THE NEW MEAT FREEZING MACHINE.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1081, 3 September 1883, Page 3

THE NEW MEAT FREEZING MACHINE.

The following extract from n letter from a gentleman at Home has kindly placed m our disposal - On the subject of refrigeration,! could have much to. say, but owing to the lateness in the arriyal of the mail and other pressing occupations, I am quite nnablo to enter on a comparative exposition of the different means of creating cold, snch as by air compression, ammonia cotnpression; ammonia absorption, either, snlphnrpns oxide, &c., practical point is, which is the. system lo adopt for the Colonies. Hitherto owing lo the mechanical difficulties encountered in connection with cooling air by any of the other means than by air compression, air, although the worst medium for producing, cold from the stand point of.units of cold produced- per lb of coal used, has carried off the palm. Nothing can beat the ammonia or oxide machine for making ice,r. ammonia' haying .theoretically seven times the result that cold compressed air has, and snlphnrons oxide nbotit", four limes, and Mr Chambers hamng this in view, and at the same lime being a natural mechanic, has overcome the mechanical difficulties, and has produced an ammonia machine capable of refrigerating air which will compete most favourably wit}/ any other system. The first machine made was a small one at Birmingham. I went to see this, machine, and was satisfied with what I saw. Chambers has now under contract a marine machine, to bo dclinered in • November next; its parts duplicated (as an insurance against the risk of the machine breaking down), so as lo work singly or together, cither of which machines will be capable

of Refrigerating a minimum space f- »r 1000 tons, .or 350 tons of meafci. 'He bag also in course of preparation another machine for land nse, which will be capable ot producing 25 tons of ice per day, or its equivalent in cold air’ which is equal to cooling 2000 tons'of space. Of ; cdnrso I am not absolutely certain that all the engineer’s calculations will bo borne out by the . result } ' bnt, as ammonia ice-making’ machines are not in any sense new, and Chambers invention Js simply , the application of an air cooler to the nsual ammonia machine which enables it to cool air instead of making ice. I ora morally certain that he has what be Wants—a relatively inexpensive machine in its first cost, which, with double the cooling power of Haslam’s or BellColeman’s machine, will not require half the fuel, and wi'l moke icc at a co?t of 5s per ton, >vhich compressed .air machines are incapable.of doing economi- ■ cally ; besides on ; board ship Chambers donble. machine will occnpy less space and weigh less than Haslam’s single one,* add ranch coal space will bo saved. *lf Chambers’ machine turns, put what he expects it will,, ihoso-whd have Haslcni $ .will, from a mere economicalpoint of view, discard them'. ’ !