Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-11-22
COLD STORAGE.
A Visit to the Hendrick
Establishment.
HOW ICE Is MANUFACTURED
Green Grapes That Have Been 9
Month Off the Vines.
Eastern Butter.

About the LIST of last July the Hendrick
Gold Storage Company commenced
operations in this city in large estab'
lishment on Seventh street and the
river. Understanding that everything
was now in full working order HERALD
man yesterday visited the place in ques-
ton and on announcing his mission was
conflded to the care Of Mr.. Keller, one ol
the officials in charge. The investigation
was an interesting one. The scribe was
first conducted to the large rooms which
are situated on both sides OF wide passages
constructed at right angles thr oughoul
the building. As the door OF the hrst
chamber was opened chilly air wave
came out, and on stepping into the room
the feeling was similar to that expert
enced in frosty regions when leaving the
freside for the cold world without.
dance at thermometer attached to one
Of the posts showed that the mercury
stood at 35 degrees, this cold being in
duced by the circulation OF icy. brine
through six layers of pipes passing al
the scribe was standing was devoted tt
t110 btOI axe VI AC6b, bOAAO Va WhACh h0>
been there two weeks, and yet looked
and smelt as fresh as the day when it lef
the slaughter-house. The room wa
Illuminated by incandescent lights. ant
everything about it looked clean an(
neat.
The next apartment visited contained
butter; then came one filed with cheese
q chamber filed with fruit, including
green grapes that had been picked {
month and tasted and looked as sweet al
# they were still on the vine
and so on, until the scribe
had seen the twenty-one rooml
which the company has fitted up. Th'
storage rooms range from 26x3O feet tt
50x6O feet, and are rendered air tight by
packings of sawdust between the thicl
frame walls. Mr.. Keller said that tht
concern is doing big business, which
was increasing daily as the residents be
came acquainted with it's workings
Hams in brine are shipped in by ths
thousand from the East, and are kept il
the eold-storage rooms until wanted
when they are smoked and prepared anC
sent out in the game condition that they
would be in if they had just come
out of one of Phil Armour's packing
houses. A good many of the prominent
merchants Of the city have taken advan.
tage OF the establishment and have
rented sections in which they keep their
perishable provisions until they are re-
quired. By this means Los Angeles is
enabled to have a continual market sup.
ply of fresh Eastern butter and other
provisions, and months after the last
grapes has disappeared from the vines
the merchants can call on their cold stor.
age stores and furnish the fruit at reason
able figures, for the charges of the Hen
drick establishment is not very high.
HOW ICE is MADE.
After all of the rooms, including few
additional ones now in course of con
struction had been visited, the reporter
was escorted to the machine rooms and
ice making works in the basement
which are in charge of Mr.. G. E. Rich
ards. A mum Der of dials, known as telo-
meters, first attracted attention and
show the temperature in the rooms,
which is taken every three hours and is
kept between 35 and 45 degrees. As some
people do not know how artificial ice is
manufactured, a few words of explana-
ton may prove interesting. A quantity
OF aqua ammonia is put in a retort and
heated. A gas is thus driven off, and
this passes into condenser, and from
there to cooler, consisting of large vat
containing coiled pipe, in which brine is
kept circulating by means of an engine.
Here it expands and this freezes the
brine, which passes into large section
containing 1000 cans filed with water
and this water is gradually frozen. The
process takes about four days, and at the
end of that time each can contains 40
pounds of ice which is then ready for
consumption. This same brine is what
passes through the cold storage room
and keeps them at their low tempera-
ture. The water used for the ice is OBJ
tanned from we'll one hundred feet
deep and is boiled and filtered before it
is placed in the cans 80 as to ensure that
the ice will be perfectly pure. An idea
Of the manner in which it is appreciated
may be obtained from the fact that the
company makes about twenty tons of ice
q day, most of which goes to meet the
city's consumption of that article, as
very little is needed about the building.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
Several Important Movements Dis.
cussed at ength.