Siebe Brothers
Siebe Brothers, refrigeration engineers, Mason St, Lambeth, London (1868[1])
- Presumably this was associated with Siebe and Co; it appears to have been operated by Augustus Siebe's sons Daniel and (perhaps) Henry.
First commercial refrigeration machine based on vapour compression by James Harrison and Siebe Brothers. Siebe manufactured the Australian James Harrison's ice-making machine, which used ether as working fluid.
1861 Employing 18 men and 4 boys.[2]
1862 Daniel Siebe gained a patent on refrigerating[3].
1862 Was one of the exhibitors of artificial ice making machines at the International Exhibition[4]. D. Siebe, "exhibitor of Harrison ... machine for making ice"[5].
1868 Siebe's second son, Henry Herepath Siebe, and his son-in-law William Augustus Gorman ran the business after Augustus's retirement.
1869 Letter to a journal from Siebe Brothers about use of refrigeration equipment in breweries[6].
1870 Gorman became a partner. The company was renamed as Siebe and Gorman [7]
1872 Augustus Siebe died.
1872 Siebe Brothers installed 2 patent refrigerating machines at Allsopp's Brewery[8].
1873 Reference to the late Daniel Siebe's ice making machine[9] - presumably this was the son of Augustus Siebe as Daniel Siebe's widow (Jane) was mentioned in Augustus Siebe's will[10].
1873 Messrs Siebe and West established a new public company, the International Ice Co Ltd., to supply continental and other towns with ice-making machines[11].
1873 The Submarine Salvage Association was formed to acquire and work the patent rights of Siebe, Gorman and Christy in the invention for raising ships [12].
1875 Jane Siebe left the partnership with H. J. West and G. C. J. de J. Vallon, refrigerating engineers[13] which continued as West and Du Vallon
1878 Dissolution of the Partnership "which has for some time past been carried on by the undersigned, Henry Herepath Siebe and William Augustus Gorman, under the firm of Siebe and Gorman," at Mason street, Lambeth, in the trade or business of Submarine and General Engineers. All debts received by William Augustus Gorman, who will continue to carry on the said business on his own separate account, under the same style or firm.[14].
c.1880 Henry Albert Fleuss in conjunction with the company produced the first practicable self-contained oxygen breathing apparatus[15].
1883 By this time Siebe and Gorman was providing refrigeration machinery; other refrigeration exhibitors at the International Fisheries Exhibition were Messrs Woolf and Co[16].
1858 Report in Australian newspaper.[17]
The public has had an opportunity during the past week of witnessing a series of successful experiments with a large ice-making machine, the invention of Mr. Harrison, of Geelong, Colony of Victoria. The machine is driven by a ten-horse engine, and has been erected on the premises, No. 4, Red Lion-square, for the sole purpose of testing its efficiency prior to its exportation to Australia. The arrangements are but of a temporary nature, and the experiments have been carried on for only a few hours at a time, yet the machine has produced ice at the rate of from 5,000 to 6,000 lbs. per day ; and, when permanently fixed and regularly worked, it is expected that the inventor's estimate of 8,000 to 10,000 lbs. of ice per day will be accomplished. The refrigeration is produced by the evaporation of ether in a vacuum ; and the peculiarity of the invention consists in the arrangement for evaporating ether at a low temperature, and condensing it at a higher, precisely the reverse of the ordinary evaporating processes. The ether is contained in air tight vessels, relieved from the pressure of the atmosphere. The cylinder in the centre of the apparatus is fitted with valves, so that each stroke of the piston withdraws a quantity of ether vapour from the left-hand vessels, and forces it into a condensing vessel on the right-hand. Where the vapour is raised an intense cold is produced ; where it is condensed a corresponding degree of heat is evolved. The ether, after resuming the liquid state, returns by a self-regulating valve to the evaporating vessel, and the process thus continues uninterruptedly, without requiring any attention, and without the slightest waste of material. Indeed, as the pressure inside the vessels is less than the outside atmospheric pressure, it is an impossibility that any ether can escape. The evaporating vessel is simply a tubular boiler. This is not a misnomer, for the ether actually boils in at a temperature (if required) fifty degrees below the freezing point. The cold produced is utilised by means of a stream of salt water, which does not itself freeze at the temperature required for ice-making, but carries the cold to the vessels containing the fresh water intended for conversion into ice. This part of the apparatus consists of a trough twenty feet in length, fitted with sixty-one freezing moulds, over the outside surfaces of which the cold salt water circulates in a continued stream. After having thus parted with its cooling power, it is returned to the refrigerating vessel, and again passed through the tubes of the boiler. There is thus a continued and regular circulation of this fluid, similar to that of the ether, the whole bearing a remote resemblance to the double circulation of the blood.
