US588664A - smith - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)` 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. G .IJ. SMITHL S. M. ATHERTON.

:CLEANABLE REFRIGERATOR.

Patented Aug w: nanars Hans au, Fumo-nwo.. wAsmNofnN. n. c'.

(No Model.) j 2 sheefssheet 2. G. SMITH 8U IS. M; ATHERTON. GLEANABLE REFRIGBRATOR.

180.588,884. Y Patented Aug. 24,189.7;

. air laden with odors'by reason of the contact'- of air with perishable substances in the pro-` UNITED STATES l 1PA-:TENT ERICE.

GEORGE J.l sMITII AND sTILLMAN M. ATHERTON, or BURLINGTON,

y VERMONT, Y

' CLEANABLE REFRIG ERATOR.`

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patient No. 588,664jdated August 24, 1897.

' Application nea october 17, 1896. sena No. 609,235. (No man.)

510 @ZZ whom t mongool/werft: A

Be it known that we, GEORGE J SMITH and STILLMAN M. ATHERTON, citizens of the United States, residing at Burlington, in the county of Chittenden and State of Vermont, have invented certain new and. useful lmprovements in Oleanable Refrigerators; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Our invention relates to vimprovements in refrigerators, in Which the elements are so constructed and combined as to secure the essential features of a positive circulation of air between the ice and provision chambers and the removability of the various parts in` an easy and expeditious manner for the purpose of cleaning themthoroughly. p

Various devices have heretofore been adopted to meet the demand for oleanable refrigerators, the majority of which are objectionable from aV practical standpoint because of the lack of positive'circulation of air between the ice and provision chambers, which feature of positive circulation experience has shown to be necessary for the proper preservation of perishable articles. Some of the prior devices employ a metal ice-tank set in the top of an open casing, but they are minus circulating-fines to secure the proper circulation of air over and vin contact with the ice-v no bottom, the ice rest-ing on a rack attachedv to sides of the tank, or the bottom of the icetank has openings through which the coldair falls into the provision-chamber, thus displacing the warm air from the last-mentioned `chamber and creating anupward current of vision-chamber. The upward currents of Warm air'strike the cold Walls of the ice-tank, and thus moisture and impurities are condensed on the tank instead of the warm-air currents striking the ice to have the impurities condensed by contact with the ice and being carried oif with the Water resulting from melting of the ice. The condensation of moisture and impurities on the cold Walls of the ice-tank in some types of refrigerators renders it necessary to employ two pans under the ice-tank, one of which pans catches the water resulting from condensation of moisture on the tank-Walls and the other tray catches and carries Off the ordinary waste Water from the ice. l

It is desirable in refrigerators to secure a positive circulation of airby the employment of flues or ducts, the cold air passing from the ice-chamber into a flue which conducts it to the bottom of the provision-chamber, while the-warm currents bearing the odors from perishable matter in the provision-chamber should be carried upward through and by a separate flue arranged to discharge the Warm laden or charged currents, so that they impinge directly upon the ice, which, beingthe coldest object, naturally attracts and. lcondenses such objectionable matters in the warm currents and causes the objectionable matter to pass, with the ice1neltings, out of the refrigerator.

The object that we havein view in the present invention is to provide asimple and inexpensive construction in which the 'necessary positive circulation of air and removability of flues, tray, and ice-tank are attained in a satisfactory manner.

A further Object of our invention is to provide for rigid locking or fastening of parts in position within the casing, to enable them to be taken out and replaced Without manipulating troublesome fasteners,and to discharge the water result-ing from ice-meltings in a simple manner.

' Our invention consists in improvements in refrigerators using a casing or inclosure hav' ing an ice-chamber in its upper part and a provision-chamber in its lower part, a Warmair flue or flues situated in the horizontal plane of the ice-chamber, at the side or front thereof, and having its lower end connected with the provision-chamber and its upper. end openinginto the` ice-chamber, and a cold-air flueV situated below the ice-.chamberand in the horizontal plane of said provision-chamber, said cold-air flue connected at its upper end with the ice-chamber at a point on the opposite side thereof from where the warmlair fiue discharges to the ice-chamber and the IOO lower end of said cold-air liuc being open or provided with ports to discharge cold air into the bottom part of the provision-chamber.

