US644268A - Refrigerator-car. - Google Patents

Description

Patented Feb. 27, 900.-

' .1. ZDB'RIST v REFRIGERATOR CAR.

(Application filed Apr. 6, 1899.)

(No Model.)

110: HOME PETERS cg. moTo-u'rna, vqnsuma'rom D. c.

UNiTED STAT S PATENT OFFICE,

JOHN ZOBRIST, OF HANFORD, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE JOHN ZOBRIST REFRIGERATOR AND VENTILATOR COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

REFRIGERATOR-CAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 644,268, dated February 27, 1900.

Application filed April 6, 1899- Serial N0. 711,997. (No model.) I

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN ZOBRIST, a citizen of the United States, residing at I-Ianford, county of Kings, State of California, have invented an Improvement in Refrigerator-Cars; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to improvements in cars for the transportation of perishable fruits and like goods.

It consists, essentially, in the parts and the constructions and combinations of parts hereinafter described andclaimed.

Figure 1 is a Vertical longitudinal section through the center of a car. Fig. 2 is a cross section through the bottom portion of the same. Fig. 3 is a View of a fruit-box used in connection with my car.

A is the body of the'car, which may be of any usual or suitable description, as my devices are easily applied to any car and are designed to be removable to the extent of restoring the car to its ordinary uses whenever desired. 7

In each end of the car is formed a vertical box B, and centrally within this box is a chamber formed bya coarse-meshed wire screen C. These chambers are preferably made rectangular and of sucha size as to receive blocks of ice, which are let down into them through openings in the roof, which are afterward closed by hermetically sealing doors D. Around the ice-chamber C is an annular space E, the exterior wall of which consists of an open-meshed fabric, and between this fabric and the outer wall of the box or casing B is a space F, which is filled with salt, lime, or other substance which will absorb moisture. The lower end of the ice-containing chamber is of concave form, so that the water from the melting ice will be received therein, and by means of a drain-pipe G, having a trap at G, this water is discharged as fast as it may be formed.

Between the lower ends of the vertical boxes or casings B extends a framework consisting of horizontally-disposed boards H,having supporting legs or brackets I at intervals, and the boards H are also separated, so as to form a central open channel between them from one end to the other of the car. There are no sides to this structure, and it is made in desirable to clear the bottom of the car for use for transporting other g0ods.

The lower ends of the chambers B have circular openings directly into the space beneath the boards H, and within these openings are fan-wheels J, which are driven by mechanism to be hereinafter described, so asto draw the air continually through the passages E around the ice-containin g chamber and to deliver it into the passage formed beneath the boards H.

The top of the car has a lining K, which is preferably made of sheet metal and extends from side to side, where it is suitably fastened, and from the ends, where it connects with the air-passages around the ice-chambers, toward the center,where there is an open space. The distance between this lining and the top of the car is suificient to allow air to move freely through it, and'the air which is driven by the fans J through the passage formed along the central bottom of the car is discharged through the contents of the car, finding its way to the top, and it passes out through the openingL into the passages above the linings K, thence returns in each direction to the ice-chambers, being thus constantly circulated as long as the fans are in motion. The surrounding bodies of salt or other moisture-absorbing substance serve to keep the air in a dry condition, and the floor of the car in the central passage beneath the boards H may also be coated with unslaked lime, which assists in removing the moisture from the air, so that as it passes up through the contents of the car it does not deposit moisture therein.

Where the car is designed for the shipment of fruit, the boards H are set at suchaheight from the floor that one or two rows of fruitboxes set upon each side form a closure for the channel. The height of the boards H from the floor of the car is such thatthe succeeding rows of boxes may be piled across and over this channel and the car then filled up with the boxes. A narrow space is left between the central row of boxes, this space 00- inciding with the channel h, which is left between the boards II, and, as the boxes are all made with cleats a across the ends, when piled there would be sufficient space between the rows of boxes for a free circulation of the air which is forced into the car by the revolving fans J. The whole of the contents of the car will thus be subjected to the action of the cooled and dry air.

