Complete Text (Part 5)

the basement. The storage has a capacity of 175,000 cubic feet, covering in all a surface of 325. feet by 115 feet. Elevators take the meats and other stored articles to and from the level of the market proper. The refrigerating machine makes both ice and cold air, condensed water being used for the ice. The air cooler is of the peculiar type we have mentioned and which we will describe further. As in the second type, the air is cooled by its contact with cold metallic surfaces, and, as in the two first types examined, this cooling is done in a special and distinct room, but with this difference, that, contrary to what is donc in the two first cases, this room has no communication whatever with the meat rooms; it is entirely distinct and may be even ata certain distance therefrom. This remark applies also to the Lisbon cold storage. The warm air is con- tinuously exhausted from the meat room by means of a blower which forces it through the cooling apparatus, discharging it, cold and dry, in the meat rooms, to be returned again to the cooler, when warmed up, by the action of the blower. At Brussels, 1,000,000 cubic feet of air are thus cooled and passed through the storage per hour, the temperature of the air being maintained above that of the freezing point (34° to 36° F.). The cold rooms are divided into three parts; the first, forming a sort of ‘‘ante-room,” is intended for those products which do not require a great lowering of temperature, and which can be kept for a day or two without danger at a temperature of 44° to 45° F. (+7° to 48° C.) as long as ‘‘¢he air is dry." In the second are stored the meats and those other articles which require a temperature of +2° to +3° C. (35° to 37° F.) to insure their preservation for a certain time. The third room is intended for salt meats, a special space being reserved for what is called The circulation of air is obtained artificial there «German beers,” which arrive in casks at Brussels in refrigerating cars—all articles which it is advisable to maintain at the low temperature of 35° to 4o° until they can be dealt to the consumer. The whole storage is lighted by electricity. [vo Be conrinven.) HE proposition of the city council of Newark, N.J., to exact a license fee from ice dealers in that city is not an encouraging one, but the legitimate dealers say they are willing to pay a license fee if the city will pro- hibit other people from selling ice. The fees would have to be fixed as high as $50 or $75 to keep junk dealers and others, who now sell ice, from competing with reg- ular ice men. There was opposition in the committee to a high license on the ground that it would give ice dealers a monopoly. —The Central Ice Co. is anew firm in the ice trade at Los Angeles, Cal., who will sell only manufactured ice. —The Lauer Brewing Co.'s Park brewery, Denver, Colo., has just been equipped with two De La Vergne refrigerating machines, cach of thirty tons capacity. « 16 «. ICE .. AND .. REFRIGERATION . JULY, 1893. LAbstracted for Ick AND REFRIGERATION.] A LEGAL DECISION. LIABILITY FOR LOSS OF HORSES HIRED FOR CUTTING ICE—THE QUESTIONS OF NEGLIGENCE AND VALUE OF SAFETY FENCES AND APPLIANCES FOR RESCUES. EVERAL questions of interest have been passed upon by the Supreme court of Wisconsin, in the case of Stacy v. Knickerbocker Ice Co., which was brought to recover the value of horses killed through the ice company’s alleged negligence. The ice company had hired a span of horses to be used in its business of cutting and removing the ice formed in Fowler lake. The only express stipulation in the contract of hiring was that the horses should be driven by a certain person. In all other respects the conditions and obligations of the contract were those, and those only, which the law implies. One of these, says the Supreme court, is that a person who hires another's property is only liable for the consequences of the want of ordinary care of the property hired, which in this case was the span of horses. If such property is injured or lost while in his possessjon, with- out negligence or fault on his part, the loss falls upon the owner, and not upon him. In three particulars it was contended that the ice company was negligent, which negligence caused or contributed to the loss of the horses: (1) It failed to indicate the location of the thin ice by a fence, as re- quired by statute; (2) it failed to notify the driver of the horses of the location of the thin ice; and (3) it failed to have ropes and appliances at the place of the accident to be used in getting the horses out of the water before they drowned. But the testimony showed that had all these precautions been taken they would not have saved the horses. (1) They were uncontrol- lable; were rearing and plunging and getting away from the place where they became frightened as rapidly as they could. The fence of the statute (which is a single fence board nailed on 2X4-inch posts, 314 feet from the surface upon which the posts stand) would have been but gossamer before those powerful horses, frantic with fright, upon whom two strong men could make no im- pression. Besides, it is very doubtful whether the statute has any application to this case, inasmuch as the employes of the ice company were then actually en- gaged in removing the ice adjoining the place covered by the thin ice, and it would seem impracticable to place and keep a fence around the margin of the open- ing before the work there should cease. (2) Exact knowledge by the driver of the horses of