Refrigeration Without Ice.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 31 October 1891, Page 2

Refrigeration Without Ice.

The frozen meat industry is*o£ so much importance to the Col'iiKjjhat any effort made to reduce the^Jlr of freezing musfc be read with the g'-ea'est interest. In the New York Wor d of a few months past appeared a very long and interesting account of a process discovered by a M. Fra' k Mnith, whereby refrigeratioi was- -ecured without ice, or sfcear pov\ r, but by chemicals alone, thr • reducing the cost to a minimum. Tho process is simple : By ai combination of mineral salts simply mixed with water a cold brine is produced at a zero temperature. Taking the relative temperature of ice at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the brine thafc the besfc ice machihe makes is 12 degrees above zero, which gives the new process an advantage of 12 degrees of cold, No machinery whatever is used. They simply confine, as the ice machine men do, their brine in pipes, and the space to which these pipes are . exposed is refrigerated to the desired temperature. If cans of water or other vessels are immersed in the brine ice is made quickly. It is the intention of che Universal Refrigerating Company to place on exhibition in Chicago a box of sufficenfc size to dispel any doubt aboufc their ability to refrigerate any required space. It is their purpose to construct a box 20 feet long, 10ft high and Bft wide, whose walls will be covered with beautiful paper, whose ceilings will be decorated as finely as the ceilings of most dwell-ing-houses, with an automatic regulator, which will enable them to maintain a temperature within two degrees of any given point between 50 and 26 above zero, with Brussels carpet and easy chairs, and fixtures on the walls, all of which will make ifc more like a parlour than an icebox. Nofc only does the system furnish the necessary amount of cold to preserve the food supplies, but by it the longing eyes of those who lie in the hot summer weather sick unto death are opened to a vista of cool rooms, the absence of annoying insects and greatly increased chances of renewed health and prolonged life. Not only can the rooms be kept at any desired temperature, hut in addition a small rubber hag filled with this salt and moistened with water and laid on the fevered brow of the patient produces instantly the delicious coolness for which he is longing. The material from which theHjew process derives its cold its perfectly harmless, oderless, and cheaply produced, and after use is recovered without loss.

A similar box to the one described but more roughly put together, has, during the past ten days, been under tho supervision of a committee of prominent business men, who ' watched keenly every detail and. whose report indorsing the process in every respect is as follows : That the refrigerator was set up in Room 1 of the Traders' Building and fitted with a tank and coil of pipes. On Monday afternoon, March 28, the tank and pipes were filled with brine made of refrigerated salt and water from the hydrant. The brine being composed of about 40 per cent of refrigerine salt and 60 per cent of water. We observed tbat a brine thus composed had a temperature of zero by Fahrenheit thermometer. On the afternoon of March 24 the refrigerator was filled with about one hundred and fifty pounds of beef and mutton from the stores of the Grand Pacific Hotel. The brino in the tank and pipes was changed once in twenty-four hours. A thermometer and a hydrometer were placed in the refrigerator to test the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere of the box. The door of the refrigerator and the lid of the tank were kept under the seal of your committee. Thi- exhibit continued until noon of March 31, when the meat was removed and carefully examined. It was found to be dry, firm and in perfect condition. This great discovery in chemistry opens up a broad field for the introduction of a cheap, effective and safe refrigeration. It can be introduced with economy into dwelling houses hotels, restaurants, market- stores, market houses, cold-storage warehouses, slaughter-houses, creameries, oil-factories, refrigerating cars, i distilleries, breweries — in fact, in every conceivable place where refrigeration is required. It can be used more cheaply than the ammonia process to refrigerate a warehouse containing 500,000 cubic feet oi space At the Chicago exhibition it is ; intended not only, to show the room described ahove, but a refrigerating railway car, besides small family refrigerators. It is claimed that the refrigerine brine, after having been used, can he cheaply evaporated and the salt successfully recovered with- A out material loss in quantity, and that it can be re-used for the purpose of refrigeration without any loss of power to produce a cold brine. lf there is nothing to disturb this statement, it appears that before long freight on frozen mutton, and cool storage space for dairy produce, should be yery considerably reduced, thus adding to the value pf all the lands, and stock, in the Colony. We helieve that the disoovery is right as *

the names of all interested, Managers, Directors, and experts are fully set forth in the account from which we have taken these extracts.