Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-02-10
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.

How to give Americas fighting
men flung across the world the
best food obtainable and yet ship
it through submarine haunted seas
without exhausting cargo space i'm
perative for guns, bombs and
ammunition is major problem
which the Quartermaster Corps
rapidly is solving
The answer is dehydration and
compression, successive processes
which already have been improved
to an amazing degree and are being
perfected.
Newspapermen who were guests
of the ONO general headquarters
on the river front ne1r the Army
War College yesterday afternoon
were shown what is being achieved
10 Pounds Become 18 Ounces.
We saw 10 pounds Of potatoes au
natural-as they rest on grocery
shelves. There was a package of
spuds of the same weight which
had been dehydrated. 1t weighed
10 ounces. But the dehydrated
potatoes had not been compressed
When the same amount was COM
pressed, it was inclosed in a con-
tainer you could have carried in
your pocket And yet the Army
cook, in TuniSia or Australia. can
add water, according to directions,
and make as tasty dish as you'd
want.
There were compressed versions
Of cabbages, sweet potatoes, ruta-
bagas, cranberries, orange juice
yes. and steak and.pork and beans.
The ONO has developed contain
ers without metal-avoiding vital
materials-and these wrappings are
almost as important as the conden-
sation. The containers, which are
made of f1berboard and other syn
thetic materials and look like paste
board, must stand up under the
toughest combat conditions. They
must resist extreme heat and fierce
cold, water, sand. what have you.
Exhaustive tests have proved that
they do.
Just simple Solution"
Col. David H. Cowles, chief of
the military planning division,
insists there's no necromancy
about COMPRISING foods. And Col.
Georges Doriot, who heads the re-
search and development section,
one of the units under Col. Cowles'
wing, added:
"It's simply a practical solution
Of the pressing problem of con-
serving space"
The reporters were told that
$500 900 tons of canned goods, dehy-
drafted, and compressed, could be
reduced to 500 900 tons. Eggs, for
instance, are being shipped overseas
In dehydrated, compressed form.
Eggs which would require liz
shiploads can be carried in a single
ship. And they are just as nutri-
tious and palatable.
Did any one doubt the tastiness
OF compressed foods? Col. Doriot
wondered. There were vague MUIR
murs.
One Of the colonels civilian scien-
tists-and he has some eminent
practitioners-passed around pow
dered butter. Taste it, they
insisted.
We tasted, and unanimously pro-
poupced it excellent sweet butter.
Condensed Bread. 90
There was a type of dehydrated
bread which didn't look very appe-
tizing, but which, we were assured,
contains 2,400 calories a pound. It's
loaves are small-compressed, an
heir to the bareback of not-too-
happy memory. We tasted and
were convinced. It was delicious.
1t reminded you of a homemade
cookie, and it didn't taste stale or
even dry, as you might have bet.
How they produce it is a mystery
Of the laboratory which you prob
ably wouldn't understand unless
you were chemist.
There was even compressed ice
cream, IN cubes about the size of
loaf sugar. 1t, too. was delectable.
Vinegar, for example. had been
compressed into a small jar. 1t
would expand many times it's size
II only water were added and yet
remain potent.
Charts showed what a small
percentage of solids there are in
vegetables. And yet the laboratory
men have devised ways of extracting