The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-09-11
EXTRAORDINARY FREEZING.
A Useful Invention Presented to the
Fishermen Of the North.

]
From the Philadelphia Ledger.
St Johns. Newfoundland July pa
( few days ago Mr. Adolph Nielsen, the
superintendent Of fisheries at this place,
exhibited in presence ola large number
of fishing captains, planters fisher
men and the general public. new appa-
I ratus for freezing fish or any other animal
substance, which is so simple, IneXpen-
sive and easily worked that 10 promises
TO be of immense benefit to our fishermen
ana TO all interested in the fisheries es-
peciaily i'm connection with the preserva-
tiOn of bait IL frequently happens that
our fishermen lose "a third or a fourth of
the whole fishing season from the want
of bait. Day after day the cry is,
Plenty Of fish, but no bait"
Our bait fishes are behring's, capcIin
and sluids. These strike i'm ON the
shores and in the bays in enormous shoals
and with wonderful regularity Each
has its season. and then disappears from
the unknown depths of the ocean, giving
place 10 its successor But il very fire.
quently happens during the season of any
one of these species of bait fishes the
shoals suddenly leave portions of the
coast and do not rCappeur for DAYS or
weeks I'm such case the fishermen,
who are plying hook and line or Dait-using
devices are left idle. The cod may be
around in myriads, but without bait the
poor toilers of the sea are left pOwerlCss.
This want of bait often entails most Sc
riOus losses and shOrtens the season
catch. IL is evident that if the fisher
men had any means of preserving bait in
a fresh condition they could take it in any
quantity when it is plentiful ana store it
up for the time of famine, so that they
need never be without bait
Mr. Nelson's apparatus is designed to
meet this difficulty, though ii may also be
used for many other purposes. Its con
struction is so simple that any fisherman,
after seeing it, can easily make a freezer
for himself, and the cost is almost nil
All that is wanted is a stout barrel some
coarse salt and ice chopped up into small
pieces. This Is all that is needed for the
new freezer, which is at once cheap and
expeditions in its operation.
OF course, ice and salt mixed have long
been in use to produce an intense degree
of cold, and thus freeze various articles
The apparatus for making ice cream is
familiar Illustration of this. Hitherto,
however, this method has aimed at freez-
ing articles indirectly Either the ice
and salt have been inclosed in metal re-
ceiyers, in isolated rooms, and the
cold produced by their intermixture
penetrateS into the atmosphere of the re
frigerating rooms, and so lowers the TEN
perature as to freeze any articles such as
fish or meat placed within them to I'M
dergo the process, or the articles to be
frozen have been inClOsed in metal vessels
of various construction, and then buried
in the salt and ice. Both these methods
are slow in operation. The latest and
most improved American salt and ice
freezer requires from fourteen to seven
teen hours to freeze a herring hard I'm
neither system is there any motion or ro-
tation of the freezing mass.
BY Mr.. Neilsen's method half a barrel
OF herrlugs are frozen as hard as a piece
of wood in from ten to fifteen minutes A
description of the apparatus will enable
any one to make it for himself
A common barrel, such as pork bar
rel, is taken, and inside it are placed four
wooden t1anges or laths, and fastened to
the sides, the sharp edge outward They
are placed diagOnally, so as to make two
irregular triangles. The object of ad-
justing them in this ObliqUe position IS TO
mix and rotate the articles to be frozen
with the ice and salt when the barrel is
half full with alternate layers of ice and
salt, the proportion being three parts of
ice (or snow, which is equally good and
one part of salt. Whether the ice or salt
is put in first makes no difference. In the
present experiment three shovelfuls of
Ice were hfst put IN and then one of salt,
and so on alternately till the barrel was
half filed. Then the barrel was filed up
with fresh herrings and headed. The
head of The barrel is not pointed around
the edges in the ordinary way and
the chimes are cut down perpendicular
to the cross, in order to make it easier to
put on the squaree edged head and take it
out. The barrel, thus boarded and headed
up, was placed on its side on the floor and
rolled one ana half turns on its bilge
forward, then back one and a half turns
This rolling was continued for fifteen
minutes at moderately quick rate of
speed, which must be learned by expert
ence. If too slow longer time for freezing
is required, At the end of fifteen min
utes The head of the barrel was removed.