Sketcher.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 24, 8 September 1894, Page 3

Sketcher.

A HUGE REFRIGERATING BOX.

NELSON BROTHERS’ COLD STORES.

The following short description of Messrs Nelson Bros.’ cold stores, on Nelson’s Wharf, Lambeth, London (taken from the Town and Country Journal), is of interest to colonial readers as showing the kind of store the meat is consigned to after leaving the vessel’s side, which may aptly be termed “ a perfectly insulated refrigerating box of enormous proportions, kept constantly and economically at a temperature of 18deg. Fah.” The buildings are carried v 4own to and founded upon a massive concrete bed upon the gravel, which is reached some 23ft. below the river bank at this part of the Thames. There are six storeys, the whole of the internal work, including floors and floor supports, being of wood (which is a good non-conductor of heat), and completely separate from the brickwork shell of the cold storage part of the buildings. All the walls are lined with asphalt and a thickness of non-conducting material. A feature of the building is the arrangement by which entrance can be made-at the top storey, there being no openings at all in the sides of the building below the top floor. All the carcasses are raised by machinery to this top floor, and from it they are low-ered by high-speed hydraulic lifts commanding the several storeys. These lifts are of the wire rope and horizontal cylinder and plunger type, and are carried by strong iron girder framing in the roof of the building. The lift moves at the rate of 240 ft. per minute. The elevators, by means of which the sheep are lifted from the barges, consist of powerful chains running over toothed wheels and rollers, and carrying at intervals of about sft. projecting arms and cross-bars, upon which the carcasses are laid by men working in the barges. These chains move at about 120 ft. per minute. All the elevators' are provided with a hydraulic telescopeic section, so that they may be adjusted to suit the level of the barge beingunloaded, these barges rising and falling with the tide. They are worked by hydraulic power. The top floor is entered from the ground by means of a hydraulic plunger lift, and the whole of the hydraulic apparatus in the building is supplied with water at a pressure of 7001 b per square inch by a duplex pump. The electric light is supplied by two highspeed double-acting engines, connected direct to two low-speed dynamos. These supply 1600 incandescent lamps in different parts of the stores. The ammonia refrigerating plant is of the double-acting compression type with compound engines. The compressing pumps and steam cylinders are connected to the same crank, the pumps being vertical and the engines horizontal. The ammonia is expanded direct [into pipes carried under the ceiling of each floor. The ammonia condensers are evaporating surface condensers placed in the open air at the top of one part of the ‘building, the condensing water being obtained from the Thames. Of refrigerating pipes within the cold storage compartments there are nearly 10 miles, with about 4500 joints, and the temperature is ordinarily maintained at about 19deg. Fah. One ammonia refrigerating machine is capable of keeping the required temperature running about 10 to 12 hours per day in the winter and about 16 hours in the summer when the store is full. But the completeness with which provision has been made for refrigerating and with which the insulation of walls and floors has been effected, may be gathered from the fact that the machinery has been stopped for a period of 38 hours, with a rise of temperaturfe at the end of that time of only about 3.1 deg. This is no doubt partly due to the fact that no warm air from without can" enter The bnilding except at the top. Fans are provided for circulating the cold air in the building, and there is, in addition, a large cold dry-air machine in the engine-room, through which the air from the rooms can be drawn Jto cool and dry it. This machine alone is capable of maintaining the necessary low temperature, should it be required. The whole of the refrigerating machine connections, ammonia pressure tanks, storage tanks, separating tanks, condensers, <fec., are in duplicate, and are so arranged that either machine can work independently, or the two together, or each machine on to

the other set of connections, thus doing away with any possible danger from accidental breakdown. The machinery for elevating the frozen carcasses and carrying them into the building will deal with 6000 sheep in an hour. At present from 6000 to 8000 sheep per day are delivered by vans and carts from Messrs Nelson Brothers’ premises, while frequently a much larger number is being received.