BENEPACTOR OF HUMANITY

Evening Star, Issue 19786, 9 February 1928, Page 4

BENEPACTOR OF HUMANITY

MAN WHO INVENTED FREEZING PROCESS DIES IN POVERTY. Franc© is now preparing to celebrate tho centenary of the birth of the man who first introduced frozen meat to a world which sadly needed it, and, at the same time the fiftieth anniversary of tho arrival in France of the first cargo of a commodity which has enabled many a family which otherwise could not have afforded it, to have meat on its table every day in the week (writes a Paris corespondent). The hero of tho celebration is Charles Tellier, who was born at Amiens in 1828, and who, forty-five years later, made the important discovery that all kinds of food, flowers, and other perishable goods could be preserved for months, and even years, by being frozen. Tellier, besides being a scientist, Was a keen economist, and ho was generally distressed to see tho waste that went on at certain seasons of the year in his own country. At one time fruits would be almost given away, while a few months later they would have been worth their weight in silver. Tons of fruit were thrown on to the manure pile because it could not bo kept. The meat problem also exercised his vigilant and active mind. He knew that in distant countries, such as Australia, Now Zealand, the United States, and South America, more meat was being produced than the inhabitants could eat, while Europe could not produce sufficient for her. own needs. _ Fruits were already being preserved by boiling, and it was known that some fruits and vegetables could he dried without great loss of food value. Tellier determined to find other ways of preserving such foods as could not bo kept through the existing methods, which were based on the discovery that microbes- of putrefaction were destroyed by heat. He found that cold served almost as well as heat, since, though it did not destroy tho microbes which caused the decay of meat and other foodstuffs, it paralysed their action to such an extent "that the most perishable goods could be kept almost indefinitely at a very low temperature. In 1873 he announced his discovery, and in 1876 sent out from Rouen a ship fitted with a refrigerating apparatus. Two years later his vessel returned from America with a cargo of moat which showed not tho least sign of staleness. Last year England alone imported over a million tons of frozen meat. Frozen rabbits, turkeys, and other foodstuffs aro also arriving regularly from all the corners of the earth.. A rabbit, killed in Australia because it is a nuisance and regarded as vermin, may figure as a savory dish upon an English dinner table. Tellier’s clu/:overy has not only, led to tho building of refrigerator ships and special railway wagons, but to the cultivation of new fruit-growing and meat-producing areas. The great spaces of South America and the cattle-rear-ing areas of the United States would never have prospered had it not been for Tellier! Districts in France, concerned chiefly with fruit-growing, owe a great deal to him. Tellier, like.many another discoverer and genius, died without honor or riches. His patience and knowledge drew him no profit. Charles Tellier was too poor to enjoy the pleasures he made possible.