MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. * 81 



cess, kept good for 12 days with the temperature varying be- 

 tween 80 and 110 F., the original odor and flavor remaining 

 unimpaired at the end of the time. In 26 hours portions of the 

 same animal matter, unprepared, were absolutely putrid. 



Another method of preserving fresh meat has been devised and 

 patented by Prof. Redwood, of London, and consists in giving the 

 meat to be preserved a coat of paraffine. At a temperature of 130 

 this substance becomes fluid, and will, in this condition, bear a 

 considerable amount of heat without boiling, and thus enable the 

 experimenter to raise the temperature, if required, several hun- 

 dred degrees above 212, the boiling-point of water, without in 

 any respect altering its condition. It was found by Mr. Redwood 

 that animal substances, when immersed in a bath of paraffine 

 heated to about 250 F., rapidly lost the air and water which all 

 such substances contain, leaving the juice of the meat in a concen- 

 trated state. According to the thickness of the mass of meat, the 

 time of its immersion is increased or diminished. By this process 

 the germs of destruction are found to be quite destroyed, very 

 much on the same principle that the various articles of food are pre- 

 pared in hermetically sealed vessels, or calf's-foot jelly bottled and 

 kept in a perfect state of preservation. When the meat has thus been 

 allowed to remain a sufficient length of time in the highly heated 

 paraffine, it is removed, and immediately dipped into a bath con- 

 taining the same material, at a lower temperature ; and after two 

 or three dippings the process is complete, and the substances thus 

 preserved are ready either for home or foreign consumption. Va- 

 rious samples have been prepared, and, after three months' keep- 

 ing, have been cooked and found perfectly sweet, and free from 

 any taint whatever. So successful has the process been, so far as 

 it has been tried, in connection with experiments commenced last 

 summer, that a company has been formed in London, where ex- 

 periments are still going on with a great variety of different s'ub- 

 stances, such as bacon, beef, mutton, butter, eggs, sausages, 

 cheese, hams, etc. l^ie company hope that, ere long, choice beef 

 and mutton will be sent home to Great Britain in a perfectly fresh 

 state, and be sold at such prices as must of necessity prove a boon 

 to the public generalty, but more especially to the poorer portion 

 of the inhabitants in this country. The following are the direc- 

 tions by which the preserved meat may be cooked : " Remove the 

 greater part of the paraffine by breaking it with a hammer or other 

 suitable instrument, and peeling it off; then put the meat into a 

 vessel of boiling water, when the remainder of the paraffine will 

 melt and rise to the surface, leaving the meat entirely free from it. 

 When it has cooled, the hardened paraffine may be taken from the 

 surface of the water, and the meat dried with a cloth. It is now 

 ready to be prepared for food by any of the usual methods, but it 

 should be cooked for only half the time required for unpreserved 

 fresh meat. The paraffine that, has been removed from the meat 

 may be kept for subsequent use, being quite unchanged, nor in- 

 jured in any way. 



Transportation of Fresli Meat. The experiment of transporting 

 fresh meats from the West by railroad has proved a success. A 



