US651223A - Liquid-air container. - Google Patents

Description

No. 651,223. Patented June 5,1900.

J. S. WRIGHTNOUR.

LIQUID AIR CONTAINER. (Application; filed-Aug. 4, 1899.) (No Model.)

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UNITED STATES.

PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN SPRATT l/VRIGHTNOUR, OF OIL CITY, PENNSYLVANIA.

LIQUID-AIR CONTAINER.

.ePEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 651,223, dated June 5, 1900.

Application filed August 4,1899. Serial No. 726,169. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN SPRATT WRIGHT- NOUR, of Oil City, in the county of Venango and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Liquid-Air Container, of which the followingis a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to a portable apparatus for containing liquid air in such a way that the air may be utilized in residences, hospitals, and like places for purifying and refrigerating the apartments.

This specification is the disclosure of one form of my invention, while the claims define the actual scope thereof.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this specification, in which the figure represents .a vertical section of the invention.

The apparatus may be constructed in any desired cross-sectional form and has a lower or base chamber Aand an upper chamber or reservoir B, divided by a horizontal partition C, which carries a cup D, the cup projecting downward into the chamber A, but having no communication therewith, and the cup opening above the partition 0 into the chamber or reservoir B. The chamber A is constructed hermetically, and it is intended to produce therein a partial vacuum, thus preventing, in part, the transmission of heat to the cup D and avoiding too rapid evaporation of the liquid air which is contained therein, as will be fully explained hereinafter.

For the introduction of the liquid air to the cup D, I provide a tube E, which extends diagonally through the wall of the reservoir B and discharges into the cup, the tube E outside the reservoir having a cock F controlling the admission of the liquid air and a funnel G provided with any suitable filtering apparatus to prevent frozen carbon dioxid, (commonly called carbonic-acid gas,) particles of ice, dust, 850., from entering the reservoir B or the cup D. The liquid air being once introduced into the reservoir B and the cup D, evaporation will begin, although this evaporation will not be of the usual rapidity, owing to the isolation of the cup within the partial vacuum of the chamber A. The first product of this evaporation will be largely nitrogen, as is the case with liquid air, which After the first evaporation has subsided and some of the nitrogen has been thus removed fthe pure oxygenated air may be taken from the reservoir B by means of apipe J, leading from the top thereof and commanded by a cock K. This pipe J may be arranged to discharge the pure air upward at any desired pointfor example, into the very apartment inwhich the apparatus is then placed. WVhen the apparatus has become thoroughly cooled, the pipe H may be opened again, and the oxygenated air will also issue therefrom in another direction. This air, as will'be understood, is intensely cold, and thus serves to refrigerate and to purify the apartment. Further, the liquid air within the container makes the whole apparatus intenselycold, and this further serves in the work of refrigeration.

For conveniently handling the apparatus handles L (made of materials not readily conducting heat or cold, such as wood and felt) are provided in the manner shown. The other materials of the apparatus are preferably to be of metals like copper, lead, or aluminium, which are not made brittle under the intense cold of liquid air, and which, like some of these, best serve to exclude heat from liquid air. They are to be protected from oxidation through frost by paint,such as aluminium paint or other means. All outlets are to be large enough to prevent frost from clogging them.

The reservoir B should be many times larger than the cup D, because, as is Well known, the gases given off by liquid air are of much larger volume than the liquid itself, and to prevent explosion the reservoir B should be made'much larger, yet small enough to force out the expanding gases through the pipes J and H. The exact size will of course be determined by the attendant conditions known to persons skilled in the art. I prefer to construct the reservoir B in such proportion to the cup D that the reservoir will contain one-tenth of the volume of atmospheric airat any one time into which the contents of the cup D might expand. I also prefer to construct the lower part of the container immediately surrounding the ehamberAheavier than the upper part, so as to insure the proper stability of the container and to help to maintain the vacuum.

Liquid air thus treated may be safely and conveniently transported from place to place and employed for ordinary household or sanitary purposes. It is further obvious that the pipe J may be led to any desired part of the house or to any apparatus situated therein for the purpose of purifying and refrigerating the air thereof. 7

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. A liquid-air container, comprising two chambers divided by a hermetic partition, a cup supported by the partition out of contact with the side walls of the container and the cup projecting into one of the chambers and communicating with the other, the chamber in which the cup is projected being hermetically sealed to permit the formation of a partial vacuum therein, and pipes or tubes passing through the container for supplying the liquid air to the cup and for withdrawing the same from the chamber with which the cup communicates.

2. A liquid-air container, having two chambers divided by a hermetic partition, a cup supported by the partition, and projected into one of the chambers and being held out of contact with the walls thereof, the cup communicating with the other chamber and the chamber into which the cup is projected being hermetically sealed to permit the fol-ma tion of a partialvacuum therein, and means for introducing the liquid air into the cup and for carrying off the gases from the charm her with which the cup communicates.

3. Aliquid-air container, having two chambers divided by a hermetic partition, a cup supported by the partition at the middle thereof and out of contact with the side walls of the container, the cup projecting into one of the chambers and communicating with the other, the chamber into which the cup projects being hermetically sealed to permit the formation of a partial vacuum therein, a pipe projected through the wall of the chamber with which the cup communicates and leading to the cup to conduct the liquid air thereto, and two outlet-pipes leading from the chamber with which the cup communicates, said outlet-pipes being at different elevations, for the purpose specified.

A liquid-air container, having a partition formed therein producing two chambers, a cup carried by the partition and projected into one of the chambers, such chamber being sealed to isolate the cup and the cup communicating with the other chamber, and means for conducting the liquid air to the cup and for carrying off the gases from the chamher with which the cup communicates.

' JOHN SPRATT VRIGIITNOUR.

Witnesses:

AUSTIN R. SEAGRAVE, Lucius S. Goss.

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