US5798A - Upper - Google Patents

Description

.different sections of said floor.

UNTTED 'STATES' PATENT oEErcE.

PETER KEPHART, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

UPPER ELooE 0E ICE-HOUSES.

Specicaton of Letters Patent No. 5,798, dated September 26, 1848.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, PETER KEPHART, of the city of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented a new and useful Apparatus for the Preservation of Ice; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact descriptionl thereof.

It is a fact well known, that ice when deposited in an ice house suffers a heavy amount of loss by melting, and that the larger proportion of this loss occurs on the upper surface of the ice, which is more immediately acted upon by the -heated atmosphere of spring and summer; thereby creating a damp and unhealthy condition of the apartment.

The apparatus which I have ,constructed is designed to prevent, to a great extent, this waste of ice, and atthe same time, shutting off the dampness and unhealthiness existing in ordinary ice houses.

I effect the desired purpose by placing the ice to be preserved in a square or otherwise shaped building constructed of brick, wood, or boardings containing bad conducting substances' of heat as sawdust, charcoal, &c., and placing over the top surface of said ice a sectional, sinking, non-conducting floor, resting or lying upon the ice and sinking with the same as the melting or consumption progresses. This floor is so constructed, as to admit of access to any point on the surface of the ice by lifting up any of the It is also so constructed as to allow of its being removed from the ice house when it may be ldesired to refill the house.

In the accom-panying drawing, Figure l, is a top View of the structure before named, the roof being removed from the ice house. Fig. 2, is a vertical section through t-he middle of the house and of the compartment for containing the ice.

In Figs. l and 2, a, a, a, a are th walls or sides of the ice house, construe ed of brick, stone, wood or any bad conductor of heat.

O, in Fig. 2, is the bottom floor upon which the ice is placed, this bottom floor is of boards beneath which is sawdust or tan bark.

In Fig. l, B, B, B, B, is the sectional, sinking, nonconducting floor; this floor is placed upon the surface of the ice, `and designed to sink with the ice. This floor is composed of sections, or shallow boxes containing ,y or being filled with dry sawdust, tan bark or any bad conductor of heat, and so .arranged as fits closely together, thus shutting off from the ice the heat and atmosphere;,these sections are constructed of suitable dimensions, so as to admit of an individual throwing up or lifting up any of them when ever access to the ice may be required, as is shown at H in Fig. l.

When it is desired to fill the house with ice this sectional or box floor admits of being removed from the house, and replaced when filled.

In Fig. 2, H represents the ice as placed in the house, with the sinking, sectional, box floor B, B, B resting or placed thereon.

Having thus fully described the nature of my apparatus for the preservation of ice, and shown the operationsthereof, what I claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, isi The so constructing of said apparatus in the manner herein described, as that the ice shall be so protected by the sinking, sectional nonconducting floor B, B, B, as to arrest, in a great measure, the large amount of waste produced by the warmth of spring and summer; the said arrangement also preserving a dry, pleasant atmospherein thehouse, and at the same time affording easy access when ice may be required; the respective parts being combined, arrangedand y operating substantially as herein set forth.

In testimony whereof, kI the saidl PETER KEPHAET, hereto subscribe my name inthe presence of the witnesses whose names are hereto subscribed on the thirty first day of August in the year one thousand eight hun-L dred .and `forty seven. y

PETER KEPHART. f

Witnesses:

` JACOB HYLAND,

WILLIAM O. WELSH.

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