Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-01-28

tion of the water has been evaporatet
by heat, and then the common potasl
salts are frozen out, leaving the un
congealable magnesium salts in solu.
ton"
p" Is not this process somewhat simi-
lar to steaming out a vessel 2"
With ohis difference. that the
steaming process destroys not only
fever germs, but the cargo and the
furnishings of the ship"
Then an infected vessel can be
steamed into a sanitary condition 2"
1t has been twice done, to my
knowledge.
By your plan no injury is done to
the vessel or cargoY
"None at all. All perishable fruit,
| which commonly comes on these in
fected boats, is benefited !; for being
frozen and carried into cold stores It
is preserved better than if allowed to
rot with heat"
win this treatment of the vessel
be expensive y
1T ought not to be costly, certainly
much less costly than keeping the
vessel in quarantine two or three
weeks, with the cost Of demurrage.'
And you think one disinfecting
vessel, such as you describe, even in
the hight of an epidemic, would be
able to purify all the shipping arriving
at New Orleans, and take care of the
mouth of the Mississippi river?"
"Yes, | have no doubt of it."
BY this process there would be no
retarding of commerce or of trade? ?"
Certainly not. 1t would be rather
an assistance to it by allowing vessels
to discharge their cargoes aftera slight
detention for examination and disin-
lection, and would occupy such short
time that a great deal would be saved
Take the case of the John d. Porter,
which carried with its harges the dis
ease up to G~allipolis, Ohio. By this
process the barges could have been
disinfected in a very few hours and
rendered harmless. AS it was, the
only way to prevent the spread of the
epidemic was to utterly destroy them
"a great waste of property which the
owners were 10th to consent to-"
is this freezing-out process the
same as you have used in the manu-
facture of ice 2"
Eyes; and / know that | can disin-
feet a ship by cold air from the fact
that | have frozen a ship in the
Thames, with warm water flowing
around it all the time; and | main
tanned ice in it for three or four
months. | called it the Glaciarum,
and skaters resorted to it in consider
able numbers. 1t was about one hun
bred and fifty feet long, and about
thirty-fve feet wide, with a roof of
glass and iron"
"Then you have no doubt that this
process will settle the question of
preventing the return of the yellow
fever epidemic in this eountry2'
None, whatever, if a~freezing tenn
perature will kill the germs.
And is there no trouble by your
plan in producing the freezing tenn
perature, or a lower degree, at any
point or to include any area y
None, whatever. The difficulty
in the Gulf of Mexico depends upon
the heat Of the water in which the
vessel lies"
The practice of pouring cold air
into the hold of a vessel is already in
use, is it not
Yes, for the purpose of transport
ing meat between this country and
Great Britain. This invention has
already created a very large export
trade, which is still increasing"
Is your ice-making process being
operated anywhere ?"
AYES; in London we are making
square blocks of ice four feet high by
a foot square, weighing 240 pounds per
block, containing less than one-tenth
Of one per. cent. of impurities, and
therefore much used and priced in
medical hospitals
How long have you been engaged
in this work?
Il have been working at artificial
refrigeration since 1869, and l frozs
Al G..A IL =. - : 1OrH -