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can have practical application in the different methods of 

 transportation by land or by water, and for this reason the 

 subject of fish transportation, or fish preservation while in 

 transit, may with propriety be considered in this Paper. 



Refrigerating cars are important links in the chain form- 

 ing the complete system of preservation, and will in the 

 near future be considered a necessity for the transportation 

 of perishable articles, but they cannot be endowed with the 

 almost miraculous powers which many accredit them with. 

 Exaggerated views of their capabilities are pernicious and 

 misleading, and induce many fruitless attempts to solve the 

 great problem of safe transportation of perishable articles. 

 Speaking of them negatively, it is scarcely possible, cer- 

 tainly not economical, to convert cars into successful freez- 

 ing chambers. The height and width of railway vans are 

 restricted to fixed limits, and proper insulation will require 

 25 per cent, of the inside area, the appliances for holding 

 sufficient ice to maintain a temperature against losses, but 

 not including cooling the fish, will make a further requisi- 

 tion on the available space of 10 per cent. 



The refrigerating power is from necessity derived from ice, 

 and you not only have to pay for the ice so used, but also 

 pay for its transportation, and it requires no further argument 

 to show the folly of attempting to do that in the cars that 

 can be better and cheaper done in fixed chambers. In illus- 

 tration, we will assume that five tons of herrings, fresh from 

 the water, with a natural temperature of 60 (outside tempera- 

 ture something higher), are placed in a car and started for 

 London. If you obtain theoretic beneficial results in melt- 

 ing the ice (results which are never realized), it would take 

 half a ton of ice to cool these fish to a temperature of 35 ; 

 practically, it would take at least 50 per cent, more than 

 this without allowing anything for loss through the walls 