One of our improvements consists in the coldair flue,wl1ich is formed by a plate Athat is secured in place removably within the refrigeratoncasing to enable it to be taken out for cleaning the saine, and as the means for holding said cold-air flue in place we make it in the form of a flat or corrugated plate having flanges at its sides, which flanges fit between cleats or posts and are provided with irregularly-formed slots adapted to receive headed studs or pins attached to the cleats or posts, whereby the metallic flue-plate may beislipped into place and locked by the pins or slipped out of position, and the cleats or posts serve to grip and assist in holding the flue-plate steadily and firmly in position.

Our invention may be embodied in differcnt forms in various styles of refrigerators, such as those which employ a removable icetank in the upper part of the refrigeratorcasing and with the top thereof hinged so as to fold upward and backward to expose the ice tank and chamber, but it may also be embodied in refrigerators which use an ice-tank open at the front and a front door in the casing, as well as in refrigerators which have simply an ice-chamber without a tank and in refrigerators which employ a central cold^air flue in `connection with a tankless ice-chamber with warm-air iiues at the sides.

le prefer to embody our improvements in connection with an ice-tank which is placed and held in the upper part of the casing, so that one of the walls of the ice-tank leaves a space between itself and the refrigerator-casing to constitute the warm-air flue, and in connection with this tank we provide a closed pan or tray which is situated below the tank and is provided at one end orside with a vertical flange and with an inclined shelf or ledge on the flange, said pan or tray arranged with relation to the bottom of the tank to leave a space between the tank and tray, which space or chamber is closed all around, except to the passage of cold air from the tank to the down cold-air flue, for the purpose of forming a shield against the upward current of warm moisturedaden air from the provision-chamber, and thereby preventing said warm current from striking thebottom of the cold tank Aand being condensed thereon, as well as to assist `in conducting the cold purified air falling from theice-tank to the lower circulating-lue- The invention further consists inthe novel combination of devices and in the construction and arrangement of parts, which will be hereinafter fully described and claimed.

To 'enable others to understand our invention, we have illustrated the same in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and in which- Figure l is a sectional elevation, taken from front to rear, through a refrigerator havin g a foldable hinged top, an ice-tank, drip tray or pan, and fines, as contemplated by our invention. Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view showing parts in plan on the plane indicated by the dotted line of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the ice-tank removed from the refrigerator of Fig. l. Figs. 4 and 4 are perspective views of the drip tray or pan. Fig. 5 is a detail perspective view of one type of the removable flue-plate. Figs. 6 and 7 are a perspective view and a sectional elevation, respectively, illustrating our preferred form of flue-plate and the means for fastening the same in place. Figs. S, S, and 9 are views in sectional elevation and detail elevation, respectively, of a refrigerator with an ice-tank open at the front to permit ice to be introduced through a door in the front wall of the casing. Fig. l0 is a perspective view, partly in section, showing the removable flue-plates for the warm and cold air flues in connection with a circulating-refrigerator having an ice chamber without an ice-tank. Fig. 1l is a view similar to Fig. 10 of a refrigerator with warm-air flues at two sides thereof and a central cold-air flue.

Like letters of reference denote corresponding parts in all the figures of the drawings.

W'e will first describe our invention in its preferred embodiment as illustrated by Figs. l to 7, inclusive, of the drawings, referring to which A designates the casing of the refrigerator, which maybe of the ordinary or any preferred construction suited to the purpose.

The type of casing shown in Fig. l has a hinged lid or cover a, arranged to open upwardly and backwardly to expose the icechamber b and the :ice-tank B therein, while in the lower front part of the casing are the usual doors c', which provide for ready access to the provision-chamber c. The ice-tank B isa metallic structure. (Shown by Fig. 3 of the drawings.) Itis simply a box open at the top and provided with a continuous horizontal flange b around its top edge. Said flange b' around its top edge is designed to rest upona ledge b2 in the casing A to assist in holding it in place, and the tank'is so shaped and proportioned that three of its walls lit snugly up to or against the casing-walls, but the other wall b is arranged to lie a short distance away from the casing-wall adjacent thereto, thus forming a flue D between the front walls of the casing and icetank, (sec Fig. 1,) through which flue the ascending currents of warm air pass from the provisionchamber c to the ice-tank. This front wall 19X of the ice-tank has near or at its top edge a series of holes or slots b3 to permit the warmair current to pass from the flue D into the upper part of the ice-tank chamber, and said tank is also provided with cold-air-eduction ports b5, formed by holes or slots in the bottom of the tank, near the rear side thereof7 whereby the warmair current laden with odors from the provision-chamber is conducted by the flue D up to the upper part of the ice-tank, caused to impinge upon the icc in said tank IOO IIO

and be condensed by contact with the ice and have its impurities attracted by and condensed on the ice, and from thence permitted to escape through the ports b5 on the opposite side of the ice-tank from whence it entered said tank. y

