US91776A - Frederick - Google Patents

Description

vPannerdens. SEARS, or CHARLESTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS.

I Letters Patent No. 91,777v 6, dated June 22,-1869.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FREDERICK S. SEARS, of Charlestown, in the county of Middlesex, and State of' Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Butter- Chest;l and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which aecompany and form part of this I specification, is a description of my invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practise it. l

l n keeping butter for sale in warm weather, dealers place the butter-containing boxes and rkius in large ice-chests, in which the ice is placed directly upon the bottom oi' the chest, and as the water from the melted ice -is generally irnperfectly led off, the butter-firkins and boxes stand in water, greatly to the injury of the butter contained therein, and as the walls of these large chests are generally made of unlined wood, they soon become permeated with water, thereby adding to the impure dampness of the chest.

My invention relates to the construction of such receptacles for butter-containing boxes and irkins, with reference to provision for holding and draining the ice, in such manner as to leave the whole floorspace or body of the chest unobstructed by the ice,

which is contained in a chamber over the rear part of the chest, said chamber opening at bottom into the main chamber, through spaces between tiers of draining-shelves, the edges of which shelves overlap, so that if water drips from the edge of one, it falls upon the shelf beneath.

It is in a butter-chest having this construction, that my invention consists.

The drawings representa chest embodying the improvement.

, A shows a vertical cross-section of the chest. B, a section on the line ai az.

a denotes a case having aheight, in Vthe clear, somewhat in excess of the height of the largest sizes of butter-rkins, and having any desirable length and width in the clear.

At the front part of the top of this case is a lid, b, covering an opening, which, when uncovered, freely permits admission and removal of the firkins of butter, a front'ilap, c, being thrown down, if necessary, to facilitate such admission and removal.

Back of the'lid b, the chest is covered by an upright. case, d, the space in which forms au ice-containing chamber, c, the ice being preferably put into the case thronghan end opening, f, closed by a flap or door, g, arid resting upon cross-slats or bars h.

Below' these bars or grid arc series of drip-shelves, i, each inclining inward, the two inner ones being over a trough or wide'shelj, having at its opposite edges upturned lips, k.

The space between the adjacent edges of each two adjacent shelves, allows the' air to circulate from Iall parts of the chest freely against the surfaces ofthe ice on the grid-bars, and as the cold air descends, it keeps the whole buttercontaining chamber frigid or cool, while all the water running from the ice as it melts, drops upon the shelves, and is, by them or by the lower shelf, conducted oii through a Suitable 'drain or wastepipe.

Over the grid-bars a sheet of wire cloth may be laid, to prevent dirt, or other foreign matters upon the ice, from dropping into the butter-containing chamber.

. The ice-containing box may be laid upon the chest, (a tongue-and-g1oove connection enabling the box to be readily removed, and making a suliciently-tight joint when the box and chest Vare t0gether,) or the walls of the lbutter-containing chamber may be extended up, to form the ends and outer side of the same.

I claim the combination of thechest a, constructed substantially as described, with the ice-containing chamber e, series of dripping-shelves i, and trough j.

Y FRED. S. SEARS.4

Witnesses:

FRANCIS GoULD, J. B;OnosBY.

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