Complete Text (Part 11)

| Water by Specie, Meat] Salumeter [Point Deatoen Welent | Wenent? (Pot rine: oe o. 100 |e. 1.000 ° 32 ) 0.992 4 30.5 5 | 95 | 0.960 2 25.2 nr) 0.892 40 8.7 15 85, 0.855 60 12.2 2» 80 0.839 80 61 2 | 75 | ORS 100 °. “Therefore ifi in your case the temperature in the freez- ing tank does not go below 15° F., it would be quite sufficient to use a brine containing 15 per cent of salt, (salometer degrees 60) as from the above table it ap- pears that such a solution does freeze below that tem- perature. On the other hand, if the temperature of your freezing does not go below 20° F., a brine containing only 10 per cent salt would be sufficient for the same reason, etc. This table also explains why it would be irrational to use stronger solutions of salt than these, for, as we see from the column showing specific heat, the same grows smaller as the concentration of the brine in- creases, and consequently the stronger the brine the less «. ICE .. AND .. REFRIGERATION .°. 3! heat and cold a given amount of brine will be able to convey between certain definite temperatures. There is another danger connected with the use of too strong, especially of concentrated brine in refrigeration. Such brine may cause clogging of pipes, etc., on account of depositing salt.” The above, also, in a measure disposes of your question relating to the measuring of the density in making reference to the salometer, which is ply a hydrometer scale, the degrecs of which compare with density, specific gravity or strength of brine in the manner as shown in the above table. In case you should not be able to readily obtain a salometer, you can also use a Beaumé hydrometer, or a Beck hydrometer scale, both of which are in quite general use for taking the strength of acids, etc. Their degrees compare with specific gravity and percentage of salt, as shown in the following table, and, as will be seen, do not differ so very much from the degrees of the salometer scale: Deyrees on Beck's Scale, oF Degrees on Heaumie's Scale, ar F. | | | ° ° 1 1 12 5 5 6 to Ilo 2 15 15 7 20 19 a 25 3 2 STORAGE TEMPERATURES AND MOISTURE, To the Editor: There seems to be considerable difference of opinion as to the best temperature at which fruits should be kept in cold storage. What in your opinion is the best tempera- ture for keeping bananas and lemons in cold storage? Is it necessary or desirable that the storage room should be kept ab- solutely dry? I understand there are chemicals which will keep a room dry; what are they, and how are they used? How can 1 ascertain the degree of moisture in the storage room? P. Sc. Awswer.—As to keeping bananas opinions in regard to temperature differ all the way from 36° to 50°,and as to lemons from 36° to 45°. We should judge that 40° is a safe mean for the latter and 45° for bananas. Lower temperatures appear to prejudice their keeping after being taken from cold storage. It is neither necessary nor desirable that the storage room should be absolutely dry; on the contrary, we think it may be too dry as well as it may too damp. If the room is too dry it will favor the shrinkage and drying out of certain goods. If the room is too damp goods are liable to spoil and become moldy, etc. For this reason the moisture should always be kept below the saturation point. This condition can be ascertained by means of a hygrometer, which essentially consists of two thermometers of exactly similar division suspended in proximity to each other. The bulb of one of them is wrapped in a strip of loose muslin dipping into water contained in a small vessel placed below the thermometer. If under those conditions the mercury shows alike in both thermometers it proves that the air is saturated with moisture,a condition which is prejudicial to most goods kept in storage; the thermometer with the wet bulb should always stand several degrees below that of the dry thermometer. There is little danger that the rooms will ever be too dry; on the other hand, they are not required to be absolutely dry,and as to chemical dryers we consider them superfluous with proper ventila- tion and refrigerating machinery properly applied. The 32 «. ICE .. AND .. REFRIGERATION .°. JULY, 1893. best chemical drying material, because cheap and effi- cient at the same time, seems to be chloride of calcium, which if dried absorbs considerable moisture, thereby assuming a liquid form. By redrying its absorptive qualities may be revived, and thus the same amount of substance may be used repeatedly over and over again. POWER TRANSMITTED BY BELTS To the Editor: Please inform me through the next issue of your valuable paper, how many horse powers can be transmitted by a 10-inch belt and a pulley having twenty inches diameter and making eighty revolutions per minute. GL Answer.—The amount of power that can be trans- mitted depends on the strain or tension of the belt,in the first place, and also on the lap of the belt on the pulley; if the driving and driven pulleys are of néarly equal size or sufficiently far apart so as to allow the belt to lap half round the smaller pulley,and if we allow forty-one pounds tension per inch width of belt, the above belt would transmit about 5-horse powers under the conditions named. PRESERVATION OF BUTTER. To the Editor: We have been advised to melt butter pre- vious to filling it in jars in order to increase its keeping qualities. We have tried this on a small scale, but find that the butter so treated acquires a peculiar taste quite different from fresh but- ter. Is there any way to avoid this taste, and do you really think that it will help a great deal to preserve the butter? Are there any chemicals that may be used to preserve butter; and which, in your opinion, is the best way to preserve butter in its original condition? L. F. Answer.