FRESH -MEAT SHIPMENT TO EUROPE. 317 



three hundred cattle. They send the best cattle they can buy, none less 

 than seven hundred and fifty pounds' weight, if possible to get them. 

 Their last shipment, February 1, averaged 850 pounds dressed weight. 

 Their principal market is London. 



Messrs. Gillett and Sherman ship under the patent of Dr. J. J. Cravens, 

 which is a process for radiating cold air and j)reserviug fresh meat. A 

 refrigerator-chamber is constructed between decks by making double 

 walls of planks and lining the inside of both of the plank walls with pat- 

 ent roofing-paper, and so placing the plank that where they join the cracks 

 will not be opposite each other. The doors are made in the same way, 

 and the whole room, fitted in this manner, is made as air-tight as possible. 

 Galvanized-iron pipes, 2| inches in diameter, connected together, are 

 placed one above the other, reaching from the ceiling to the tloor, 13 in 

 all, and extend around the walls and through the middle of the room, 

 through which briue is forced by a Knowles bilge-pump located outside 

 of the apartment. The pump runs on an average of eighty strokes a 

 minute. The brine i^ pumped into the top pipe and runs by its own 

 gravity and the pressure of the pump down through all of the pipes, and 

 is returned into the reservoir from whence it came. The reservoir is a 

 water-tight compartment situated alongside of the refrigerator, and is 

 filled with ice and salt, at the rate of twenty sacks, four bushels to a sack, 

 of Livqfpool salt and forty tons of ice. This amount of ice and salt is 

 suflBcient for preserving the carcasses of one hundred cattle for 13 days, 

 which is longer than the time usually required for transportation from 

 America to England. It is calculated that the pipes will radiate a cold 

 temperature for 18 feet, sufficient to keep the meat, and for any space 

 beyond 18 feet another set or tier of pipes must be had. A waste-pipe 

 at the top of the reservoir allows any excess of brine to escape. The 

 brine is pumped from the bottom of the reservoir and returned to it from 

 the refrigerator at the top, so that a constant circulation is going on and 

 the extremes of cold are brought into use. The ice and salt are put into 

 the reservoir a couple of days before the steamer sails, and before the 

 meat is placed into the refrigerator the pump is set going to cool the 

 room and have it ready for the meat. Water is put into the reservoir 

 to create a brine, if it is necessary to do so before the ice may melt suf- 

 ficiently to cool the pipes. When the meat is put in and hung up on the 

 hooks overhead — as, under this system, it is never laid on the floor — 

 the refrigeratar is closed tight, and the pump kept going constantly 

 during the voyage. The shipper is obliged to have a man in attendance 

 to regulate the pump and watch the temperature, which is kept between 

 35^ and 40° — as near 36° as possible. Greater cold is produced by a 

 more rapid pumping of the brine through the pipes. The steam is sup- 

 plied by the steamer. A screen is placed over the mouth of the feed- 

 pipe to prevent the pump getting choked. A thermometer is placed 

 near the pipes, and one at some distance off, to note the degree of tem- 

 perature. These are seen through a glass plate placed in the wall. After 

 the refrigerators have been shut a few hours a rapid condensation takes 

 place, and the i)ipes are covered over by coating of ice, and the atmos- 

 phere is thereby rendered dry. If the temperature runs up to 40c», it must 

 be reduced rapidly, or the meat will spoil. It costs $2,000 to fit up a re- 

 frigerator under the Cravens patent large enough to hold one hundred 

 and fifty cattle. Under the other patents the expense is not so great. 



Messrs. Gillett & Sherman have an extensive cooling-room at the 

 slaughter-house connected with the New Jersey stock-yards, which is 

 fitted up with an ice-reservoir and pipes the same as on board of the 

 steamer. This room is used for storing the meat before shipment, but 