The ice-tank has its bottom made sloping or inclined from its front toa line'near the back thereof, and from the line where the slope terminates to the back of t-he tank the bottom is horizontal, as at b. To the horizontal part b of the bottom is attached a short drip-tube 197, into which flows the ice-meltings and impurities condensed by the ice. Said ice-tank rests upon and is partly supported by cleats and partly suspended by its top flange in the casing A, and a cleat or cleats bs is provided on the sides of the casing to impinge against the front wall of the ice-tank for the purpose of wedg'ing said tank when it it is placed in position toward the rear of the casing, thereby effecting the warm-air iue D in the refrigerator. y

It will be noticed that the ice-tankmay be easily lifted out of the casing A for the purpose of cleaning the tank thoroughly by washing the same, after which the tank may be dropped back into place.

E is the pan or tray, which is placed below the ice-tank in a position to shield the bottom of the ice-tank from contact with the ascending current of warm air from the provisioncharnber and prevent the condensation of moisture on the bottom of the tank, but this tray is so constructed that while it shieldsJ the ice-tank it does not in any way interfere with the descent of the cold air from the icetank to the cold-air iue in the provisionchamber. The pan or tray is a shallow metallic structure with an inclined bottom and a surrounding upright'iiange, as shown by Figs. 4 and 4, and at the rear edge of the tray the flange e serves as a means forsupporting the shelf or baffle-plate F, which is inclined in a reverse direction to the inclination of the tray-bottom and extends forward and backward beyond the flange e in order to make it deiect and throw into theftray any drip-Water that may through any contingency escape through the air-ports in the bottom of the icetank or to throw into thel tray moisture which accumulates on the bathe-plate. This baffleplate lies close to but not in contact with the bottom of the ice-tank to leave an opening or space e, and it lies near the places where the cold-air ports b5 are formed .in the tank, and said baffle-plate prevents the contingency of drip-water and moisture escaping into the cold-air flue in the provision-chamber, but at the same time it does not interfere with the passage of cold air from the ice-tank tosaid provision-chamber cold-air flue, because egress-ports e2 for the cold air are provided in the flange e above the bottom of the pan or tray. Said tray has a Waste-pipe connection e4, which communicates with the wastethe casing, to which casingthe waste-pipe G may be attached in any suitable way, and the waste connection b6 from the ice-tank discharges to the waste-pipe e4 in a manner not to interfere with the free escape of the dripwater from the tray Ffto the waste connection e4 to the pipe G.

The shallow tray which serves to shield the bottom of the metallic ice-tank against the warm odor-laden. current of air may be set between the cleats bs, which support the icetank, or said cleats may be made removable for the purpose of withdrawing them when it is desired to remove the shallow tray.A

At the rear of theprovisio-n-chamber c we erect the posts or cleats h h', (shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2,) which lie close to or against the sides of the casing A, and these cleats or posts rise from the floor of the provisioneompartment c to the bottom of the drip pan or tray E, so that said tray rests upon the posts and is partially supported thereby. Said tray also rests upon swages or cleats e5, provided on the sides of the casing A in front of the posts 71, h', and thus the tray is supported ixedly in the casing and in a manner IOO of said iiue I is open or provided with egressports to admit of the passage of cold air to the bottom part ofthe provision-chamber. This cold-air iue I is formed by arranging the flue-plate J adjacent to and parallel with the rear wall of the casing A, so as to form the line-space between said baffle-plate and casing-wall.

