Heating and ventilation systems of vehicles

Claim 1

A heating and ventilating device for a vehicle having a water cooling system for the engine thereof, a hood, a passenger compartment and a windscreen, said device comprising a hollow beam disposed across the vehicle below the lower edge of the windscreen, a partition having a width less than the internal cross section of the beam extending longitudinally through the beam and partially separating the interior thereof into upper and lower compartments, means comprising an aperture in said beam for directing air from the upper compartment against the windscreen, means comprising a duct depending from said beam towards the floor of the passenger compartment and an aperture in the beam communicating with said duct for directing air from the said lower compartment into the passenger compartment adjacent its floor, and means disposed under the hood for moving air through the beam comprising a conduit having an intake end and an outlet end, said outlet end being attached to said beam, an aperture in said beam having dimensions corresponding substantially with the combined height of said upper and lower compartments and communicating with said conduit, a helicoid fan disposed in the conduit between the intake and outlet ends to move air towards the outlet end, a heat exchanger in the conduit between the fan and said outlet end comprising a hairpin shaped conduit having one leg thereof above the other, means communicating between the water cooling system of the vehicle and said hairpin shaped conduit for flow of fluid into the lower leg and out the upper leg thereof, said conduit having a divergent pressure chamber disposed between the fan and the heat exchanger.