GB598115A - Improvements relating to methods of and means for heating the contents of vessels - Google Patents

Abstract

598,115. Chemical heating. NEHER AKTGES., R. V. May 18, 1945, Nos. 12618 and 12619. Convention dates, May 15, 1944. [Class 64 (ii)] A heating unit adapted for attachment to a vessel such as a food container 1 for heating the contents of the vessel comprises a chamber or cup 2 containing a mass of solid fuel mixture 4 and having means for attaching it externally to the bottom of the vessel, and the solid fuel mixture comprises between 12 and 25 parts of magnesium powder and between 88 and 75 parts of an iron oxide for example Fe2O3 and/or Fe3O4, which may be in the form of mill-scale, which mixture reacts without external air supply at a slow rate and is free from shrinkage in volume during the reaction whereby the reacting mass retains conducting contact with the walls whereby it is enclosed. The cup contains a storm match 5 the head 6 of which is covered by a case 7, and may be attached to the vessel by one or more peripheral grooves or by indentations. A cup as shown in Fig. 5 may be employed with cans high relative to their diameter, and a peripheral step may be provided to facilitate piling. The heating mixture may also include up to 12 parts of aluminium. The Specification as open to inspection under Sect. 91 states that the heating mixture may comprise light metal powder and iron oxide, and also that a substance which does not react, for example excess iron oxide may be included in the mixture to mitigate the violence of the reaction. This subject-matter does not appear in the Specification as accepted.