The flue-plate J may be simply a flat plate flanged at its two sides and lower end, as shown at j, or it may be a corrugated plate having the lianges j at its sides only, the bottom edge of said plate being free, while the top edge has an outward roll or Iiange, as shown in Fig. 6. In case the bottom edge of the flue-plate is flanged We provide egressports j for the passage of cold air. By providing the flue-plate with flanges'the strength and durability of the plate are increased, and the flanges serve as a means for fasteningthe flue-plate in position, because the plate and flanges are formed to fit snugly or tightly between the posts or cleats h h', whereby the cleats serve the twofold purpose of. holding and by the assistanceof cleats fat the frontv and bottom side [of said plate, which cleats 7'2 are indicated in Fig. l of the drawings, and

they may be attached ,removably to the sides pipe G, that passes down through and out of of the casing-but we prefer to provide means IIO for positively locking the flue-plate in place, In this embodi- 3 as shown by Figs. 6 and 7 ment of our invention we provide the vertical offstanding flanges j of the flue-plate with the slots j, which open through the rear edge of the flanges and which curve upwardly and forwardly toward the fine-plate, and these slots are adaped to receive the pins or studs jiji, which are fastened to the inner opposing faces of the cleats `or posts h 7L at `suitable points to enter the 'slots when the iianged flue-plate is adjusted between the cleats or posts h h.

The pins or studs j* are headed, as shown, and lthey serve to draw or wedge the slotted flangesinward when the fine-plate is adjusted, so that the plate is drawn close up to the posts h h and is sustained rigidly in place, the headed studs preventing any sidewise -deflection of the iiaDgeS. It will be observed that `the flue-plate is removable easily from the Vposts 77J h' by simply lifting it up and forward to withdraw the flanges from the studs and `that the fine-plate is locked in place whenin the act of adjusting it between the l posts.

In the embodimentof our invention shown by Figs. 8 and 9 the top of the vcasing A is permanent and iixed, while the front of said frontupper part of the casing.

. modate an ice-tank to a casing of this style,

We provide a novel form of ice-tank K, in;

which the top, bottom, sides, and rear are closed; but its frontend adjacent tothe front door is open, as shown.

warmair flue D can be -made ineither of two ways. style Awe construct the tank somewhat less in skilled in the art, which spaces serve the purpose of warm-air fines to conduct the warm air from the provision-compartment to the tan-k in the same manner as the flue D in the construction shown by Figs. l and 2. vThis open-front tank is perforated Anear its top edge to provide for the passage of warm .air from said flues into the tank, and the bottom of said tank rests upon the side rails la, (shown by dotted lines in Fig.` 8,.) or we may provide the warm-.air flue on the inner side of the front door, as `shown in Fig. 8 of 'the drawings, in which vcase the tank may `be made the full width of the casing and short from front to rear, as in Fig. l.

The tank is removable bodily from the casing A, through the front door a5 thereof, and to provide for locking the tank in place within the casing we construct the `tank in a novel In this `type of icel tank with an open front end `provision for the In one embodiment of Aa tank of this 1 way and provide a removable means for fastening the tank.

The top of the tank is sloped downward and rearward, as shown by Fig. 9, and the bottom of said tank has its front portion bent upward in angular form to provide the recess or seat 7o', from which recessthe bottom slopes downward to the rear end of the tank, (see Fig. 9,) the 'sloping top and bottom of the tank'being parallel to each other, or substantially so.

Near the open end of the ice-chamber we provide a fixed or permanent rail Z and a recess or space Z in advance of said rail, and in this recess and on this permanent rail is adapted to iit the stepped locking-rail L L', the member L of which rests upon the permanent `rail Z and in the seat 7c of the tankbottom, while the rail member L tits the space Z' substantially `fiush with casing anddoor a5.

The construction of the sloping top and bottom of the tank `enables the tank to be lifted in the ice-chamber suiiiciently for the rail L L' to be removed, after which the tank can be drawn through the front of the casing. Below this removable tank is arranged the drip-pan, contructed and arranged as hereinbefore described, and the tank and tray have the waste connections with the waste-pipe, while the tank and tray are connected with the cold-air flue in the manner before indicated.