—In order to melt butter so that the taste is not too much impaired, great care must be used in the performance of the operation, the safest way being to usea hot water bath instead of melting the butter in a vessel over direct fire, which scorches and decomposes the butter to some extent. For this purpose the butter contained in a glazed earthen jar is placed in a larger tin or iron vessel partially filled with water. Then heat is applied to the outer vessel until the butter melts in the inner one. After an hour or so the albuminous and easily decomposable constituents of the butter which coagulate by the heat, settle to the bottom, while a clear, transparent, oily layerof melted butter remains on top, covered with a thin layer of foamy substance. The lat- ter being carefully removed, the liquid butter is poured into glass vessels which must be well sealed. We un- derstand that this method of improving the keeping quality of butter was practiced to a great extent in Eu- rope, and that butter so treated would keep for several months without losing much in flavor. For the sealing of the jars containing the melted butter, a layer of paraffin is recommended; others use artificial parch- ment paper, tied over the jars. Boracic acid, salicylic acid and other chemicals have been recommended to preserve butter, but, as far as we can learn, with very questionable success, owing, doubtless, in some measure, to the difficulty of intimately incorporating these ingredients with the butter. Our personal opinion is that salting and cold storage are the proper and best preservatives to keep butter in its original condition, other methods of preservation impairing the taste, flavor and grain of the butter to a greater or less extent. —S. G, Arnold, Lyons, Iowa, has sold his ice to Allen & Mead, of Clinton, who will begin a retail business in the latter city, as well as at Lyons. —Peter Shipe, of Shipe & Schmeck, ice dealers at Read- ing, Pa., has retired’ from that firm and gone into the ice busi- ness on his own account. Heis handling manufactured ice. NEW BOOKS. TemPERAMENT, DisEaSE AND HEALTH. By French Ensor Chad- wick. New York and London: G. P. Putman’s Sons, 1892. 12 mo, cloth,pp. 85. Price, 75 cents. For sale by A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago. This little book is written primarily to expound the idea that there is associated with each individual temperament a specific rate of change (assimilative and secretive) and that the failure to keep up that rate, or, in other words, a failure to have elimina- tion keep pace with accession of material, is the primal cause of organic disease. The subject as treated by the author offers many original and interesting aspects, which are readily accessi- ble to the popular mind. Dre THERMODYNAMIK IN DER CHEMIE. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann. 196. Price, 7 marks. Among the physical disciplines which have been accessory to the remodeling of theoretical chemistry, thermodynamics are gaining in importance daily. Indeed, there are hardly any chemical changes or reactions, the thorough discussion of which does not require the application of thermodynamic principles. The subject which is generally referred to in a more casual man- ner in works on general and physical chemistry, is here treated in an independent, fascinating and exhaustive manner for the first time, comprehending all the known relations by uniform mathematical deductions, all starting from the same accepted principles. Although the German idiom suffers a little at the author’s hand (he being a Dutchman), this does not seriously detract from the great value of the work,which is enriched by many instructive deductions original with the author. The work is dedicated to Van’t Hoff, the well known exponent of physical chemistry, whose introductory remarks preface the book. Natrona Ammonia Co. on application. This is a ‘‘ World’s Fair Issue” of testimonials in reference to the anhydrous ammonia furnished by the National Ammonia Co., of St. Louis. It also contains a short treatise on ammonia. The users are among the most prominent builders and operators of refrigerating machines in this country, whose remarks will be interesting to the trade generally. Ross’s Annuat Vest Pocket Guipe oF Hupson. For the ice trade in general. By E. H. Robb, Staatsburg, Dutchess Co., N.Y. 68 pp.; leather; price, $1. This isa little work for the vest pocket, comprising a map showing the location of all ice houses on Hudson river, with numbered index, giving names of owners, capacity of houses, and harvest of 1893; also most convenient railroad connections to each house; officers and depots of all companies and indi- vidual dealers in New York and Brooklyn; schedule of the closing and opening of the Hudson since 1824; beginning of harvest annually from 1870 to 1893, and other tables and infor- mation. I¢ is a very accurate compilation and an exceptionally valuable pocket book for the eastern trade. CataLocur. Arctic Machine Manufacturing Co., Cleveland, Ohio. ‘Small 8no; 38 pp., free on application. This catalogue contains, besides some apt general remarks on refrigeration and ice making, a complete and explicit, though terse, explanation of the characteristic features of the Arctic ice machine, illustrations of the details of the compressor, of ma- chines and plants, as well as a list of users, with the comments of many patrons on the working of the Arctic machine. Von J. J. Van Laar, 1873. 8vo, paper, pp. St. Louis. 