The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-01-26
EGGS EN- ROUTE.
The Baggage-BOy Gathers
Them Hot.
Sanguine Hens Who Lay While Has
tening to Their DOom-The
Patent Snap-Nest.

A new Industry is growing up on the
trains which run between Sacramento and
San Francisco.
lntrinsically the industry is hardly new,
but in It's surroundings environments
in which IL is carried on-lies its novelty.
The manufacture of fresh laid eggs by
live hens is as Old and time-honored a
calling as any now in existcnce-as the
hen herself, IN fact, or her brother the
rooster.
But this industry has not heretofore been
carried on to any appreciable extent while
the manufacturers thereof were EN- route to
the market.
Here is where the California hen beats
the record again
Every morning and every night large
numbers of hens are shipped down from
Sacramento and the surrounding country,
and as REGULAR as the shipments are made
are the eggs laid en- route.
The boy in the baggage-car was the first
one to note the wonderful fecundity OF
these foredoomed hens; and be straight
way set himself about devising means to
enrich his narrow stipendiary emoluments
by approprating to himself the fruit Of
these industrious chickens.
And now the prophetic passengers on the
Sacramento trains are haunted by the
awful vision Of having eggs thrown into
their laps instead of-Or rather in addition
to-the oranges and prize packages of can
Ges they have long been used TO receiving.
And they see themsel holding that egg
out at arms length and guarding il teuderly
and carefully, albeit very impatientlY, lest
its cutter shell be parted and its inner con-
seriousness be spilled over them by the jar
ring Of the train. before the boy comes
IN 70 arT al hA lima ha
will be sure to charge apiece for them.
And this prophetic vision has so acted
upon the imaginative faCul les Of a San
Francisco Inventive genius that he has pat
ented snap egg-nesi, which he claims can
be used on all occasions and at a very mod
crate expense.
The device. he says, is very simple, COM
pTisng merely an ordinary nest, with n
wooden box underneath capable of holding
half dozen fresh eggs. that being the
greatest number of eggs ever laid by any
heu yet between Sacramento and San Fran
cisco. The average Is two eggs TO each hen.
q crates Will have to he made a little
deeper To hold these patent snap-neStS, but
the inventor calculates the saving 70 the
consignee Will be so great as to quickly re-
pay the outlay necessary for the new crates.
They work like a charm, the inventor
says. All the hen has to do is TO get on the
nest and get down TO work
When the egg is deposited In the nest its
bare weight Is sufficient 10 open the spring
bottom of the nest and allow the egg tn
drop softly down IN the plush-cnyereI box.
| Then the nest closes automatically and is
ready for further proceedings on the part Of
| the hen
In this way ii is calculated many eggs will
be saved, either from the rapacity OF the
b ggage-b0y or from being knocked about in
| the crate and broken while en- route, which
was usually the case before the baggage boy
got In his fine work.
Tests are now being made with the patent
snap-nest and the chances are that one GER
tain baggage boy will soon have to buy his
eggs.
But in that event the passengers will
never be asked to buy them, and that is the
real end the inventor has stTiyen to accom-
plish.
He holds that desideratum above riches
and fame. but he is bound to win all three
if his patent snap-nest is a success.