Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-10-28
COLD BEEF.
The Fort Worth Refrigerating Com.
pany Commenced Operations
Yesterday.
Description of the Works-The Value Of
the Enterprise to this City.

Va
and about forty or fifty beeves were
killed for beginning. This number
will be continued on, increas.
ing as the demand iustiies. AS
a matter in which the city at large is
interested, it will be we'll to give
statement concerning its importance
as a local institution. The plant is |
valued at in the neighborhood OF $780, |
000. When run at its full capacity il |
will employ over one hundred and |
twenty-five men and will be able to |
slaughter and cool 1000 cattle and 500 |
sheep per day. This, of course,
will not be done at present, |
the management contemplate killing |
only from fifty to 100 beeves for awhile |
until the market for Texas refriger- |
ated beef justifies the increase to the |
full capacity Of the works. A walk |
through the various departments of |
the institution is sufficient to demon |
strate its scientific and excellent APP.
Iointments. Beginning where the |
cattle are driven into the first yard, or
unloaded from the cars, they are
driven through series of smaller in
closures suited to selecting the various
classes. From the last of these the DOOM
ed bovines are driven up chute into
long alley wide enough to contain two
abreast. This alley extends in front of
the slaughter beds and is separated
from them by row of stalls capable
of holding one beef each. Here the
animals are driven and held in their
cells in solitary confinement until
wanted for the knife, when one of the
men Rscends to the top of the cells
and with long spear Sc
lects his victim, The animal
il made TO turn his head towards the
gate entering into the slaughter beds
and while he stands there wondering
what is next to happen, the spear is
raised in the strong arm of ekillful
marksman and in twinkling il de-
cends upon the brute penetrating with
its wedge-shaped point, hole in the
brain about two or three inches be-
hind the horns. This throws the
animal PROSTATE to the floor,
and before he has time to
writhe and below the same
operation is performed upon dozen
others by the workman as he walks
along the top of the pens. AS soon as
the "dull thudn is heard, the gate is
thrown open and the writing animal
is yanked ont by a stout horse onto
the beds. Here few blows OF an ak
on the forehead dispatch the beef
and keen knife strips CHASTITY spot
in its throat and pierces the large
veins, letting the blood flow
out in torrents. While. the
reeking blood is still flowing
and before life Is extinct, another
knife attacks the head, which is
skinned, the tongue cut out and the
animal ready for hosting before it
kDOws what has happened. Every
thing is done methodically and every
one employed has his particular part
to perform, so that the whole works
like clock-wOrk. The beef ia raised,
tail upwards, by pulleys a certain dis
lance and n portion of the hide is
taken of; another turn or
| two and il is eviscerated
and the eutrails hauled off to the tai
tow.rQom. Another turn and the
animal is entirely denuded of its epi-
dermis, the body split in two and each
| half hung on to hooks that work on
| wheels and roll along suspended
| single-track railroad near the top of
the ceiling switches, acting on the
railroad principle, are used to guide
| the stiu warm flesh on toward the cool
J inS-rooms, where 1t remains until
thoroughly chilled, when it Is trans
] ANlANh AAbO NhIb Oh INC
same mpeTature and in them shipped
to market, arriving there cool and
! fresh. And here it might be proper to
observe that the OPT Mon that currently
| prevails, that the beef is frozen, is an
erroneous one. 1t Is simply cooled.
! The lowest temperature of the cooling
rooms is about 80 degrees above zero
and ordinarily IS degrees. The cold
blast could be increased to the freezing
| point, but it has been discovered that
10 freeze beef in hot weather Injuries
| II. The object is to cool it thoroughly,
and keep il surrounded by the same
temperature until opened for sale in
the markets. This is done by the re-
migrating cars now in use by the COM
pany, each car carrying from four TO
| fifty beeves at load. The offal which
comprises the entrails, head, tongue,
liver, heart and other portions are sep.
arated and assorted and what is good
Is sold to local buyers for city CON
sumption. Ia this way Fort Worth may
have all the heart and brainssh wants.
What is not fit for cooking Is thrown
in couple of large watts and boiled for
the oil and tallow that are in it. The
hides are carried down stairs into
large hide room where they are cured
and packed. The horns are also saved
and shipped or sold. 1t is so arranged
that nothing is wasted excepting per-
haps the mournful below which the
animals Ut er when struck on the head
aud which cannot we'll be utilized.
Tn" machinery is run by
two enormous engines of the
style known as the Boyle ice |
engines. They hre of great capacity
and give the engine-room the appear
ance of an Atlantic ocean steamer.
One ofthese engines runs the ice-works, |
which are capable of manufacturing i
some seventeen tons of Ice per day. |
The other 10 used TO pump cold brine |
nom mammoth tank, through the net |
Work OF piping that runs through the
the cOnlinn--Ihe ice il fnr MAILING. o., |