1862 London Exhibition: Catalogue: Class VIII.: Daniel Siebe
1986. SIEBE, DANIEL, 17 Mason Street, Lambeth.
Harrison's patent ice-making machine.
PATENT IMPROVED ICE-MAKING MACHINE, capable of converting 24 cwt. (269 gallons) of spring or river water into blocks of solid ice without the use of chemicals, the ice being more or less transparent, in proportion to the relative quantity acted on at the same time.
The principle upon which this machine is constructed, is an application of the well known natural law, that, by evaporating fluids, the caloric contained therein passes off with the vapour, thereby reducing the temperature of the evaporating body. It will be seen on referring to the apparatus that science has been brought to the aid of nature, in the first place by the use of a volatile fluid as an evaporative agent; secondly, by a powerful pump, which, in its continued efforts to form a vacuum, assists the evaporation at a low temperature on the one hand, and by pressure with the assistance of water at an ordinary temperature, reduces the vapour again to a fluid on the other hand, thereby using and re-using the same volatile fluid without loss. In other words, the invention consists in the evaporation of volatile fluids in vacuo, at a low temperature, and condensing at a higher temperature, by pressure, and water at an ordinary temperature.
These machines can be made of any dimensions, the largest however at present in use produces 10 tons of ice daily. The manufacture of ice in tropical climates is the most important and successful operation, both in a sanitary and pecuniary point of view, to which refrigerating machinery on this principle has yet been applied, in many countries, where cooling drinks cease to be only a luxury, and become an actual necessity to Europeans; for it has been found impossible from the difficulties of transport, and loss in transit, to keep up the supply of natural ice, or to make it a remunerative speculation. These machines have been of the greatest service; for regardless of the high atmospheric temperature, the ice is formed daily on the spot where it is required for use, thereby avoiding all loss. It may not be out of place to remark here that one of the many machines now successfully at work is established nearly under the equator in Peru, supplying the neighbourhood with ice, an article rarely if ever seen in those regions before.
The cooling of hospitals, and other buildings, is a subject which of late has attracted considerable attention, the formation of thermopathic sanitoriums in India has long been felt and acknowledged by eminent medical men, and has been discussed by the commission of inquiry into the sanitary condition of the army of India. The method proposed, is to reduce to, and retain the temperature at the required degree, by artificial means, on the converse of the principle by which buildings are warmed in this country. It has been proved by experiment that this is practicable, the inside temperature of a chamber having been reduced to within 6 degrees of freezing point, whilst the thermometer outside ranged at 90° Fahrenheit. How many valuable lives of our own public men who succumb to the climate of India might be saved, and their health as well as that of our army, secured at a comparative small outlay when weighed against the benefit derived, it is impossible to form a just estimate.
The cooling of wort in breweries and distilleries is a process to which these machines, by reason of their immense refrigerative power and their capabilities to remove the caloric and lower the temperature of the wort to any desired degree are admirably adapted. It has been tested in Australia, both by direct action and by cooling a quantity of water to be used in the ordinary refrigerators and attemperators. It thus obviates the necessity of brewing only in winter in this country, and renders it possible to brew with success in any hot climate.
Salting and preserving meat, etc. is also materially assisted, as well as purity and wholesomeness secured, by the application of refrigerating machinery. The meat being removed, before congelation takes place, to a chamber kept at a low temperature, the salting trough being also kept at or near freezing point, the formation of animalculae is entirely prevented, and salting may be carried on at any season of the year.
An admirable plan of preserving alimentary substances at a low temperature, has been proposed by Admiral Sir Charles Elliot, which, if carried out, would no doubt prove most valuable and beneficial.
It may be interesting to experimentalists to learn that 20 degrees below zero (52 degrees of cold), Fahrenheit, has been easily obtained and continued for some time.