Norwich bulletin., 1922-08-10
ROTARIANs
 ON REFRIGERAroR CARS


 Herbert c. Adams, who always | springs an original surprise, whenever | he conducts meeting of the Norwich | Rotary club, fulfilled all expectations at | the regular luncheon. held on Wednes- | day at the Wauregan hotel Mir. Adams surprise this time was the guessing con test for which an SA pound ham was | the prize The ham was. won by Otto Ernst. who guessed within four ounces of the weight. While the members of the club were registering their guesses, Bert gave a very interesting talk on the modern method of shipping fresh beef from the west by means of the refrigerator car. He said in part:
 Last week the speaker referred to the fact that former speakers had tried to show that their particular line of in- dustry or profession dated back very far in the past and suspect he wanted us to think that his profession was pos sibly a little older than any other.
 I am not going to try to disprove any statements that have been made along that line, nevertheless, it is my opinion that when the original civil engineers, architects masons. carpenters and rep resentatives of other lines of effort as sembled for the first big job they found the meat man already on the ground with suitable supply of meats and ready for business. I shall be interested to see who will come forward with stronger
 claim to priority than this From that remote time whenever it was we will ! take long jump to the period from S70 to 1SSo.: It wis along toward the mid dle 70s that the refrigerator car became en accomplished fat and it is mainly of this car that I shall speak As early 1 as 1875 Chicago had become the great est live stock distributing center in the country if not in the world Cattle were received a the stock yards and sold to innumerable small slaughterers in the eastern states whose plants varied from small to fairly good size for those days. l It was manifest, however, that it would be much more economical to transport i finished product than raw material and as necessity. is the mother. of inven- 1 tion" it was necessity that brought the ] refrigerator car as the solution of the l problem of transporting meats and oth- l CT perishable products long distances in | perfect condition.
 1 It enables us to have at our command 1 at all times a plentiful supply of fresh | meat and is the great connecting link i between the ranch and the table Many | other commodities such as butter cheese ] and eggs to mention only few of the l - l frigerator cars for successful handling
 in large way. Thousands of these cars are rolling every minute, but to the ordinary observer they seem nothing more than common freight cars and give i rise 10 hardly more than passing thought ! if indeed they get that much.
 I To those who may be interested in
 the way they are constructed and how 1 they work it may ba said the walls are l about s inches thick, top and bottom ! slightly less thick. but all constructed
 on principles calculated to hold ce.d air
 in and keep warm air out or as we say
 thoroughly insulated.
 In each end are four galvanized iron tanks about two feet in diameter and six
 feet deep and separated from the main
 body Of the car by thin partitions oper
 about six inches al the bottom and eight rinches at the top to allow free circula
 ton of air around the tanks. the warm
 or air passing up and over the parti-
 ton and the cooled air falling and pass
 ing out under the nartitior to the body
 of the car and cooling such products a, may constitute the load,
 These eight tanks four in each end reeure about 5000 feet of crushed ict
 and 7A0 pounds of salt for one filling
 A car scheduled to leave Chicago fol
 Norwich on Thursday would b, thoroughly clesnsed with hot water. sb Faute cleanliness being necessary fo the proper preservation of meats a. well as desirable from every othe 1 standpoint This would be on -wednes day Tanks would then be flied wit , crushed ice and salt as outlined abov and the car allowed to stand until fol } lowing morning. to cool down sufficient l " to receive its load During the nigh : it has heen placed at the loading doc : of the beef cooler and in the morn m : the process of loading begins. Tn
 Is accomplished frequently in less tha an hours time. Car is then closed an ef sealed. tanks filled to capacity and it 2 then ready for the first leg of it's jour ney whioh is to the next icing statio S or about 24 hours run. Here the tank : are opened. iced. tamped down as con r paetly as possible enough more ice an < salt added to fill tanks full and ca Q starts on 10 the next icing station. Tn s normal running time from Chicago Q 1 Norwich is 96 hours or four full day
 1 and so-well does the refrigerator ca = function that I have known an instanc # in my experience of 32 wears of ca o arriving with contents in anything b, 4 perfect condition that could not be q N rectly traced to something out of no
 nal occurring while in transit such ' storm or wreck or other unusual ci =. cumstance
 The refrigerator car is one of th :, most important cogs~in the great bus
 ness wheel of the country, Without the great food supply service of the cou
 l try. would break down completely al l we in New England would be depende
 on a wholly inadequate local supply. K The first cal, of beef shipped by wh r was the beginning of our company " If placed on sale at Lowell. Mass. Mar ,c 9th. 1878. and from then on the bu, 70 ness grew rapidly. Branch houses we