The Washington herald., 1915-08-28

gists. and small dealers conducting ice
cream parlors-" The business was oil
precarious nature and not many peo-
pie cared to experiment with it on a
large scale, since tine demand was only
a seasonal one and the product consid-
cred a delicacy ather than a staple food.
Ten years ago, the Chapin-Sacks Mfg.
Company, then operating an Ice plant IN
this city, conceived the idea of manu-
featuring ice cream on larger scale
than had ever been attempted south
OF New York or Philadelphia. The name
chosen for the product was The Velvet
Kind Ice Cream" The idea being from
the very start to make the name synony-
NOUS with quality, purity. and service.
The venture succeeded beyond their
fondcst hopes and in few years time
the business had assumed such proper
tons that a new factory was necessary
So two-story brick and concrete struc-
ture was built to house the ice cream
department. The equipment installed al
that time was of the most modern and
sanitary type. The capacity OF the plan,
was considered ample for years to come.
but in 1913 an additional floor had to be
added and the plant was then the largest
In the country and so we'll equipped and
arranged that many of the newer plants
in other cities have been modelled after
it.
So much for the history of the origin
of The Velvet Kind" Let us now
take a trip through and around the plant
as the writer of this article did. / was
first shown the ice convcyer which
brings the ice. used for packing ice
cream on the teams and in the cabinets.
from ice houses three floors below into
n preceded storage room. where it is
held oNer night In the heighth of the
summer season, the daily consumption OF
70 n
Think of it. enough ice to keep over 5000
family refrigerators cold twenty-f four
hours. The huge ice crusher is located
just outside this storage room and the
crushed ice passes down through a chute
to the teams in the driveway or on the
shipping floor below.
Passing on through a can storage room
we came to the pasteurizing room, where
the first and most important stage in the
manufacture of THE Velvet Kind" is
carried on. The cream is taken out of
the large storage room. where it is kept
at temperature slightly above the freez-
ing point OF water. emptied from the
cans into pasteurizing vat and pas
teurized by the holding method" From
there the cream passes through the
homogenizer. a machine which. by exert
ing pressure OF from two to three
thousand pounds per square inch on the
valve. breaks up the microscopic vat
globules and disseminates the fat better
than nature does it herself Cream which
has been homogenized. | was told can
not be separated even with a modern
centrifugal separator will not Churn and
In addition to the above reasons homo
GeniZed cream is better for whipping
cream because of its increas ed vscosity
1t Is also true. he said. and. by the way.
my guide was the Company's chemist
that the homogeniZer aids materially in
keeping our meteorological count down.
The homogenized cream passes over a
cooling coil and then into large holding
watts. These watts. six in number. and
having a capacity Of one thousand gal
Ions each. are made Of heavy tin insu-
lated with cork and have refrigeration
coil passing through the center of each.
This coil is so arranged that it may be
reVolved while ice water is pumped
through it. Tight-fitting covers are
clampcd on. so the pa:Seurzed cream Is
kept from conta min.tiOn by air and dust
and a temperature just a little above
the freezing point of water.
Sanitary piping carries the cream from
the biz watts on the third floor to the
Weighing can and thence to the mixers
on the floor below. The object of the
weighing can. is PLAIN to be seen. is u
insure uniformity of the finished product.
The cream is weighed and then run into
mechanical mixers having a capacity of
one hundred and Seventy-tive gallons
each The proper amount of sugar and
flavor is added to the cream in these
mixers. There * ole exception to his
rule. namely the fruit creams. which
derive their flavor entirely from the I'M
cooked fruits added while the cream is
in the freezcrs. Looking after the mix
ing room is no small job In one month
alone the ingredients used. exclusive of
cream was as follows: One hundred
thousand pounds of sugar. three thou
sand pounds chocolate powder. five thou
sand gallons of fruit and three hundred
gallons Of vanilla flavorng. The ice
cream sold that month sufficient 20
supply over three million people with 4
l0-Cent slice of brick ice cream.
must not forget to mention the labo-
ratory located on the second floor just to
one side of the mixing room. II COM
pared very favorably. I thought. with
any OF the government laboratories l
haze seen.
The chilled mixture now on the sec
ond floor flows through sanitary piping
directly into the hoppers of a battery
of fifteen modern brine-cooled freeZers,
located in a room by themselves on the
ground floor Battery is the right word
for it. too. they resemble very much
the guns used in modern warfare eX-
Cept that they are considerably shorter
and are German silver plated inside and
out. instead of gun metal finish. The
dashers in these freezers are rcvolved
by individual electric motors. placed on
stands in the rear of each machine. From
ten to fifteen minutes is required to
freeze a batch of twelve gallons of ice
cream. The cream is only frozen to a semi
solid consistency in the freezers; it is then
run into cans and the cans are delivered
Immediately to the hardening rooms
where the final freezing takes place.
These rooms are heavily insulated with
cork and are kept at a zero temperature
or lower, by direct expansion ammonia
coils suspended from the ceiling. About
twelve hours in the hardening room is
required before the ice cream is ready
for the consumer.
The hardening rooms open conveniently
into the shipping department. which. of
course. is on the ground floor. together
With the can-washing and sterilizins
room.
We will now 20 over on the "other
side said my guide, and see where all
this refrigeration comes from. The
other side" as he called 1t, is a good
sized factory in itself There we saw
the big ammonia compressors, 800 tons
of ice per day is their total maximum
capacity. The tank rooms, where the
ice is frozen in five-ton cakes. is a very
interesting place and the wav that ice
is handled is a long story in itself.
We didn't so through the maintenance
and construction department, but / was
assured that the company employed and
had well eduipped shODs for their me-