tray carrying a drainage conduit having a downwardly directed delivery end and an intermediate water seal.

7. In a refrigerator, the combination with a main shell shell having a downwardly and outwardly inclined drainage passage leading through one vertical wall, a horizontal air-bathing drainage tray with a downwardly and outwardly inclined drainage conduit integrated therewith and registrable with and laterally separable from the inner end of said drainage passage, and means for supporting said tray in the main shell permitting lateral withdrawal.

8. In a refrigerator, the combination with a main shell having a downwardly and outwardly inclined drainage passage leading through one v ical Wall and a doored-opening in its opposite wall, a horizontal baffling drainage tray with a downwardly and outwardly inclined drainage conduit integrated therewith and reg-"istrable with and laterally separable from the inner end of said drainage passage, and means for supporting said tray in the main shell and laterally slidable through said doored-opening.

9. In a refrigerator, the combination with a main shell having an downwardly and outwardly inclined passage formed through its rear wall and a doored-opening in its front wall, a rubber hose with its upper end projected into and closely fitting said passage, and a drainage tray separably mounted in the main shell and withdrawable through said doored opening, said tray having a downwardly and rearwardly inclined drainage conduit integrated therewith and registrable with and laterally separable from the inner end of said hose.

10. A refrigerator element comprising a nested pair of annular trays spaced one from the other and bounded by outer and inner walls, registered drainage perforations through the bottoms of said trays, and an annular sealing element extending continuously between the bottoms of said trays radially spaced from their inner walls beyond said drainage perforations.

11. As an article of manufacture, an integrated readily removable refrigerator element comprising a shallow tray and a second shallow tray removably nested therein and provided with a similar annular bottom vertically spaced from the bottom of the first tray and substantially air-sealed relative thereto circumferentially adjacent the outer rims by a continuous annular spacer flange resting on the bottom of the first mentioned tray, the two trays having registering drainage passages.

12. A refrigerator comprising a main shell, an ice container arranged in the upper part of said shell and comprising substantially vertical imperforate walls all spaced from adjacent walls of the main shell and heat-insulated relative thereto, perforate downward extensions supplementing some of said walls, and a perforate icesupporting bottom bridging the said walls at their lower ends; a radiant-heat baffle interposed between each of said perforate extensions and the adjacent shell wall and laterally spaced both from the side wall and said extension; and an air-stop interposed between the imperforate ice-chamber walls and the shell walls in a zone above the upper end of said baflle.

13. A refrigerator comprising a main shell having a closable opening into its upper portion and a closable opening into its lower portion, an ice chamber formed in the upper region of the main shell and comprising downwardly converging perforate ice-retaining walls having a vertical extent substantially less than the vertical dimension of the ice chamber, and a perforate ice-supporting bottom bridging the said perforate walls at their lower ends; and air-blocking means interposed between the shell walls and the upper end of the ice chamber in a zone above said perforate walls.

CHARLES F. BELSHAW.

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