THE FRESH MEAT QUESTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume VII, Issue 242, 15 February 1889, Page 2

THE FRESH MEAT QUESTION.

It is daily becoming clear to all concerned in the meat trade, that some new system of conveying meat any distance will hare to be adopted in this colony. The appliances lor freezing meat are only to be obtained at the chief centres, and the unlucky farmer has to take the risk of sending his stock alive .either by the road or by train, and if by train then with the additional risk of losses by death and bruising. It has been attempted to start slaughtering yards alongside of the Masawatu Bauway Company's line, but owing to the difficulty of transporting the meat quickly and cool, has led the owners of the stock to abandon that method during the summer months. What is wanted is a cool air truck where the meat, if not frozen, will be retained sufficiently cool to prevent the freezing companies attempting to more for freezing than they would if they had killed the stock them•elves. Suchacar we&avenowthe particulars of, and it is constructed on the dry pure air "system of refrigerating. The ice required, for it could easily be obtained in "fellington, but as the patentees i haveNfllso a plan for a cool meat store, suitable attachment to large butchering establishments, they propose providing an ice-mating machine, in cOnjuno- •■' tion with their other machinery. As 1 " the cars can be at once purchased in London and supplied in Wellington with the primary article, a description of one of them may be interesting. The handsome and well-built car is 21 feet long, and in the centre i compartment 96 quarters of beef can be hung conveniently. Immediately under the central portion of the bottom there is a quantity of charcoal resting on perforatedplates, above which, and on the floor, 24 quarters of meat can be deposited, a plentiful supply of dry airbeing admitted .which circulates, freely around the animal food. Thus 120 quarters of meat can be transported in the car. Gold is produced by means of ice, or ice and salt. In either case the cold air is. impelled into the tubular tanks at the end of the car. An enormous; cooling surface is afforded by means. of the air tubes, and the external surface of the tanks, from which the oold emanates which acts upon the r meat. Condensation takes place fcll over the face of these tubes and the outside of these tanks. The dampness of the air being condensed passes into a receiver at the bottom and from thence entirely out of the car through a syphon-pipe. Purification and absorption are affected by the action of a blower, which is driven by the axeltree of the car, or in a house, by a donkey engine, or windmill, or hand power. The air. is forced up the back of one tank at the'bottom, and the blower causing a vacuum* drfcws the air through a , pipe along 4jhe top, at the back of the other tank, leading to the*, bottom of an air tight purifying; and. absorbing chamber. By means of a pipe the air is drawn up through, five perforated shelves containing charcoal. Passing over a partition into another compartment, the air takes a downward direction, and takes a course at the bottom through an aperture into a third compartment, from whence it rises through a corresponding set of shelves containing charcoal, into the blower again. This course is repeated, the whole of the air in the car passing through the blower every three minutes. In some arrangements, devised for the preservation of meat, the presence of an obnoxious gas i has been the cause of constant an* xiety, and subsequent failure to secure the desired result, but in these, known as Knott's patent prize refrigerating cars this destructive element cannot exist, for should any gas or impurities from the meat arise in consequence of the tempers ature being aQowed to become iomewhat higher than is desirable, the gas or impurities are at once (prated on their passage through toe ohaiv coal. Kef erring to the question cif temperature the. patentee' t«6ommends that it be kept at 98 degrees, as at this point any escape of 'gas does not occur, and consequently nV loss arises in the weight of the 'meat, whioh retains all the virtue and easentaal'^ualities.pf nutriment it poV sesses immediately after the animal was killed. The top* bottom, rides, » and the end of the patent car are perfectly air tight and non conductive, it being intended to regulate > the power of the non conductor io- . cording to the climate of the country through whioh the oar is intended to pass. There is nothing 1 complicated about the arrangements, and. the competeness of the system is ap*< " parent, on inspection. The patentee has evidently kept in view the necessity of securing as great a cooling sarface as posaib'e. Hie general dimensions of the ordinary ear are as follows — Length outside 1 • feet, width 7 feet 6 inches; height from floor to top of doorway, 6 feet 4 inches, width of doorways, 6 feet, wheel base, 10 feet 9 inohea ; height from rail to centre of boiler, 3 .feet 4 inches, distance from centre to centre, 5 feet 8 inches. . : On another occasion we shall tt*» a description of the houae designed by the agents of the patent—, f^ grt in a similar .mrfan* for preßwvina * meat cool for many days. The T)rnM« «« calling » mmtW lor Momiay next re sports.