Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-08-07

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: dead substances. 1t has long beer
known that ice is the most efficient
agent for this purpose. But the
difficulty heretofore has been to
! keep the ice itself on long voyages
. from dissolving, or to renew it as
as fast as it dissolved. At length q
method was discovered Of manu-
featuring ice economically, and with
that discovery the importation of
fresh meats from remote countries
became a possibility. Some short
time ago a movement was set on
foot in London looking to the i'm
portation of fresh meat from South
America in vessels fitted up for the
purpose with the newly invented re-
frigerating apparatus. An attempt
was made to organize a company to
test the practicability of tho pro
| iect; but whether the company is
formed and is now at work, or
whether the project was abandoned,
we do not know.
At all events, whatever the case
may have been with respect to the
London Company, similar project
has been successfully inaugurated
in Texas. The New Orleans Pleas
yune chronicles the arrival at that
port of the steamship Agnes, hav~
ing on board thirty beeves killed in
Texas, and landed at New Orleans
ten days afterwards, docking as
though it were freshly slaughtered"
The Picayune claims..that "this ex
perimental trip has established be-
yond all peradventure the veryiim-
portant fact that beef may be
brought from the prairies of Texas
and laid downin the markets of the
world perfectly fresh and juicy,
greatly cheaper than that now Of
ferd for sale, and vastly superior in
quality" The inventor of the re-
frigerating apparatus is Mr.. Bray,
of New Jersey. The Picayune
says enthusiastically:
"After years Of labor and thought, he
has succeeded in perfecting an apparatus
which defies the action of those causes
which produce decay-an apparatus,
the Importance Of which can scarcely be
| realized; for while it throws open to the
stock raisers Of the vast empire Of Texas,
the markets of the world, it also, in effect,
brings the tropics with in astone's throw
of the North. 1t virtually annihilates
space, and laughs at the lapse of time;
for the Boston merchant may have fresh,
Juicy beefsteak from the rich pastures of
Texas for dinner, and for dessert feast on
the delicate, luscious, but perishable
fruits and vegetables Of the Indies.
Peaches, bananas, strawberries, figs,
melons, oranges, etc, may be conveyed
any distance without undergoing per-
ceptible change, by Brsy's method; and
we think it incontrovertible that great
revolution in commerce will be effected.
Yesterday morning, in company with
Mr.. Bray, the patentee, DIR. Howard and
number OF gentlem en-, we visited the
refrigerating warehouse, Nos. ll5 Fulton
and 1877 New Levee streets, in which
the beef brought up by the Agnes from
Texas has been placed. This room is
about so by a feet, and some Is feet
high. The walls are made double, and
lined with a nOn-conducting substance.
At one end is a small fan, which is moved |
with great rapidity by steam engine in |
an adjoining apartment, and at the other |
a buIkhead is built which contains re- |
frigerating mixture b degrees colder
than ice. By the rapid revolution of the |
fan, current Of air is created which IS |
forced along a large tube and through |
the mixture in the bulkhead. By the |
constant repetition Of this process a tenn
perature of 80 degrees below the freez> |
ing point may be obtained.
For preserving purposes, however, |
the temperature is kept just little
above the freezing point because at
that point there is no evaporation
from meat or fruit, and because the
condensation of moisture in the air
is prevented and perfect equilibrium Is
preserved. At this point no decomPo~
| sition can occur, nor can fermentation IN
LIQUIDS take place, as all chemical action
is suspended. Decay, therefore, Is i'm
possible. The refrigerating mixture
the composition of which is not general
| " known-possesses the peculiar quality
ofcondensing all the gaseous emanana-
tions from meat or fruit, or any imPuri-
ties, such as exhalations from the lungs,
etc, and consequently the air is main>
tanned in cold, pure and dry condition
which is essential in the preservation CT
meat, or anything subject to decay. Poul-
try (entrails and alp and beef have been
kept by this method one hundred and
fifty days without impairing the quality,
flavor or appearance
1.-THE apparatus on the steamship Ag-
mes is precisely similar to that in the
warehouse, and she is capable of bring.
ing about one hundred and fifty head oil
slaughtered cattle, which is equivalent to
nearly. if not quite, four times that