In order to reduce the circulation of air, I have shown a pumping mechanism consisting of cylinders O, the pistons of which are 0011* nected with cranks upon the shaft I. This shaft has upon it africtional wheel Q, which contacts with a corresponding driving-wheel R, fixed upon the car-axle S. The journalboxes of the crank-shaf t P are slidable in guides, so that the shaft and its roller Q may be raised out of contact with the roller B when it is desired to stop the operation of the pumps and lowered into contact again when it is desired to continue the operation. The shaft P passes through a framework or hanger T, which is connected with a plunger or piston within a cylinder U, and by means of a pipe V, leading from the compressed-air cylinder, when the compression in said cylinder has reached the desired degree it will act to raise the piston in the cylinder U, and thus disengage the pulley or roller Q from the driver R on the car-axle, when the pumps will stop until the pressure has again become reduced sufficiently to allow the pulleys to again co [no in contact. The air pumped by the pistons and the cylinders O is delivered into a receiver W, within which it maybe compressed to any desired degree, limited, as previously described, by the mechanism by which the driving-pulley is thrown out of action. From the receiver W a pipe X leads to each end of the car, and in a passage in the end of the car is located a motor-wheel Y, which is mounted upon the same shaft with the fan J, so that the air passing through the motor or propeller wheel Y will rotate the fan J and create a circulation. The air thus admitted .when it escapes from the motor Y passes into the circulation of the car, and thus keeps up a supply of air to compensate for any leakage or loss through cracks or openings in the car; but the main body of air is continually circulated within the car without any accessions from the outside except such as has already passed through the pumps and into the receiver W', so that no dust or exterior hot air will be delivered into the car at all. As the temperature of the air is very little raised by its passage through the body of the car after it has once been reduced to the desired degree, it will be seen that the action of this return air upon the ice will not melt the latter with any great rapidity, and I am therefore enabled to operate my apparatus with a very much smaller quantity of ice than under the usual conditions where ice is used in refrigerator-cars.

I have here described an ail-forcing mechsource under the control of the engineer or other trainman.

Having thus described my invention,what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a refrigerating-car, vertically-disposed ice-chambers at opposite ends of the car, hermetically-closing doors in the roof through which ice may be lowered into said chambers open-work walls surrounding the ice-chainbers, an annular air-passage exterior thereto, a second open or net work wall outside of said air-chamber,a body of salt packed in the space exterior to said network wall and between it and an outer closed casing, a lining extending across the top of the car and from end to end thereof forming a passage between it and the roof having a central opening communi eating with the body of the car and openings at the ends communicating with the air-passages surrounding the ice-chamber, a passage formed along the center of the floor of the car around and over which the boxes are packed,

openings between the opposite ends of said passage and the lower ends of the refrigerating air-chambers at the ends of the car, fans revoluble in said openings and mechanism whereby they are driven to cause a circulation of air through the refrigerating-chambers and the body of the car.

2. A refrigerator-car having vertically-disposed refrigerating chambers at opposite ends, boards extending longitudinally along the car and having spaced legs or brackets by which they are supported above the car-floor to form a longitudinal air-passage open at the sides, said boards also separated along their inner edges to form a central open channel between them and said boards and legs removable to permit access to the floor beneath, and means for forcing air through said passage and the refrigerating-chambers.

3. A refrigerator-car having boxes at each end, ice-chambers interior to said boxes and separated therefrom to form an air-passage, a filling of salt surrounding the air-passage, a longitudinal,open-sided air-passage along the floor of the car and formed of longitudinal boards separated along their longitudinal edges, a packing of moisture-absorbing material in the longitudinal passage beneath the boards said boards removable to give access to said packing, an air-passage along the upper part of the car and means for forcing air through said passages.

4. A refrigerator-car having an air-passage centrally along its bottom and containing a packing of moisture-absorbing material, said passage formed of sections including longitudinal boards and supports, and removable to give access to the bottom of the car and the filling,ice-chambers in the ends of the car and surrounded by moisture-absorbing material, and an air-passage in the upper part of the car and connecting with passages surrounding the ice-chambers, a fan disposed in each end of the longitudinal passage for forcing the air from each end toward the center of the car and circulating the air through said passages, and means for operating the fans by compressed air.

5. A refrigerator-car having vertically-disposed refrigeratingchambers at opposite ends and containing moisture-absorbing material, an air-distributing channel along the floor of the car also containing said material, return-passages adjacent to the roof of the car, horizontal shafts under each refrigerating-chamber, fan-wheels at the ends of the distributing-channel and fixed to the inner ends of the shafts, motor-wheels on the outer ends of said shafts, an air-compressing mechanism including a storage reservoir and closed passages from said reservoir and opening into the car proximate to the motor-wheels whereby the latter are driven and in turn drive the fans.

6. In an apparatus of the character described, a car having Vertically-disposed ref ri geratiu g-chambers containing moisture-absorbing material, an air-distributing channel along the floor of the car and also containing said material,return-passages adjacent to the roof of the car, fan-wheels in the distributingchannel and means whereby said wheels are driven including compressed-air cylinders, pump cylinders with pistons reciprocating therein and connecting with cranks upon a crank-shaft, a driving-wheel fixed upon the car-axle and a second wheel adapted to contact therewith fixed upon the crank-shaft, a frame within which the crank-shaft is journaled, a cylinder having a plunger movable therein upon which said frame is suspended and a pipe connecting said cylinder with the compression-receiver whereby the pressure therefrom acts upon the plunger to raise the journal-frame and crank-shaft and disengage the contact-pulleys to stop the pumps.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

JOHN ZOBRIST.

Witnesses: I

S. H. NOURSE, JEssIE C. Bnonin.

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