Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-05
"PRE-COOuNG" FRUIT
AWKWARD Name, But a Won
derfuI Process.
DECAY so STOPPED BY 1T
California Growers Find It a Great
Boon.
NEW ORLEANS MAN INVENTOR
Some Interesting Facts About the
Great Fruit Business of
Roseville, Cal.
BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.

ROSEVILLE, Cal, September ~. 1909.
| A. Fagot of New Orleans, consulting en-
| gineer for the Pacific Fruit Express Com
| pany. subsidiary of the Southern Pacific
| railroad, has invented a method by which
! the natural heat can be withdrawn from
fresh fruit and artificial cold substituted,
| so that the chemical changes, which we
| call rpening and decay. can be entirely
arrested for the time being.
| This discovery is worth millions of dol
lars to the fruit growers of California
and will shortly be applied to their traf-
fic in practical manner by the Southern
Pacific Company. The plant by which
the process is applied is called Pre-
| cooler which is an awkward word One
would think that so rich a company
| might afford a better ones
BY preceding, the fruit starts upon its
journey at temperature which will pre-
vent decay, while by the ordinary method
| OF refrigeration it may be half way across
| the continent before it begins to feel the
| effect OF the ice in the refrigerator car.
! The same cars can be used as at present,
| and by packing the bunkers with zee the
| temperature may be maintained as long
| as necessary Not only Is the fruit alb
| solutely protected from decay, and
| reaches market in a better condition than
formerly, but there is saving of ex-
| pense, because the ice will not melt so
| iast, and the economy in the labor of re-
| icing the cars. which is considera BILE
Will more than pay for the plant neces-
| sary
| The first 'pre-cooler' which is now APP
preaching completion here at Roseville,
| VIII cost about $25D.0UO. A duplicate
plant is being erected at Cotton. about
treatment of the fruit shipped from
the southern part of the state, and other
plants Will be erected at convenient
| places as fast as required.
| Inc fruit Is not handled at the pre-
! cooler, but is packed as usual at the
shipping point. AT each end of refrig-
| orator car Is an ice box extending from
the floor to the roof. with perforated
waits protected by wire netting SO that
| the contents of the car get the benefit of
| the cool air that passes over the ice, and
| the drippings from the ice are drained
from the bottom. When fruit is packed
at dlHerent stations it is always hot. Ii
! has no chance to get cool, for as soon as
| it is picked it Is put into crates and bas-
kets, and hauled to the railway station in
| wagon exposed to the rays Of the sun.
| All OF this heat is taken into the car and
| the ice only serves to keep the tempera-
ture down. but does not cool the fruit
Now it Is proposed to run each fruit car
| INTO a pre-cooler, and by compressed
| air force the wal m air out of the car and
draw the heat from the fruit. This VIII
as the air of the car to a degree which
| viii prevent ripening or decay. When
heat is expelled from fruit decomposition
ceases, and the fruit remains in the exact
| condition 1t was when picked. BY using
| the pre-cooler, it is argued, fruit may be
permitted to remain on the trees longer
than at present and therefore ripen nat
| urally instead of in the baskets.
The pre-cooler is simple affair. and
| consists merely of a series of pipes which
open into the cars through ducts. They
are operated by compressed air. 1t takes
| about three hours to ''pre-cool' a car,
| and the Roseville plant is capable Of
handling twenty cars at one time.
Roseville's Big Ice Plant.
In connection with the pre-cooler at
Roseville the Southern Pacific Company
has erected one of the largest artificial ice
| plants known. with a capacity of two
| thousand cakes of ice Of three hundred
pounds each per day. or about three hun
dred tons. The average stock Of ice on
| hand is not less than twelve thousand of
these cakes, and at one time there were
| seventy-six thousand cakes. weighing
| three hundred pounds each, in the ware
| house.
The cakes are piled up In even rows
| ike cord wood, and fast as they are
needed for icing the refrigerator cars
| they are hoisted by elevators to an in
cllned platform nine hundred feet long
| upon which they are carried by an end
less belt until they reach the place WHERE
they are wanted. Then they are shot
| into the cars through a hole in the roof
Inc cans or molds In which the water
| is frozen are all handled by electricity,
and thousand blocks of ice can be
handled as easily as a thousand papers of
pins Twelve thousand pounds of am
| inonia is circulating in the pipes of the
| Ice plant. and should last a life time but
for the leakage
This ice is used to supply both passen-
ger and refrigerator cars upon the South
ern Pacific lines. and seventy-five tons
of water is distilled and shipped by car
| loads daily to distributing stations along
the system Tor use In passenger stations
and trains in addition to the ice. The
water supply comes from two driven
wells 40 feet deep. which pour out about
1000 gallons a minute. The ice factory
never rests. 1t runs for twenty-four
hours a day. seven days in the week.
hfty-twO weeks in the year with two
shifts of wOrkmen.
Roseville is an old town. one hundred
and eight miles from San Francisco and
eighteen miles from Sacramento, and
during the last two years it has been
transformed from an agricultural village
to one of the greatest railway centers in
the country. The Southern Pacific COM
pany bought a tract of TO acres, laid out
a town, built two roundhouses of thirty
two stalls each. several great repair
shops, boarding houses, a clubhouse, a
hospital and other convenienceS to ac-
commodate six hundred employees mostly
machiniStS. Fifty-seven miles of track
were laid in addition to the two main
lines. and a great freight clearing house
was established.
All through trains are made up here.
All freight cars from points on the Pa
ciic coast are hauled here. classified and
put together on siXty-fve side tracks,
according to their destination. When
a train comes In from Oakland or from
Portland. or any other point, the yard
master breaks it up. runs the cars for
Chicago upon one track. those for New
York st. Louis Kansas City and other
points on other tracks, and sets out those
for San Francisco, Los Angeles. Portland,
Seattle, Spokane and other coast points.
When he has enough cars to make up a
train he hooks on a caboosa and sends
them off.
The eastern grades are so heavy that
freight trains are limited to forty-eight
loaded cars and they are hauled by four
engines. Often one hundred empties or
partially loaded cars are sent off with
two engines. Western freight trains con-
sist OF sixty cars each. northern freights
between fifty and eighty cars each.
Twenty Freights Daily.
An average of twenty freight trains of
| forty-eight cars each leave Roseyille
daily for the east; ten trains of sixty
| cars each go west, and twelve trains of
| from sixty to eighty cars each 90 north
| from this point.
The largest loaded train that ever mass