Container for shipping perishables

Claim 1

A shipping container comprising: an outer box forming a substantially closed chamber having a base formed with an outlet opening outside said box and into said chamber; means in said chamber forming a substantially closed compartment adapted to receive freight; means in said chamber above the freight compartment for supporting ice and forming an ice compartment; means in said chamber defining a vertical passage next to and in heat-exchanging juxtaposition with said freight compartment and extending downwardly therepast from said ice compartment to said outlet, whereby fluid evolved from ice in said ice compartment flows down in said passage over said freight compartment to cool same and flows out of said chamber at said outlet, said box having a plurality of connected side walls, a top wall bridging said side walls above said ice compartment, and a bottom wall bridging said side walls below said freight compartment at said base, said walls being of insulating material, said means forming said freight compartment having at least two side walls spaced from two respective side walls of said box, a bottom wall spaced from the box bottom wall, and a top wall spaced from the box top wall and defining therewith said ice compartment, said side walls of said freight compartment beigh of heat-conducting material, said outlet being a throughgoing hole in the box bottom wall, said means forming said ice compartment including a rigid perforated support plate for said ice secured to said box side walls, at least one of the box side walls constituting a side wall of said compartment and being formed with an opEnable door, the latter wall being formed with at least one throughgoing hole opening on one side into said freight compartment and on the other side outside said box; means for collecting gas leaving said box through said outlet; and means for controlling the rate of evolution of fluid in said container by varying the cross-section of said outlet.