Fluid sprinkling – spraying – and diffusing – Processes – Of weather control or modification
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-19
2001-02-06
Morris, Lesley D. (Department: 3752)
Fluid sprinkling, spraying, and diffusing
Processes
Of weather control or modification
C239S014200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06182905
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the art of fluid sprinkling and more particularly to the manufacture of snow with elongated pipe-type snow making towers.
The present invention pertains to improvements over the inventor's inventions disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,004,151 and 6,032,872. A suitable discussion giving a major portion of the prior art background of the present invention is presented in these patents and is accordingly incorporated herein by reference.
Generally, the former inventions for artificially producing snow as disclosed in these two patent references consist of a method and apparatus for making snow through the use of snow towers wherein water is supplied under pressure to a point of discharge above ground level and adjacent the top end of the tower where it is discharged through a first water nozzle into the ambient freezing atmosphere in the form of a spray. The spray is preferably a high velocity spray of discrete water particles, sometimes referred to as a fine water spray.
Air is supplied independently under pressure to a second point of discharge at the top of the snow tower and there discharged through an orifice to form a jet stream or a thin air stream which is directed into the aforesaid water spray thereby forming a plume of atomized or nucleated water. This atomized water forms seed crystals in the freezing atmosphere, and through the dwell time of the long fall from the top of the tower to the ground, forms snow.
The inventor has discovered that the finer that the water spray is nucleated or atomized in order to form this plume, the greater is the quality of the snow and the greater is the possibility of making snow in warmer subfreezing conditions, and one aspect of the present invention is directed to this end.
Another aspect of the present invention is directed toward the invention disclosed in the inventor's U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,872 wherein instead of externally mixing the air and water at the top of the tower, a portion of the air and water under pressure are internally mixed at the upper end of the tower before a discharge into the subfreezing atmosphere. This system has advantages as outlined in the aforementioned patent disclosure.
However, it has been discovered that if this latter mentioned system is utilized in a tilted or slanted position for the snow tower, as is usually the case, water tends to back down the terminal upper end of the air pipe at the top of the tower. It is another object of the present invention to eliminate this problem.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The snow making tower of the present invention includes an elongated tower conduit combination having an elongated air conduit extending with an elongated water conduit. The tower is provided with an appropriate ground support mount.
Air and first water discharge nozzles are provided respectively adjacent the upper ends of the air and water conduits and positioned for producing a plume of atomized water created by external interacting or mixing of air and water discharged under pressure from the air and first water discharge nozzles to produce snow in subfreezing ambient conditions. Couplings for connecting air and water under pressure respectively to the lower ends of the air and water conduits are provided.
The first water discharge nozzles have a nozzle discharge passage provided in their side which are positioned to direct a jet of water into air immediately discharged under pressure from the air discharge nozzles prior to external interacting of air and water for producing the plume as afore-described. This preliminarily provides atomized water in the air discharge prior to the aforedescribed interaction of air and water for producing a more finely atomized plume for thereby producing higher quality snow at higher subfreezing temperatures.
These first water nozzles may be provided in a detachable form to substitute nozzle size and additional second water nozzles may also be positioned on the water conduit for directing additional water spray into the afore-described plume or plumes.
In another aspect of the present invention, the snow making tower is provided with an elongated tower pipe mounted on a support with a first water discharge nozzle provided adjacent the upper end of the tower pipe and a water connection is provided at the lower end of the tower pipe for connection to a source of water under pressure for supply thereof through the tower pipe to the first water discharge nozzle for discharge into ambient atmosphere at subfreezing conditions. An air conduit coextends within this tower pipe with the bottom end thereof extending externally of the tower pipe for connection to a source of air under pressure for supply thereof to the top end. The top end of the air conduit terminates inside the tower pipe for ejecting air from the termination into the interior of the tower pipe adjacent the upper end thereof for internal mixing of air and water. An inverted cup is slidably positioned over the top end of the air conduit in order to serve as a trap for preventing water from flowing into the top end of said air conduit when the upper end of the air conduit is positioned upright but other than vertical.
The air conduit may terminate through a biased check valve which is biased to release air into the interior of the tower pipe between the inverted cup and the top end at a predetermined threshold pressure.
In order to properly operate the tower, a valve should be provided for regulating the pressure of water supplied to the tower so that the water pressure may be regulated in relationship to the supplied air pressure which exists internally at the upper end of the air conduit. A gate valve works best for this purpose.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3964682 (1976-06-01), Tropeano et al.
patent: 5004151 (1991-04-01), Dupre
patent: 5810251 (1998-09-01), McKinney
patent: 5823427 (1998-10-01), Dupre et al.
patent: 5884841 (1998-09-01), Ratnik et al.
patent: 6032872 (2000-03-01), Dupre
Carothers & Carothers
Morris Lesley D.
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