US669537A - Refrigerator. - Google Patents

Description

No. 669,537.' Patented Mar. l2, I90I.

J. mcuAuo. REFRIGERATOR.

(Application filed Feb. 21, 1899.)

(No Model.)

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JOHN MICHAUD, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

REFRIGERATOR.

SEEQLFIGAZLEON forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 669,537, dated March 12, 1901.

Application filed February 21, 1899. Serial No. 706,376. (No model To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN MICHAUD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Refrigerators, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

Myimprovements relate to means for maintaining a low temperature in refrigerators withoutthe employment of ice, their objects being to enable the occupants of buildings to utilize their chimney-fines in combination with the refrigerator-placed upon a lower floor to keep a low temperature in the refrigerator during all or most of the year, and thus avoid the use of ice and the deleterious dampness attendant upon its use; and the invention consists in the specific combination and arrangement, as hereinafter described, and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

My invention is fully illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure I is a vertical section of a refrigerator of my improved construction combined with so much of a building, shown also in vertical section, as is necessary to illustrate my invention. Fig. II is a vertical section of a refrigerator, taken at right angles to the view shown in Fig. I.

Referring to the drawings, 0 is a refrigerator provided with the usual racks and shelves for retaining household supplies and is shown located on the lower floor of a building be tween its walls B B, one of which is the outer wall.

D is a pipe leading from the lower part of the refrigerator to. the outer air, extending, as shown, through the outer wall B to the outer air and covered Within the apartment by a felt, asbestos, or other non-conducting packin Within the refrigerator, upon its inner wall, is a door or valve m, movable to automatically open or close the part formed by inner end of pipe D.

E is a pipe leading from a point in the top of the refrigerator to a fine F in one of the walls B.

G is a fan or blower interposed between the refrigerator and the wall, having the flue F on the pipe E, and which may be driven by electric or other convenient power.

The fine F is supposed to be the ordinary chimney-flue, and when the refrigerator is upon the lower floor of a tall buildingsuch as most hotels are-a powerful draft will be caused to extend through the refrigerator, cool air being drawn therethrough from near the surface of the earth, and the services of a blower will not be needed; but where a building has not the desired altitude to cause a strong draft through its chimney the fan may be employed as an auxiliary to produce the required draft through the refrigerator. There is thus a constant tendency for the air to pass up flue F from the upper part of the refrigerator whenever the air conditions in the refrigerator permit air escape.

The refrigerator shown in Fig. I, out of pro portion to the size of the compartment in a dwelling which would contain it, for the sake of better illustration has ample space around it for a passage-way, and the room, which may be a living-room, may always have a temperature as high as would be the case in such rooms without modifying the temperature within the refrigerator, so that the dampness and expense of ice may not only be avoided, but the refrigerator may be placed in apartments where ice could not well be dragged to be placed therein. To render a refrigerator thus operated by an induced current of air effective, it would not be enough to depend upon an observance of the outdoor temperature, together with normal means employed to cut off access of the outer air to the interior of the refrigerator, as a sudden drop in temperature, liable to occur over a large portion of the year, to below freezing would injure the contents of the refrigerator, and to obviate which danger I combine with the fresh-air pipe D a door m for closing its inner mouth and mechanism as follows for automaticallyoperating the door m when the temperature within the refrigerator approaches the freezing-point.

his a contraction metal rod, as shown in Fig. II, with one end made fast at b to a side ofthe refrigerator and extended down the refrigerator side in supports 0 c, in which it is free to slide in contracting. The lower free end of rod h is hinged to the shorter end ofa lever y, extending at right angles to said rod. The lever y, hinged to the side of the refrigerator, has a longer arm hinged to the bottom of a rod d, carried up the side of the refrigerator parallel to red It through the supports 0 c in openings therein which allow it a longitudinal movement, and the slight lateral motion due to the vibration of lever y and the rod d is hinged at its upper end near the fulcrum of a lever a. The leverct, hinged to the side of the refrigerator and extending at right angles to rod d, is hinged to rod (1 between its fulcrum and free end, so, as in case of lever y, a short movement at one end of the lever is magnified many times at the other end, the result of which system of compound levers is that a short contraction of rod h imparts a swing over a large arc to the free end of lever a. The free end of lever a is linked by a rod 3 to the top of door m, sliding in ways over the mouth of pipe D. The rod h and system of levers are adjusted to cause the contraction of rod 77/ to close the doorm just before 32 Fahrenheit is reached. All of the levers and rods are in the same plane, and their projection or relief from the side of the refrigerator is so small as not to interfere with the capacit; of the refrigerator.

In Fig. I the section taken leaves out the View of the contracting rod and levers, which are believed to be shown clearly in Fig. II.

I am aware that the principle of expansion in metal rods and mercury has been utilized to close valves and dampers when the temperature became too high, but believe the reverseor contraction of a metal rod as specifically applied and combined with a refrigerator operated by induced draft, as shown and described, is entirely new, as I am able to combine it with one wall of the refrigerator to project only a fraction of an inch into the receptacle-space, Whereas all forms of thermostats shown require a comparatively large space in depth for their working parts.

Now, having described my invention, what I claim is l. The within-described dry-air refrigerator com prising a receptacle 0, arranged upon the floor of a compartment in a building and removed from the walls thereof, a pipe D extended from 'the bottom of the receptacle through the compartment and through one of its walls to the outer air, and packed externally within the compartment, a chimneyflue F in one wall of the compartment and extended to the top of the building, a pipe E from the top of receptacle G forming a passage-way from the receptacle to the flue, a door m combined with the mouth of pipe D within the receptacle and a thermostat combined with door m and comprising a contracting rod h secured to an inner wall of the receptacle and levers y, d and a operatively connected to rod 7?, and door m and adapted to lie in the same plane and fiat against one wall of the receptacle-all combined and operat ing as and for the purpose set forth.

2. A refrigerator within the walls of a building, a pipe opening at one end within the lower part of the refrigerator and at the other end withoutthe outer wall of the building, a valve within the refrigerator arranged to open or close the inner end of said pipe, a thermallyoperated device within the refrigerator operating to close the valve when the temperature falls below freezing, and a ventilating-passage leading from the upper part of the refrigerator to the outer air above the building, all combined substantially as described.

JOHN MIOHAUD.

Witnesses:

R. F. HYDE, E. E. CASE.

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