The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1883-02-14
Meat Chillers.

One of the most serious expenses
in the packing and transportation of
flesh food, packers say, is that of
ice. In great establishments which
turn from one to four thousand
head of hogs or horned cattle
into butchers meat, the amount Of
consumed ice is so large as to be al
most incredible. During the sum-
mer when slaughtering about four
thousand hogs per day, one hundred
tons of ice were consumed. The ex-
penses moreover is not confined to
warm weather, but continues with
very little variation the year around.
The temperature of the killing and
handling rooms is necessarily so
high from the very nature of the
work that the difference in cost incl
dental to the seasons is trifiing, and
whether many or few animals were
slaughtered. one hundred tons of
ice day were used as preparatory
to the curing for the transportation
of the meat. The butchers found
the cost as burdeDsome as did the
brewers a few years ago, and have
recently adopted modification Of
the same cooling methods employed
to such economical advantage in the
principal lager beer breweries of this
country and Germany. 1t was only
during the past summer that artifi-
cial ice making was adapted to the
necessities of packers.
Most artificial ice making pro-
cesses employ rapid evaporation to
develop the desired frigidity, and
the central principle Of the meat
chillers is the same. A series of
metal pines conduct the frigid agent
through q vat containing water suf-
ficiently charged with salt. to be
practically unfreezable. Anhydrous
ammonia supplies the condition Of
rapid Generalization. When intro
duced into the conductor at a certain
temperature in the liquid shape it
evaperates with such rapidity that
it reaches the end of the series In a
gaseous state, having developed so
much cold in the passage that the
outer side of the conduits are thickly
covered with ice. The ammoniacal
gas is Gagged in receivers and return
ed to COMPRISING machine, which
performs half the work of condensa-
ton. The remainder is done by a
eondensing machine, which sends
the liquid ammonia again through
the pipes on its refrigerating mis-
sion. The brine cooled to a temper
ature of aboutt20 degrees Fahrenheit
is pumped into q receiving cistern
in the meat chilling rooms, and is
hence distributed through gslven-
lied iron troughs, made shallow so
as to increase the cooling surface as
much as possible. As the air, COM
ing in contact with the brine, be-
comes cool, it descends, and warmer
and consequently rarer air near the
floor ascends, to become chilled in
turn. In this way a constant tenn
pera,ure of SO degrees Fahrenheit Is
maintained in the cooling room, and
the meat is chilled to the proper
temperature for packing or trsnspor-
tation. Meat exposed in rooms so
cooled for twenty-four hours is put
in the best possible condition for
curing.
The expense Of this refrigerating
process consists almost wholly in
the cost Of the machinery. The
ammonia and brine are collected al
most without loss, and used again
and again. thus reducing the cost of
material almost to zero, making the
fuel for the engine necessary TO run
the condensing machinery and
pumps and the cost of repairing the
distributing appliances the most Sc
rious item Of expense. The actual
saving in the cost of curing meat to
be credited to the artificial ice max
ing process is something the opera
tors decline even to make a guess ut,
but that it Will place very hand
some sum TO the credit side Of the
profit and loss they most willingly
admit