The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-04-09
NO ACIDS WERE USED
ARMOUR DID NOT MAKE USE OF
HIS PROCESS.
OTHER P20CeSSt S WERE Oa The MARKEI
Pew II Made No Deal With Swift. Genera
fagan's Assistant Finds One Of the
Letters Mr.. D, caindry N ssed
From the Files.

Washington, April S.-Mr. Alexander
b. Powell, of New York, the proprietor
OF the Powell beef preventative process.
testified before the board of inquiry to-
day. He explained at some length that
he was the sole owner of the Powell
process for preserving fresh meats with
out the use of ice, that the formula was
a secret and that it was not patented
because SO eminently simple He de-
clared emphatically that neither boracic
or salicylic acid was used in the process.
nor" he added, lis there any injection
or immersion in chemicals. The process
is applied by fumigation."
Mr.. Powell then gave the particulars
of his treatment of a carload of Ar
mours beef which was sent to Tampa in
the spring of 1898. When he heard that
the contract was to be given by the Gov
eminent he had reached the conclusion
that the Government ought to have the
use of his process, and he had written TO
the President, to General Miles and to
General Eagan asking where he should
apply to have the process used. General
Eagan had replied saying the Depart
ment was not engaged in purchasing any
process, but that it could only deal with
those who would supply the meat and
guarantee that it should keep.
He said the process was applied to Il
car of six carcasses of beef at Chicago
owned by Armour q Co. Those car
casses were taken to Tampa the latter
part of May last, aud Colonel Weston
secured four of the carcasses, exposing
them in the sun for about eighty hours.
1t was after this exposure that Colonel
Weston, of the Commissary Department
made his report which was commenda-
tory.
He said later that not to his knowl-
edge had Armour X Co. used the process
during the war; nor had it ever been
used by any one except himself. There
were however, other beef preservative
processes in the market.
Mr.. Powell said he had known of ho-
tells in which beef prepared by him had
been used for the past five years and in
which it gave the best satisfaction. He
had been shipping to the Compile Du
Barry for ten years and he would have
no other beef.
He had only verbal contract with
Armour & Co, but the understanding
WIS that II ludt Ufln got the cODtTdcl
they were to have the exclusive control
of the process during the continuation of
that contract only. He was to have 80
cents per hundred for its use, about 5000
per carload. He had not attempted to
make any arrangement with Swift II
Co., the successful bidders at the time,
but after the battle of Santiago, had
written to Mr.. Swift on the subject, fur
nishing him a piece of beef that had
been treated. Nothing, however, had
come of it.
Mr. Powell said he made no claim that
his process would not discolor beef. Any
process would cause a change in appear
ance. After the use of his process, beef
would look like meat that had been in
cold storage for about two weeks, dark
ening the grain and bleaching the fat.
There would be smell of sulphur for
an hour, as sulphur was one of the arti-
cles used in fumigation.
He considered it impossible toe keep
fresh meat for Y hours after leaving a
refrigerator without a preventative pro-
cess, and he was Of the opinion that any
agreement to keep it so long in the eli
mate of Cuba after taking it ont of the
refrigerator must involve some preserya-
tive process. He thought if thoroughly
frozen it would keep from II to 20 hours.
Captain George b. Davis, who was
General Eagan's principal assistant in