6 INTRODUCTION. 



perhaps been made before, and are of necessity to 

 be made again by others, simply because the first 

 experimenter would not give other people the benefit 

 of his experience. It seems at this stage in the de- 

 velopment of refrigeration, that the improvements to 

 be made during- the next twenty years will be of very 

 much less importance than those made during- the 

 twenty years just ending-; trade secrets, so jeal- 

 ously guarded by some, must disappear, as they have 

 in other branches of engineering-. Storag-e men have 

 been oblig-ed to work out their own salvation in stor- 

 ing- problems, sometimes sending their most difficult 

 points to be answered through the columns of Ice and 

 Refrigeration, and, perhaps, comparing ideas with 

 those of their personal friends in the same line of 

 business. It is to be observed that the most pro- 

 gressive and up-to-date manufacturing concerns in 

 the United States to-day are giving their contempo- 

 raries every opportunity of observing their methods, 

 and are very willing and anxious to talk over matters 

 pertaining to their work, from an unselfish stand- 

 point. So, too, the successful cold storage of the 

 future will be sure to make " visitors welcome." 



In anything which will appear in these articles, it 

 is not the writer's intention to convey the idea that 

 any mere theoretical knowledge, which can be ac- 

 quired by reading and study, or even by an exchange 

 of ideas in conversation, can take the place of practi- 

 cal observation in actual house management; but 

 there are applications of well known natural laws, 

 which are not generally understood by storage men, 

 and their progress is handicapped from lack of this 

 theoretical knowledge. The two following illustra- 

 tions, bearing on temperature and ventilation, are 

 among the common errors made in practice, yet easily 

 understood when studied and tested: Some storage 

 houses have formerly held their egg rooms at 33 F., 

 fearing any nearer approach to the freezing point of 



