Far more efficient are the machines which utilize latent heat. As explained in a previous chapter, whenever a solid is converted into a liquid or into a gas a certain amount of heat is absorbed and stored up in such a way as not to become apparent to the senses or to a thermometer. Such heat is known as “latent heat.” For instance, we can add a pound of water at 50 degrees temperature to a pound of water at 200 degrees, and the mixture will have a temperature of 125 degrees, or the mean of 200 + 50 degrees. But a pound of ice at 32 degrees mixed with a pound of water at 200 degrees will not give us 116 degrees ((200+32)/2), but only 44½ degrees. In other words, about 143 heat units will be rendered latent in converting solid water into liquid water, reducing the temperature of the water to 57 degrees and then the mean of 57 and 32 is 44.5 (200-143=57, (57+32)/2 = 44½). A more striking experiment is to mix a pound of water cooled to 32 degrees F. with a pound of water at 175 degrees F., and the result will be two pounds of water at 103.5 degrees, but if we mix a pound of chopped ice at 32 degrees F. with a pound of water at 175 degrees F., the result will be two pounds of water cooled to the freezing point.
In passing from a liquid into a gas water absorbs far more heat and renders it latent. For each pound of water converted into steam at atmospheric pressure 970 B. t. u. are absorbed. This storage of latent heat is utilized to good advantage in refrigerating machinery. The vacuum machine invented by Dr. Cullen in 1755 was a latent heat machine.
VACUUM MACHINES
As we have observed before, the boiling point of a liquid depends upon the pressure to which it is subjected. Under the normal atmospheric pressure of 14.7 pounds per inch the boiling point of water is 212 degrees F., but if the pressure be increased the boiling point rises, and if it be reduced the boiling point is lowered. In a partial vacuum of ten pounds absolute pressure the boiling point is 193.2 degrees, at one pound it is 102.1 degrees, and if the pressure is reduced to .089 pound water will boil at 32 degrees, or its normal freezing point. Dr. Cullen, by exhausting the air from a vessel containing water, made the water boil or vaporize at a low temperature. In order to boil it had to absorb heat, and not being supplied with any external heat it had to draw upon itself, thus producing ice.
FIG. 80.—DIAGRAMMATIC VIEW OF A VACUUM REFRIGERATING MACHINE
Dr. Cullen’s machine has been improved upon by using various chemical substances to absorb the water vapor. Such a machine is shown in Figure 80. The vacuum chamber A is partly filled with brine, which may be cooled below the freezing point of pure water without congealing. A pump, B, maintains a vacuum in the chamber. In the upper part of the vacuum chamber there is a vessel, C, into which sulphuric acid is sprayed from a reservoir, D. This acid has a strong affinity for water vapor and hastens the evaporation by absorbing the vapor with which it comes in contact. The mixed sulphuric acid and water flows over into a receiver, E. The acid is reconcentrated by steam heat so that it can be used over again. However, this feature of the process is not shown in the diagram. Brine from the chamber A passes through a coil of pipe F in the tank G, where the ice is made, and it is returned to the vacuum chamber by an injector H, which at the same time introduces fresh water into the chamber to take the place of that absorbed by the acid. The fresh water and brine enter as a spray at I, so as to increase the rate of evaporation.
FIG. 81.—ORIGINAL ABSORPTION MACHINE