It is found that the number of freezing moulds is not nearly sufficient, and that the machine will be worked with more advantage if the number be doubled. The ice can be made of any required shape or thickness. It is at present turned out in slabs, eighteen inches square on the sides, and an inch and a-half thick. These slabs can be place together so as to form blocks of any thickness. The ice formed rapidly at the coldest end of the trough is white and opaque, while that formed slowly at the other end is more transparent. By increasing the dimensions of this trough, and thus ensuring more uniformity of action, the ice will be transparent throughout. The relative excellence of white ice and clear is a debatable point. The white, although actually colder when formed, melts more rapidly than the clear ice, a drawback when the ice has to be kept, but an advantage when it is to be used. The expense of the process is simply that of the motive power. In the process itself there is no waste or expenditure of anything except water. An ordinary steam-engine of ten-horse power consumes a ton of coals per day, and the product in ice will be four or five tons. The removal of the ice when formed, and refilling the moulds with water, are the only parts of the operation requiring the services of an attendant.
The whole expense of making ice in London, including interest on capital, &c., will be less than ten shillings per ton. It is in hot climates, however that the full value of the invention will be felt. Ice within the tropics will soon be looked upon as a necessary of life, as much so at least as fuel is a necessary in the winter of temperate regions. The preparation of cooling drinks is one of the least important of its uses ; the preservation of animal food and the cooling of the apartment will be the most important. The process is applicable to many other purposes, however, such as the cooling of worts, a matter sometimes of great difficulty and expense even in London. The inventor estimates the expense of cooling a barrel of worts from 75 degrees to 55 degrees at 1¼d. The salting of provisions is also a great difficulty, sometimes almost an impossibility. By this machine the brine and the meat itself can be brought to the temperature best suited for success. But perhaps the most beneficial application will be to the cooling of rooms in hospitals, &c., in tropical regions. The fearful mortality arising from the prevalence of fevers in an atmosphere ranging from 80 deg. to 100 deg. can only be checked by treating the patients in cool apartments. It is evident that buildings can be cooled in the same manner as that in which they are now warmed — by the circulation of water in pipes. The cooling of the water for this purpose will (supposing the estimate for cooling worts to be correct) cost only a few pence per barrel. Mr. Harrison's first machine was made in Geelong in 1855, but from the inferiority of colonial workmanship the trial was a failure. Discomfitted, but not disheartened, he came to England, and has achieved success. He has wisely refrained from bringing his invention prominently into notice until he has had it first tested both on a small and a large scale. The machine now completed was constructed by Mr. Siebe, of Denmark- street, Soho.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Standard, 31 July 1868
- ↑ 1861 Census
- ↑ The Standard, 25 March 1862
- ↑ The Caledonian Mercury, 21 June 1862
- ↑ The Morning Post, 12 July 1862
- ↑ Journal of the Society of Arts, Volume 17, p 135
- ↑ Dressing for Altitude: U.S. Aviation Pressure Suits, Wiley Post to Space Shuttle By Dennis R. Jenkins
- ↑ Berrow's Worcester Journal, 1 June 1872
- ↑ The Huddersfield Daily Chronicle, 4 August 1873
- ↑ The Morning Post, 2 July 1872
- ↑ Standard, 2 September 1873
- ↑ Daily News, 31 July 1873
- ↑ The Morning Post, 4 December 1875
- ↑ London Gazette, 13 Sept 1878
- ↑ The Times, 24 November 1952
- ↑ The Standard, 3 September 1883
- ↑ https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/64509024