208 The Artificial Production of Ice and Cold. [April, 



in better condition, but also as a means of compensating that 

 uncertain and variable relation between supply and demand which 

 sometimes renders articles of food excessively dear, and at others 

 reduces their value to almost nothing. Large quantities of pro- 

 visions are constantly being destroyed as unfit lor food, on account 

 of damage during transport, or from being kept too long, and this 

 might in all probability be prevented if suitable means were aj)- 

 plied to keep them cool, while being brought to market, and to 

 store surplus supplies at a sufficiently low temperature for their 

 preservation. Enormous quantities of fish are at tunes destroyed 

 or carted on the land for manure, because, in the absence of any 

 means of preserving an unusually large supply, it is not worth the 

 cost of transport to market. In like manner the importation of 

 what may be called the waste meat of the Australian colonies, 

 South America, and of other countries, a2)pears to depend mainly 

 on a practical solution of the problem, whether a sufficiently low 

 temperature for preserving the meat fresh can be maintained during 

 the passage to England, at such a cost as would afford a profit on 

 the trade. 



Another of the jjurposes to which artificial refrigeration may be 

 applied with advantage, is the brewing of beer, especially as the 

 necessity for cooling power is of uncertain occurrence, and varies 

 very much according to the season, so that there is too great a risk 

 in keeping a store of ice for the purpose, to admit of its being so 

 much practised as might be desirable. It is, indeed, remarkable 

 that so little has been done hitherto by brewers in applying 

 artificial refrigeration, for with the exception of Messrs. Flower, of 

 Stratford-on-Avon, who were the first to put up a machine for this 

 purpose, and of Messrs. Trueman, Hanbury and Buxton, who have 

 lately put up one of Siebe's ether machines at their brewery, 

 there is, perhaps, no other brewery where artificial refrigeration is 

 practised. 



The practical benefit of such a means of producing cold at will, 

 without incurring the ex])ense arising from the waste of ice kept 

 in store, has been well illustrated by the results obtained by Mr. 

 King, the engineer to Messrs. Trueman's brewery, during the 

 autumn of last year. The apparatus worked there is capable of 

 producing five tons of ice within the twenty-four hours, witli a 

 consumption of coal at the rate of ten tons per week, or about 

 7s. per ton of ice produced; and the additional cost corresponding 

 to expenses for labour, waste of material, and interest on first 

 outlay, would probably fall far short of the average price of ice 

 during warm seasons, when it is most in demand, and sometimes 

 rises as high as 21. per ton. But this is not the whole of the ad- 

 vantage capable of being realized in such a case by applying arti- 

 ficial refiigeration. In many cases it is by no means necessary fur 



