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Show First Ice Manufacturing 'Machine Made Only a Ton a Day ICE has always been looked upon as a luxury in warm weather, and this early led to the storing o! it in winter nnd preserving it for summer use. Both the Greeks and Romans at first preserved snow, closely packed in-underground cellars, and at a laer period the Emperor Nero established icehouses in Rome, which greatly resembled re-sembled thoso in use at the present day. Nevertheless, the demand exceeded ex-ceeded the natural supply and they had to resort to snow, which was brought from the summit of distant mountains and packed away in airtight air-tight cellars, Notwithstanding the facilities for importing ice, there is, and always will be, a necessity for procuring It locally, if possible. This, as a matter of course, cannot be done in hot countries, coun-tries, and consequently much talent has been brought to bear in devising means for artificial freezing. Until recently, however, the modes of producing artificial ice Avere too costly to be practically useful, but of late years it has been greatly simplified, simpli-fied, and machines have been constructed con-structed that do the work both satisfactorily satis-factorily and cheaply. 1 In many portions of the country establishments have been erected in which nature's deficiency will be supplied sup-plied by such means. Experiments in the refrigerating and ice-making line were made as far ; back as 1S2-1 by John Val lance, and . in 1834 by Jacob Perkins, but it was ! not until 1855 that results were pro- duced which could be called practical. Prof. Twining of New Haven had i been experimenting with sulphuric ether between the years 1S4S and 1S50, and In the latter year obtained his first patent in England. Three years later he obtained the American patent, and in 1S55 he operated a machine in Cleveland, Ohio, which was intended to produce 2,000 pounds of ice in twenty-four hours. The actual amount of ice it produced pro-duced was 1.C00 pounds. In this machine, ma-chine, which was only operated for two yenrs, the "compression" system in use today is completely represented, represent-ed, and on this account Twining deserves de-serves the credit of not only being the inventor, but also of having carried it out in practice. On account, however, of the inflammability inflam-mability of ether, and other obstacles that this pioneer machine presented, inventors turned their attention to other substances besides other, better adapted to the purpose, among which were ammonia, sulphuric oxide, carbonic car-bonic acid, nicUiylic ether, nitrous oxide, methalamine' and chymogene. Anhydrous ammonia, or ammouical gas, when entirely deprived of moisture, moist-ure, was found of all others to answer the purpose of artificial refrigeration-. Its boiling point is 27 degrees Fahrenheit Fahren-heit below zero at tho pressure of the atmosphere, the gas producing sufficiently suffi-ciently low temperature at a boiling' pressure of 15 to 25 pounds per square inch. Not till 1S5S was any notable progress prog-ress made in tho art of. refrigeration, nor any new ideas advanced. In that year Ferdinand Carre, a Frenchman, proposed an entirely new and original plan of liquefying ammonia by using therefor the aqueous solution in 75 parts of water. This is called the "absorption system." Carre's machine had its defects also, and inventors turned their attention again to the mechanical compression of anhydrous gas, which is accomplished accomplish-ed by means of s. powerful vacuum f''w1 the and compression pumps, but- the mechanical me-chanical difficulties here presented are of such a serious nature-that the absorption system still remains in use to a( large extent. Ammonia gas is made out of the .refuse of illuminating gas water. The illuminating gas undergoes a process of wasliing before it will burn clearly, and the water through which this gas has been passed in order to be cleansed of impurities is what -is generally gen-erally termed aqua ammonia. This is distilled, the water taken out of it, and the pure, dry ammonia gas is that which remains. This gas is called hydrous ammonia. In this slate it is used for freezing purposes. Because of Its greateVaporating capacity, ca-pacity, up to the present time it Is considered con-sidered to be the most efficient agent for the purpose of manufacturing ice. One cubic inch of this ammonia gaa in its liquid state is capable of expansion expan-sion to, 1,100 times its original volume. vol-ume. The chief object in making ice is to make it as cheap as possible, and in order to do that a number of inventors have put their brains to work. One of the most effective methods is described as follows: , The exhaust steam, after it has done the compressing of the ammonia gas, is utilized. This steanl Is passed through a volume of water to wash it, in order to take out the oil or traces of oil. The steam is then filtered, and after that condensed Into water again. The same water is used for cooling the compressed ammonia gas before the liquefication of said gas takes place.. After the water has been condensed it is never allowed to be exposed to the atmosphere, but is kept in a system sys-tem of pipes up to the time that it is )on't blame yourrelations-in-lav y don't like you. 'They.-are-not,-msiblefor'you. filled into the cans or molds in which the ice is frozen. The water passes through the filter and condenser into a so-called, water regulator, which works automatically, automatical-ly, and thence is taken into a deodorizer de-odorizer for the purpose of doing away with the unpleasant taste and smell of condensed water. The deodorizer Is chiefly cqmposed of animal charcoal. From the deodorizer deodor-izer the water circulates through a system of pipes and Is cooled by tho machine again to a temperature of from 32 to 35 degrees. ft then enters the molds or cans. To freeze a block of ice, say of 300 pounds weight, requires sixty hours of constant work under a temperature of about IS to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, It is necessary to freeze slowly in order to get absolutely crystal-clear ice. After the can has been frozen, it is. pulled out pf the brine tank by a hoist and traveling crane, and brought to a thawing apparatus, which is rfiflinT. n fnnl.- flllorl n'ith u-ni'm ivnfor or else a sprinkler. . After being thawed out of the cans, the blocks, by means of a slide, arc run into the storage house, where they are kept until put on wagons for delivery. de-livery. The brine tank is made of iron or steel, and'its size depends on the ca-pacitj; ca-pacitj; of .the plant in which the cooling cool-ing coils are kept These coils are connected with the machine proper in such a way that the ammonia gas, after aft-er having taken up the heat of the -water contained in the cans, is brought into the compressor of the machine and is llfcn rccompressed into a liquid. Ammonia gas in its compressed state only liquefies under a certain temperature, and therefore the compressed com-pressed gas when it leaves the ma- chine is circulated through a system pipes called the condensors, over which a. continuous stream of water is run for the purpose of cooling them. The cost of the product depends entirely en-tirely on the economical working of the machine and (he proper application applica-tion of its capacity, and is composed of the following items: Engineers, firemen, helpers for handling the ice, .fuel, water, wear and tear of machinery machin-ery and Interest on capital invested. These machines are made from one-half one-half of a ton of ice capacity up to 100 tons capacity per twenty-four hours' work. The price range from $5,500 to ?130,000 for each machine. Many persons entertain the erroneous errone-ous idea that ice made in this manner is neither as pure nor as healthful as. the natural product, but a moment's thought should convince any intelli-gent intelli-gent person that of the two the former is decidedly preferable in both respects. |