Have you ever heard of an "Icy Ball" refrigerator?

Question

It would be antique. I don't see an 'antiques' section here.

Answer 1

Icy Ball
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Icy Ball was the name given to an early refrigerator designed by Powell Crosley Jr, somewhere between 1928 and 1938. It was unusual in design in that it did not require the use of electricity for cooling. It instead ran on kerosene, or other heat sources (even a wood stove would work) and allowed rural areas without the luxury of electricity to utilize the benefits of refrigeration.

The Crosley Icy Ball was an example of a sorption cycle refrigerator, as are used in RVs. Unlike an RV fridge, the Icy Ball was not a contiuous cycle, but rather a batch cycle design. The entire refrigeration "mechanism" (quotes, because it had no moving parts at all!) was removed from the refrigeratior cabinet, and regenerated each day.

An understanding the distinguishing features of sorbtion refrigeration is needed to understand how the Icy Ball worked: All refrigeration systems rely on the reduction of pressure to cause liquid refrigerant to evaporate, This partial vacuum must be sustained or cooling action will cease. Mechanical refrigeration systems (the most common type) use the suction side of their compressor to provide this partial vacuum. Absorption refrigerators instead use the affinity of a sorbant material (water in this case) to absorb the refrigerant vapor (ammonia in this case). Though probably the most common, this so called "ammonia cycle" is not the only possible sorbtion refrigeration scheme. It is actually possible to use water as a refrigerant, and e.g. zeolite or glycol as an absorber. In order to maintain refrigeration the absorber must be either periodically (batch systems) or continuously regenerated.

In the simplistic description, the Icy Ball "mechanism" consists of two hollow balls, with an inverted U shaped pipe connecting them. The chest style cabinet is made so that the U tube passes through a slot in the upper wall, leaving one ball inside (cold side) and the other ball outside. (hot-side) Upon completion of regeneration, the cold-side ball contains liquid ammonia, at near anhydrous (no water content) strength. The hot-side ball contains nearly pure water. The tube between the balls, and the space above the liquid contains mostly ammonia vapor, and a small amount of water vapor. The liquid water in the hot-side ball absorbs the ammonia vapor, lowering the pressure. This causes the liquid ammonia to evaporate. The evaporation of the liquid ammonia provides a powerful cooling effect, lowering the temperature of the cold-side ball to around 19 F, sufficient to freeze ice.

By this action, heat is moved from the cold-side ball to the hot-side ball, Therefore the hot-side ball becomes warm. This is undesirable, as the effectiveness of the water as an adsorber is reduced with temperature. The hot-side ball was therefore equipped with (somewhat crude) cooling fins, allowing it to be convection cooled by room air.

Eventually all of the ammonia in the cold-side ball evaporates, leaving a near saturated water/ammonia solution in the hot-side ball. (similar to, but stronger than household cleaning ammonia) At this point the refigeratior stops working, and must be regenerated.

Regeneration is accomplished by heating the hot-side ball. The ammonia adsorbing capacity of water is temperature dependent. As the temperature increases, the ammonia desorbs from the water. A second requirement for regeneration is that the cold side ball must be kept reasonably cool, so that the ammonia vapor desorbed from the water will condense into the liquid ammonia needed for refrigeration. This was traditionally accomplished by immersing the cold-side ball in a tub, or bucket of water.

The actual construction of the Icy-ball is slightly more complex than described above. Several features were incorporated to improve the efficiency (bubbling the ammonia vapor through the water) and to minimize the amount of water transferred to the cold-side ball during the regeneration cycle (trapping structures).

Additionally, the cold-side ball had a tube into which a special ice-cube tray could be placed - the forerunner of the "freezing compartment) in more modern refrigerators.

While the Crosley Icy ball refrigeratior has gone the way of the buggy whip, sorption cycle refrigeration is still with us. In addition to RV applications, ammonia cycle refrigerators are still used in undeveloped countries. These are also batch-cycle devices, but incorporate various condensers, check valves, integral kerosene burner, etc, so that the dissassembly and tub of water required to regenerate the Icy Ball are no longer needed. Ammonia refrigeration is also used in large industrial applications, where it's efficiency more than compensates for the higher initial cost, and associated risk. Though it was once fairly popular for home air conditioning, concerns related to ammonia leakage have caused mechanical refrigeration to dominate that market.

Answer 2

Actually Crosley purchased the patent from the inventor David Forbes Keith of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The patent was filed in 1927 and granted in 1928. It s commonly "reinvented" by students and even survivalists. The Crosley IcyBall boiled a mixture of ammonia and water, condensing the water in the cold ball however there was nothing to stop you from boiling the water to dangerous pressures hence it had a whistle built in much like a tea kettle so it would whistle when the water began to boil, it also had a pressure release valve set at 350 psi in case the vessel did exceed it s design pressure of 250 psi, even so, the instructions suggested limiting the burner to less than one cup of kerosene to avoid overboiling as ammonia gas is deadly. DIY versions often copy the ammonia water method ( ammonia as the refrigerant and water as the absorbant ) but without the whistle hence the probability for disaster is high. A safer DIY method would be to put silica gel ( the adsorbant, adsorb is when a solid is used ) in the hot ball secured by a fine metal mesh, use water as the refrigerant and use a vacuum pump to create a vacuum, of course guaranteeing a seal would be difficult so frequent pump outs may be required. If a valve is placed between the hot ball and cold ball, you can delay the refrigeration cycle by closing the valve on a charged system but valves are a source of leakage. If you use ammonia, you can not use copper, you must use stainless steel, aluminum or galvanized mild steel.

What killed the Icyball was the Great Depression which caused the government to sponsor massive infrastructure spending such as introducing electrical services to rural communities.

Answer 3

properly, like the checklist instructed me if we are able to do it to animals like canines and cats to make confident they're ok, then BEND OVER, lol. I in simple terms hate that component of an examination. I propose, it wasn't designed for that,lol would not a flashlight artwork extra suited.