the location of the thin ice was not a possible factor in the loss of the horses, for, had he been fully advised where the thin ice commenced, he was powerless to prevent the horses going upon it. He went into the water with them, and was rescued. Were he suing the owner of the horses for negligence, there would be a case where the fact that he had not such knowledge might be material, but is not material here. (3) We are aware of no rule of law, continues the court, which required the ice company to have, at the place and time of the accident, ropes and appliances suitable for use in hauling the horses out of the water. Moreover, had such ropes and appliances been there at the time, the proof is quite conclusive that they would have been of no avail. The horses fell into deep water and went under the ice, and were un- doubtedly dead when the bystanders had succeeded in rescuing the driver, who came near being drowned. It is perfectly obvious that the horses would not have been drowned had they not become frightened and uncon- trollable. For such fright no blame attaches to the ice company. Had the driver of the horses been able to keep the horses under control, he would not have been required to go upon or dangerously near the thin ice, for the scraping he was sent to do, and which the horses were hired to do, was at a point safely distant from the thin ice, and the distance therefrom would have con- stantly increased as the work progressed. Whereupon the case presents no testimony which would warrant a finding that the ice company was guilty of any negligence whatever which caused or contributed to the loss of the horses, and the judgment of the Circuit court throwing their loss upon the owner must be affirmed. MINOR LEGAL NOTES. ——Washington Butcher's Sons, wholesale dealers in pro- visions and cold storage at Philadelphia, June 6, made an assign- ment to Geo, W. Lex. —The Arctic Machine Manufacturing Co., Cleveland, has recovered a judgment versus Daniel Duty, and others, of Cleve- land, for $7,599.90, part of purchase price of an ice machine. Motion for new trial made. —Noah Music, an employe, stepped into a kettle of boiling water some time ago at the Jacob Dold Packing Co.'s plant, Kansas City, and scalded his right leg. He sued for $2,000 damages, and the jury gave him $1,500. —tThe Independent Ice Co., Chas, and Wm. Bannon, of Richmond, Ind., has gone out of business, owing to the fact that the company could not ship ice into this city from the lakes and sell at a profit in competition with the Union Ice Co. —John Moody, of the Tahoe Ice Co., Reno, Nev., has secured a judgment versus the Union Ice Co.. of San Francisco, for §23.123, for damages sustained by the failure of the Union company to take the ice put up by the Tahoe company according to a contract entered into between the two companies. rae bw h P. Fisher, Hamilton, Ohio, June 7, filed a petition praying for the appointment of ‘a receiver and for closing up the business of the Standard Ice Tool Co., of that city. The partner- ship consists of the plaintiffs, Christ and Peter Benninghofen, A. L. 8. Campbell and F. A. Kecfer, He says the company is incorporated with a capital stock of 10,000 shares, on which $4,500 worth of stock was issued; that, owing to sickness and the difficulty of raising money, the business:cannot be success- fully operated; that liabilities, now amounting to $1,300, are due, and cannot be met by the corporation. e believes that the assets exceed the liabilities, but at this time of year are un- salable, and cannot be readily converted into money. A receiver was appointed, HE ice distribution charity, which under the direc- T tion of the New York Hera/d, was so conspicuously useful last year, has been revived, the free distribution to the sick poor having begun June 1. At the close of last season’s distribution $1,400.69 remained unused, to which, up to June 18, something over $1,000 had been added for the present season’s use. Ice is purchased at $2.50 per ton, and distributed to the working poor from fifteen different stations. The mission originated in an investigation suggested by incidents occurring under the eye of one of the newspaper's staff. One of these, the first, was the pitiful appeal of a ragged child for one cent’s worth of ice for her sick mother. The one cent was all she could command, and she was refused. The mother was found ill with fever,requiring an ice pack for itsalleviation, and unable toretain anything upon her stom- ach save small fragments of ice. The charity relieved a great amount of misery, and will no doubt become a per- manent feature of New York’s benevolences, as it has been for a number of years in several southern cities. JULY, 193. on . ICE .. AND .:. REPRIGERATION .:. 