The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-02-06
COLD STORAGE MACHINE.

it had been hanging for over year in
a cold storage warehouse. do you think
you could swallow it, Of if the tender
breast of that spring chicken should
provo to be from a fowl killed in the
spring of 1895 do you imagine it would
seem quite SO much of delicacy? You
cannot tell these days what you are eat
ing unless you belong to that fortunate
class of beings who can run out i'll their
back yards, kill and dress their own
swine, beef or fowls and cook them in
their own kitchens.
The business of cold storage is a vast
and important feature of metropolitan
commercial life. New York boasts two
dozen great cold storage warehouses,
wherein shippers and dealers, wholesale
and retail, store the quantities of beef,
game, poultry, eggs, vegetables and
fruits which regale, solace and sustain
the metropolitan stomach. There is, by
the way, nothing too good for that same
stomach. The markets of the west and
south send their choicest products to
New York, the city of we'll fed men and
women.
Many of the cold storage warehouses
still cling to the use of ice, natural or
artificial, as tie case may be, and of salt
for freezing purposes. Others have
adopted the newer method of using salt
brine and ammonia. The ammonia cools
the brine, and the cold air is pumped by
an engine into the various rooms of the
big warehouses. In one large warehouse,
down near the ferries and quays. there
are 25 miles of pipe running from the
pump into all quarters of the great
building. This warehouse, which is
G--o /, s<,E,A
a capacity Of 10 carloads of freight.
On one of the coolest days of the re-
cent cold snap, when the thermometer
registered only 8 degrees above zero.
the writer, believing in the eternal fit
ness of things, visited a cold storage
warehouse. While at first glance this
might appear foolhardy, let me say that
it is much more prudent TO visit such
place on a bitterly cold day than to go
in the heat of summer, when the sudden
change of temperature might produce
fatal results. As matter of fact, it was
actually warmer in many Of the ware
house chambers than outside. The aver
age temperature of the rooms devoted to
the storage of meats, game and poultry
is from 10 to 16 degrees above zero,
while that in the rooms set apart for
fruits and vegetables ranges from 80 to
"a degrees above.
Some idea of the immense stores de-
posted in these warehouses may be
gained from the statement that in one
room the writer saw 1 600 barrels of ap-
Piles and was told that there were alto
gether in the warehouse 10, 900 barrels
of Bartlett pears. One room was piled
to the top with saddles of venison, there
being 800 in the collection. In another
room were 2,00O chickens waiting the
day. But the most fascinat-
ing and appalling of all the sights
shown the writer was a row of beauti-
fully dressed baby pigs, stored before
the holidays of 1895 and to be kept I'M
til the holidays of 1896. There is one
humble individual i'll New York who
won't eat sucking pig next December.
The rates for cold storage are one
third cent per pound per month. Cheap
enough it sounds, but when a dealer |
consigns thousands of pounds of stuff to |
the care of the warehouse it may read
lily be seen what a bill be will have in
few months. Cold storage is only for six
days on oysters and vegetables. The cold |
storage companies do not examine goods /
On receipt, so that, not being able to |
certify to their condition, they are not |
for any damage to perishable
goods Condition and quality being thus
all goods are stored at the
risk of owners. The dealer, on consign- (
ing his stuff to the warehouse, receives
4 receipt for SO many barrels, boxes,
Kegs, crates, bags, baskets, tubs or other
or for so many fish, ribs,
ambs, saddles, calves, loins OF sheep, as
he case may be. He is of course privi-
eyed &c draw cat any a=zc=:at of this
lttf at any time he may wish on the
1ayment of its board bill
Many cold storage warehouses do a
'eRular banking business. For illuStra- |