US652759A - Refrigerating and refrigerant. - Google Patents

Description

Patented Iuly 3, |900.

SQ H. EMMENS. BEFRIGERATING"AND REFRIGEBANT. (Application led July 1'5, 1899.)

('No'Model.)

UNTED STATES STEPHEN I-I. EMMENS, OF-NEW YORK, N. Y.

REFRIGERATING4 ANQ REFRIGERANT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 652,759, dated July 3, 1900. Application and Jun-15,1899. saai No. 723,948. on specimens.)

To a/ZZ whom it may concern/.-

Be it known that I, STEPHEN HENRY EM- MENS, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and a resident of the borough of Richmond, in the city and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Refrigerating and Refrigerants, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has for its object the preparation and use of refrigerating substances possessing a much greater cooling power than those hitherto employed in the arts or for the purposes of every-day life and not being capable of conversion into gas at ordinary atmospheric temperature.

In carrying out my invention I avail myself of the high degrees of cold which have of late years become available on a commercial scale by the manufacture of apparatus for liquefying air. To these frigid conditions I subject substances that remain liquid at average atmospheric temperatures after irstin closing the same in hermetically-sealed cans, so as to preserve the same for repeated use, as hereinafter set forth, and I continue the cooling until solidiication is attained and until the same are snperfrozen by cooling them down to the temperature of liquid air.V 'I am thus enabled to prepare portable blocks of material containing varying amounts of coldz'. e., negative thermal units reckoned from the temperature to which the refrigerants are ultimately to rise when employed for cooling purposes-which blocks are then removed from their freezing environment and used as refrigeran ts in refrigerators, railroad cars, ships, and other places'.n In order to conveniently transport and use the said blocks in a preferred way, .they are put in'cases or jackets of felt-lined wood or other partially-heatinsulating material, by means of which the cans are protected from injury during transport and the coolingpower of the blocks is regulated as to speed of action, and when such cooling power is exhausted the jacketed cans are returned to the charging-station, where by removing the cases and exposing the cans to the before-mentioned frigid conditions the blocks are reconstituted. In cases where the abovedescribed blocks are required to be Yused for the purpose of providing a supply of ordinary ice I may provide the jackets with a recess in which a metallic trayof water may be placed in contact with the can containing the frozen or superfrozen refrigerant.

A sheet of drawingsaccompanies this speciiication as part thereof.

, Figure l of these drawings represents a 1ongitudinal section through an individual block of the improved refrigerant and its jacket. Fig. '2 is an endelevation of the jacket shown in Fig. l; and Fig. 3 is a plan view of a shipping-case with the top removed, illustrating the method of transporting cooling power in greater quantities.

Like letters refer to like parts in all the igures.

My refrigerant is used in the form of one or more blocks B, preferably and conveniently rectangular in shape, each block consisting of a hermetically-sealed sheet-metal recepya rectangular opening through which the @ick- Bef the refrigerant can be introduced into the interior of the case, which is conformed thereto and has a felt lining C. A

quadrangular frame or distance piece D fits into the opening of the case and forms within it a recess in which is placed a metallic tray E. A felt-lined lid F iits inside the tray and forms one side of the case, being connected with the body of the case by suitable fastenings, as hooks and staples G. A stirrupshaped metallic strap H and a handle I at the open end of the strap provide convenient means by which to lift and handle the jack` eted block. When a supply of ice is required, the lid F is removed and the tray E is filled with water and then covered with the lid turned top downward.

In the transportation of cooling power in greater quantities a number of metal-clad blocks B are preferably.. andv conveniently packed side by side without interstices Yof substantial extent within a shippingzcase' A, having a felt lining C, as in Fig. 3.

The substances that I employ for the manufacture of my improved refrigerants are water, brine, cryohydrates--that is to say, saline solutions of such a strength in each ,tacle or can l'illed with a superfrozen liquid IOO particular case as to have a minimum freezing-point-alcohols, and mixtures of water with glycerin or alcohol, or both. For eX- ample, by exposing water to the low temperatures obtainable by means of a liquid-air apparatus I manufacture superfrozen ice having a temperature of 300 below zero Fahrenheit. One pound of this substance in rising to 42 Fahrenheit will absorb three hundred and fifteen thermal units, whereas a pound of ordinary ice as supplied to domestic refrigerators Will absorb only one hundred and iifty-four units. By my invention I am thus enabled to more than double the cooling power of ice, thereby effecting a great economy of weight, bulk, and expense. substance, however, that I prefer to employ is a liquid which I name glyee and which consists of Iifty percent. of water and fifty per cent. of glycerin. It freezes at about 23 below zero Fahrenheit and has a specific heat greater than that of ice. One pound of glyce, if superf'rozen to 300 below zero Fahrenheit, is capable when acting as a refrigerant and rising to 42 Fahrenheit of absorbing three hundred and fifty-eight thermal units, thus being considerably more efiicient than superfrozen ice.

For special purposes the refrigerant may be put up in cylindrical, spherical, and other shapes, as well as in rectangular blocks of any desired proportions, and other like modifications will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

I am aware that for the purpose of regulating the action of refrigerating apparatus it has been proposed to include in such apparatus stationary closed cans or receptacles containing a liquid having the function o f alternately freezing and thawing to a greater or less extent dependent upon the excess or defeet of negative heat in the circulating refrigerant as compared with the atmosphere The or other matter to be cooled. AThis, however, is entirely distinct from my invention, which does not consist in any system of regulation, but is an entirely new method of utilizing the new materialliquid air-for the production of a refrigerant available for general use in the form of portable blocks.

The term hermetically as herein used is intended to mean tightly with reference to preventing leakage without limitation as to the mode of sealing. The term "superfrozen is intended to mean reduced below the normal solidifying temperature of the liquid to the temperature of liquid air at normal atmospheric pressure.

Having thus described said improvement, I claim as my invention and desire to patent under this specification l. The method of producing refrigerante in the form of portable blocks consistingin hermetically inclosiug a non-volatile liquid within sheet-metal cans, and su perfreezing the same by exposure 1o the cooling action of liquid air.

2. The method of producing refrigerants in the form of portable` blocks consisting in hermetieally inclosing a mixture of Water and L glycerin within sheet-metal cans, and superfreezing the same in the manner herein specied.

3. A refrigerant in the form of a portable block consisting of a su perfrozen non-volatile liquid hermetically inclosed within a .sheetmetal can.

4, A refrigerant in the form of a portable block, consisting of a superfrozen mixture of water and glycerin hermeticall y inclosed within a sheet-metal can.

STEPHEN 1I. EMMENS.

Witnesses:

NEWTON W. EMMENS, WILLIAM MoLLoY.

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