17 (Written for Ice AND REFRIGERATION. | A BUSINESS SUGGESTION. (EGG) FOOD FOR REFLECTION—THE MOVEMENT OF EGGS FROM FAKM TO MARKET—EFFECT OF COLD STORAGE IN CHANGING THE COURSE OF TRADE. By D. B, Bremen. FORE the advent of the more or less perfected B system of modern cold storage, the egg trade of the country ran in time-worn commercial channels from year to year, with monotonous regularity and sameness. Winter usually brought scarcity of stock and conse- quent high prices, these last depending on the degree of severity of cold and the depth and spread of snow over the country at large. Prices of eggs under the stimulus of the proper kind of weather, would sometimes go up to 50 cts. per dozen in car load lots in the big markets of the country, but usually prices ranged through the earlier winter months at 25 to 35 cts. perdozen. With the advent of Febru- ary and southern eggs, prices woujd ease off, usually to 20 to 25 cts., and with March and universally heavy re- ceipts, prices would fall in New York to 13 and ry cts. per dozen, New York virtually ‘‘ setting the pace" for other markets. Through March, April and May, the heaviest producing months of the year, all the markets of the country would be overflowing with eggs, and only the low prices prevailing kept stock closed out through increased consumption. But such low prices at the great trade centers meant very low prices for the farm. er producers, and they would become careless about marketing them, preferring rather to utilize them as cheap provisions for the family table, and by putting them under the setting hens to raise a crop of chickens. By June the effects of this would show up in lighter re- ceipts in the big markets, and prices would advance a few cents per dozen and be maintained on this higher level through July and August, say 16 to 18 cts. With the advent of September and cooler weather, prices would begin to stiffen until by October the range would be 20 to 25 cts. per dozen, while through November, De- cember and January one could gamble on the price, as affected by the weather—the range being from 25 to 35 cts. usually, but in isolated cases going up to 50 cts per dozen, as before mentioned—all these prices having reference to the New York market more particularly. Under such circumstances, the farmer producer real ized comparatively little for his crop of eggs, owir to the fact that when the output was heavy prices were ruinously low, and when prices were high he had but few to sell. The few cold storage men in the West then carrying eggs in cold storage were able to buy stock at 8 to 10 cts. per dozen through the spring and summer months, and to get from 20 to 3v cts. per dozen for them in the late fall or early winter months. They made big profits right along, but the farmers quite the contrary. But all that is changed,and a different state of things prevails now. It has always been the practice in the commercial world to keep an observant eye out upon new enterprises and speculations, and when it is dem- onstrated by any one that there ‘‘is money in it” the speculative crowd at once ‘jumps in,” so to speak, takes a lively moneyed interest in it, and proceeds to gather as much ‘cream " off it as possible at the ex- pense of the man who orginated the business, at the cost, perhaps, of money as well as brains. Usually so many embark in the business that ultimately it be- comes ‘‘ overdone,” and the profits which formerly at- tended its prosecution drop out of sight. The business of carrying eggs in cold storage has be- come an example. sible for a wide belt of egy producing country to carry eggs for winter trade which hitherto for lack of ice, or because of its high price, had been prevented from doing so. These southern sections thus became competitors of the more northern sections when it came to unload- ing stocks in the fall and winter, while the vast aggrega- tion of stock held in the big refrigerators at the great trade centers, and in the multitude of smaller ones scattered over the country at interior points, made--and makes—eggs almost as plentiful on the market in the fall and early winter as they are in the spring. As spring eggs are known to be the best for storing, all cold storage men and speculators in egys naturally want to put away such, and they all want them at the same time. Therefore they compete with each other in buying, and bid up prices in the country until they are relatively higher than in the city market. In consequence, ship- ments to these become light, and commission houses are practically compelled to compete with country buy- ers by advancing quotations sufficiently to again draw Artificial cold storage made it pos- 18 -. ICE .. AND .*. REFRIGERATION .:. JULY, 1893. shipments from the country. Then country buyers, in turn, are obliged to advance prices to keep stock from being shipped past them, or else take the risk of waiting for city markets to become overloaded and prices to re- cede. The result of this state of things is, that instead of the price of 8 to 10 cts. per dozen which for- merly prevailed at interior shipping points through- out the western country, in the spring and summer months, the price is now maintained at about 12% cts. per dozen. This difference in price, of course, adds largely to the producers’ profits—an immense aggregate sum for the country at large, at the expense of the speculators, whose possible profits are reduced correspondingly. Then, on the other hand, it being a recognized fact that ‘‘cold” eggs should be marketed as early in the fall as prices will permit, in order to avoid heavy “ loss off,” there is, in consequence, wide-spread anxiety on the part of the holders of ‘*cold” stock to market it early. This brings them into competition again, the more timid being satisfied to begin marketing their stock at figures which promise to net them a few cents per dozen profit. They ‘set the pace ” for all others, and so much stock is urged upon the market after October that the bulk of cold storage stock does not usually go above 16 to 18 cts. per dozen. With the stock stored in the first place at 11 to 1214 cts. per dozen, and their selling at 16 to 18cts. for the great bulk of it, with freight, commission and “loss off” to be yet deducted, it is plain to see that the profit from carrying eggs