Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Condensers and Receivers – Commercial
An horizontal refrigerant receiver for low-pressure refrigeration machines, as found in Canadian food stores, restaurants and institutional applications in the early years of the 20th century. Painted in machinery black of the period, and holding 25 lbs. of noxious, anhydrous sulphur dioxide, it was fabricated in heavy, rolled steel plate with brazed steel bellied end plates, and equipped with 3/8 inch brass inlet and quarter inch liquid outlet shut off valves for SAE flare connections, as well as welded mounting brackets for four point bolt mount, Frigidaire, 1929.
Technical Significance:
The use of steel, bellied end plates is a mark of increasing sophistication in strength of materials engineering and manufacturing methods, contrasted with the flat end plates in items 061 and 062. An example of the significant over design that characterised much of the engineering of early refrigeration machines, following the introduction of low-pressure refrigerants such as SO2.
While the pressures were substantially lower than with ammonia refrigerants, manufactures, with little engineering data to draw on, still used similar high-pressure designed vestals. This practice would quickly change, however, to light rolled steel construction. Containing enough noxious SO2 to clear the house and the neighbourhood, the manufacturer, for now, wished to take no chances.