32mo, paper; pp. 48; free Ice Makinc anv ReFriceration. Hodges and Havenstrite Patents, By Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co. Boston. 8mo; 26 pp.; free on application. This catalogue gives a complete and suc the new type of refrigerating and ice making machine brought out by the above named firm. In form it is so marked a departure from usual and familiar types that our readers will certainly be interested in it. The circular will be sent on application. SpiraL Rivetep Water Pire. Abendroth & Root Manufactur- ing Co. New York city. 16mo, pp. 39: free on application. This is a comprehensive catalogue of these well known goods, especially interesting and valuable from its thorough ex- position of the various applications of riveted pipe, in the con- duction of water and for circulating pipes in cold storage plants. ct description of —The Grant Ice Co., Grand Rapid: its name to the Grant Ice and Fuel Co. . Mich., has changed JULY, 13 «. ICE .. AND .*. REFRIGERATION .-. 33 SUNDAY ICE. HE opinion of Chief Justice Fuller and his as- ociates who heard the appeal, at Chicago, in the “World's Fair" Sunday-opening case, as reported in the daily papers of June 17 a preliminary opinion only, in entering the order which makes opening the Fair a legal possibility—does not, unfortunately, decide any- The- ological dicta in reference to the day, however, no thing generally with reference to Sunday itself. longer have any place except in the consciences of in- dividuals. That much is settled; otherwise we are of «the same opinion still"; that is, that Sunday observ- ance is simply a matter of rest. The ‘Continental ” Sunday, which is in many re- spects and places as much a labor day as Monday or Friday, will never be popular in America, where the trend of opinion and events is toward fewer hours of labor; and being a day, now in the maii it will, as a holiday, be maintained and its observance without labor, as such even more strongly demanded by the labor classes of this country. And this demand is reasonable. Six days of productive capacity is su’ nt for our needs as a race, and except in particular instances where labor on the seventh is demanded by the unavoid- able conditions of production, the demand for the one- day-in-seven rest is certain to be more forcible than it ever has been. In the ice trade there is really no valid argument on which to base a Sunday delivery, except custom or habit. selfishness of men who are perfectly willing to see other men work while they rest, which altruism ought long since to have abolished, but has not entirely; and the practice is a catering to selfishness that is not without objection as a mere altruistic principle—pure selfishness should never be pampered. Both men and horses handling ice need the seventh day rest, and they should have it, and can have it without annoyance to any one if the companies will simply announce that they will not deliver ice on Sunday, and insist on their trade taking double quantity Saturday. That this will eventually be the case, there is little doubt. If the dealers do not bring about the reform themselves, the men may do it for them. It has fre- quently been discussed by them, but at Omaha, late in May. the local union of ice workers had taken the mat- terup. The matter has been handled judiciously, the men sounding the customers and in some cases getting their assent to a double Saturday delivery in licu of one on Sunday. The assent of the dealers was then It is a requirement that has its origin in the asked for, and four of the seven firms had on May 21 The mittee of the union hoped to secure the other three. They hold, and truly, that no loss can accrue to the dealers, certainly none that would be appreciable: while the gain in energy of the men and effectivencss of stock would more than make up for any possible losse THE TRADE. HE season opened late all over the north, owing to agreed to discontinue the Sunday delivery. com the conspicuously low temperature of April and May. Since June 1, however, the weather has been very warm, not to say hot, all over the countr GH business in consequence has been good, at remunerative prices. The buyer, for once at least, can find no fault with the quality of his ice,which is manifestly excellent, and universally so; but as Polonius said of Hamlet, ‘*he is still harping”-—on the price. E in the fashionable plaint that high" —and ‘it makes no difference how few months en Pierre, $.1)., joins $12 for the season is too they desire ice "—nor how many? On the other hand, the Californians who have been paying 1 2c. a pound, who now get it for ':c. a pound, are happy--!¢any body can keep cool at this price.” Tur. consolidation of the ice companies and dealers at Cincinnati, of which so much has been said during the past two months, appears at this time to have fallen through. It seems to be certain, in any event, that the Cincinnati Ice and Cold Storage Co. will not go into the New corporation, owing, as aim, to a too The the the directors c! low appraisement of the company's property. Tribune of the gth inst. says: “Mr. Russells, of company, attended the general mecting on Wednesday and stated the attitude of himself and his fellows. He said, further, that the meeting need have no hesitancy in proceeding alone, as it would be better for the interest of the trade to have two than twelve or more competing firms. Then he was politely but firmly invited to leave the session, which he did, and the Cincinnati is out of the deal. It is expected that the remaining firms will close up their combine within a few days Ox Jeux 21, according to the i”, a number of Brooklyn ice dealers held a meeting on the zoth to fight the wholesalers ‘the trust,” as they call it) who have raised the