Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-09-09
Things You Want to Know rr,D,. Car Lines.


Michigan Central railroad IN the sixties.
Ordinary box cars were filled with ice
tanks and catch basins AMI perishatle
goods we're shipped IN them In 1871 the
PENNSYLVANIA railroad had thirty box cars
reftted with double sides and the spaces
between these sides were fil!el with saw
dust making a huge ice box on wheels, The
first patent on refrigerator car was Is
sued to J. H. Sutherland OF Detroit Mich,
November o. 1867. In the next year u. W.
Davis. also OF Detroit patented the Davis
car, and in 1859 shipped the first load Of
Chicago dressed beef 20 New York,
The first attempt to ship fruit In refriger-
ator boxes was In 1856. Parker Earle OF
Cobden Ill, was the experimenter In 1858
he shipped several carloads of peaches, but
they were spoiled In transit. The following
year he built preceding station on his
fruit farm and later made many success
full shipments This pre- cooling station idea
has laid dormant for more than third of
a century, and its recrudesence In Calf
fornia during the present fruit season
marks what is believed by fruit men 20 be
the most important event in the history of
perishable freight transportation since the
beginning of the refrigerator car. Under
methods heretofore obtaining cars loaded
with fruit were iced at the initial point re-
curing from three to four days 10 bring
the temperature Of the cargo TO the neces-
sary point for safe shipment. During this
time. if the fruit we're not pulled little
green. it would become over-ripe, The
result has been that the consumer Is forced
to eat fruit artificially ripened. Anyone who
has eaten bananas, oranges or other fruits
that were ripened on the tree knows how
much sweeter and better they are than
those which were pulled before ripe. Under
the pre- cooling methods which are now be-
ing used again, the whole world In the fu-
ture may enjoy the luxury of naturally
ripened fruit although 1t has to be shipped
900 miles or more. Vast supplies or cold
air are forced into the car until Its contents
have a proper temperature. Icing follows
and the car is sent on its way.
stock cars were owned privately as far
back as the seventies. In 1888 an exposition
of transportation equipment was held IN
Chicago and many palace live stock cars
were exhibited. Among them was the
Mather car, invented by A. c. Mather, and
now the leading type OF stock car in the
United States. Mr. Mather was ON trip
to the east, in which his train was wrecked.
While waiting to resume his journey he saw
a carload of cattle in which some four or
five were dead and a half dozen so badly
injured that they could not stand This
suggested to him the need of stock car
which would permit the humane transpor-
tation of cattle and other stock, ana wheh
he had perfected such Il car he TOOK II To
the railroads, but they refused to buy MS
patent 1t was only by having the cars
built and used as a private line that he was
successful in getting the stock cars INTO
the railway service
The average compensation of the private
car lines throughout the country Is three-
fourths OF cent a mile for the distance
covered by car, whether lunnng empty OF
loaded 1t Is figured out that the average
car of the special equipment variety runs
about 100 miles a day throughout the year.
II will be seen from this that the revenues
Of the private car lines, aside from the re-
frigerator car service amount to about 10
cents a day per car. In the case of the
refrigerator lines extra charges are made
for the icing of goods IN transit Many
lines of railroads are beginning to operate
their own refrigei ator cars The Sante Fe
and the Hartman lines have taken the
leadership in this particular. II is ad-
mitted, however, that the average railroad
cannot maintain its own refrigerator car
service since the period in which II could
operate such service profitably Is limited
to the comparatively short fruit season in
the territory covered by the line. The aver
age refrigerator car costs about $l,1OO, and
would be dead investment to the average
railroad for more than half the year The
reduction in transportation charges incident
to the installation of the refrigerator car
service has been so great that where the
charges on California fruit TO New FORK a
quarter of century ago was cents
popnd it is now less than / cent
Great losses often are sustained by the
private car lines. A few years ago one line
undertook to handle the North Carolina
berry crop. Because of the fact that its
supply of cars ran about half a day behind
the demand much fruit was spoiled and
the car line paid out $4,000 in claims. In
another case this car line filled all of its
Georgia ice houses with ice from Maine in
anticipation Of big peach crop, but a late
frost destroyed the crop and the entire
supply of ice was a dead loss TO the car
owners.
By FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.
Tomorrow-Hunting Dogs.