In Fig. 10 we have shown a refrigerator without aremovable tank 'for ice, but having an ice-chamber and removable flue-plates 'M M in the ice and provision chambers, said flue-plates arranged at opposite sides or ends of the ice-chamber to forni the Warm and cold air iiues. The bottom a7 of the ice-chamber may be either removable or fixed, and it is supported on cleats as or other supports in the casing in a manner to provide for 'the flues to communicate with opposite ends of the ice-chamber. From one end of the cleats as rise the short posts h5, between which .is fitted the .hanged flue-plate M, arranged to provide the upper or warm-air line. In the provision-chamber is provided the posts h 71.', to which is fastened the lower plate M inthe manner heretofore described. These-upper and lower line-plates are iianged and slotted, and the flanges are adapted to be connected to the studs or pins fixed `to the posts, substantially as shown by Figs. 6 and 7, in order that the flue-plates may be removed for cleaning purposes and to lock them 'in position between thepairs of posts.

The modification illustrated by Fig. l1 embodies a tankless ice-chamber with abottom as and flue-plates at two sides arranged 'to form warm-air iiucs at both ends of the icech'amber. The bottom as has a central discharge or waste connection a9 to a central drip-pipe, and this bottom has a central slot or opening forming a cold-air port-d10, which IOO opens into a central flue O, formed by a pair of spacedflue-plates O', thus forming a central flue in the provision-chamber, said iueplates serving to partition or divide the provision-chamber into two compartments.

It is thought -that the operation and advantages of our invention will be readily understood and appreciated from the foregoing description taken in connection with the drawings. l

W'e are aware that changes in the form and proportion of parts and in the details of construction herein shown and described as the preferred embodiment of our invention may be made by a skilled mechanic without departing from the principle or' sacrificing the advantages of our invention, and we theref fore reserve the right to make such modifications as fairly fall within the scope of our invention.

Having thus fully described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The combination'with a refrigerator-casing and an ice-tank therein, of a flanged shield plate or tray fitted tightly to the bottom of said tank to form a space or chamber which is closed at all points except to the passage of cold air from the tank, a cold-air flue, and parts which establish communication through said closed space or chamberbetween the icetank and the cold-air iiue, as and for the purposes described.

2. The combination with a refrigerator-casin g, of an ice-tank fitted removably in said casing and provided near its lower part with cold-air-egress ports, a flanged shield plate or tray fitted tightly against the bottom of said ice-tank to form a space or chamber between itself and the tank, which space or chamber is closed all around except to the passage of air from the egress-ports of the tank, and the rear flange orwall of said tray provided with coldairegress port-s, and a back Hue-plate removably fastened to the casing, in the provision-chamber thereof, close up to the shieldplate, and forming with said casing a cold-air flue which communicates at its upper end With the cold-air-egress ports from the shield tray or plaie, as and for the purposes described.

3. In a cleanable refrigerator, the combination with a casing, and an ice-tank having cold-air-egress ports in its bottom, of a drippan fitted closely to the bottom of `said tank and provided with a perforated iiange and with a baftleplate, and a cold-air flue in the provision-chamber of said casing and connected through the perforated tray ange with the ice-tank, as and for the purposes described. v

4. In a cleanable refrigerator, the combination with a casing of an ice-tank having cold-air ports in its bottom and a short waste connection, a drip pan or tray provided with a perforated flangey and Ywith an inclined baffle-plate arranged close to the bottom of said tank to deflect drip-water and moisture into said tray Without interfering with the circulation of cold air from the ice-tank through the ports of the tray-anga'and a fine-plate fitted close to the bottom of the tray and adjacent to a Wall of vthe casing to form a cold-air flue, as and for the purposes described.

5. In a cleanable refrigerator, the combination with a casing having an ice-chamber, of a pair of cleats or posts adjacent to said `chamber, a flue having offstanding iianges ar.-

ranged to fit between said posts and said flanges provided With slots which open through the edges thereof, and studs or pins fixed to said posts and adapted to enter the slots in the iian ges to draw the flue-plate close to the posts, as and for the purposes described.

6. In a cleanable refrigerator, the combination with a casing open at its front end and having apermanent rail and a recess, an openfront tank having a recessed seat in the bottom thereof, a removable locking-rail adapted to the permanent rail and the tank-seat, a vdrip pan or tray, and a removable flue-plate attached within the provision-chamber and forming a cold-air fiue that connects through the tray with the ice-tank chamber, as set forth.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of two Witnesses.

GEO. J. SMITH. STILLMAN M. ATHERTON.

Vitnesses:

ERNEST E. SMITH, N. O. LANE.

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