CHAPTER VI. 



Experiments 

 proving 1 that 

 eggs must 

 evaporate. 



PACKAGK. 



EGGS are continually giving- off moisture from 

 the time they are first dropped by the hen until 

 they disintegrate, unless sealed from contact with the 

 air, and we can therefore never hope to keep them in 

 cold storage for several months without their losing 

 some weight by evaporation. To prove that eggs 

 must evaporate, the following experiment was tried 

 by the writer in his early experience: An ordinary 

 30-dozen egg case was lined with tin, with all joints 

 carefully soldered. The eggs were then placed in 

 the fillers in the tin lined case in the usual way, and 

 an air tight tin cover soldered on, forming a hermeti- 

 cally sealed package. After about sixty days' stay 

 in an ordinary refrigerator the tins were unsoldered. 

 The result noted was peculiar and startling. The 

 inside of the tins was dripping wet, and very foul 

 smelling, and the eggs were all rotten. This same 

 experiment-was tried by a friend, working independ- 

 ently and without knowledge of the writer's experi- 

 ment. He used an ordinary fruit jar, with screw top 

 fitting onto a rubber ring. His results were similar. 

 In addition this gentleman packed some eggs in flour 

 in a fruit jar, otherwise under the same conditions 

 as the other experiment. The eggs packed in this way 

 were all found to be in good condition when the jar 

 was opened, as the moist evaporation from the eggs 

 had been taken up by the flour. These experiments 

 prove beyond a doubt that an egg must evaporate 

 continually, and they prove further that the eggs 

 must be surrounded by some medium which will 

 absorb this evaporation. 



We have noted in the chapter on "Circulation," 

 how the air is best circulated so as to remove the 



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