Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-09

able goods were shipped In them. In
1867 the Pennsylvania railroad had thirty
box cars refitted with double sides and
the spaces between these sides were
nlied with sawdust, making a huge ice
oox on wheels. The first patent on a re-
frigerator car was issued to ]. B. Suther-
land of Detroit. Mich. November 81,
1867. In the next year d. w. Davis, also
Of Detroit. patented the Davis car. and
IN 1863 shipped the first load OF Chicago
dressed beef TO New York
The first attempt to ship fruit in re-
frigerator boxes was in 1886 Parker
Earle of Golden, H., was the expert
menter. In 1865 he shipped several car
loads of peaches. but they were spoiled
in transit The following year he built
a preceding station on his fruit farm,
and later made many successful ship
ments. This preceding station idea has
laid dormant for more than a third of
century, and it's recrudesence in Cali
fornia during the present fruit season
marks what is believed by fruit men to
be the most important event in the his
tory of perishable freight transportation
since the beginning of the refrigerator
car. Under methods heretofore obtain
ing cars loaded with fruit were iced at
the initial point requiring from three
to four days to bring the temperature of
the cargo to the necessary point for safe
shipment. During this time, IL the fruit
were not pulled a little green, 1t would
become over-ripe. The result has been
that the consumer is forced to eat fruit
artificially ripened.. Any. one 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 preceding methods which are
now being used again. the whole world
in the future may enjoy the luxury or
naturally ripened fruit, although Ii has
to be shipped a thousand miles or more
Vast supplies of cold air are forced into
the car untfl it's 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 exposi-
ton OF
Private Stock Cars transpor-
Began in the Seventies. sou,nmer,
was held in Chicago. and many palace
livestock 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 a 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 We're dead and half dozen SO badly
injured that they could not stand. This
suggested to him the need OF q stock car
which would permit the humane trans
portation of cattle and other stock. and
ha oy-Po <4I
took 1t to the railroads. but they refused
TO buy his 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 pri-
vate car lines throughout the country is
three-fourths OF cent a mile for the
distance covered by a car, whether run
ming empty or loaded. 1t is figured out
that the average car Of the special equip
ment variety runs about 100 miles a day
throughout the year. 1t will be seen from
this that the revenues Of the private car
lines. aside from the refrfgerator-car
service. amount to about IS 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 refrigerator cars. The Sante Fe and
the Hartman lines have taken the lead
ership in this particular. 1t is admitted,
however, that the average railroad can
not maintain its own refrfgerator-car
service. since the period in which 1t could
operate such service profitably is linn
tied TO the comparatively short fruit sea-
son in the territory covered by the line
The average refrigerator car costs about
81 100, and would be dead investment
to the average railroad for more than
half the year. The reduction In trans
portation charges incident to the installa-
ton Of the refrigerator car service has
been SO great that where the charge on
California fruit to New York a quarter
of a century ago was cents a pound,
it is now less than 1 cent.
Great losses often are sustained by the
private car lines. A few years ago one
line undertook to handle the North Caro-
lima 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 SIS, 600
in claims In another case this car line
filled all of it's Georgia Ice houses with
Ice from Maine in anticipation of a big
peach crop, but a late frost destroyed the
crop and the entire supply Of ice was a
dead loss to the car owners.
MISUNDERSTANDING Dogs.