eS 
TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF FOOD 421 
NaTuRAL ICE AS A PRESERVATIVE. 
Cold, which according to modern knowledge is the best of all preservatives, 
does not appear to have been used in ancient times, although snow and ice 
were used in cellars for cooling wine. Perhaps the earliest recorded experi- 
ment in the use of cold as a preservative is that of Francis Bacon who, in 
1626, stuffed a fowl with snow and found the method answered ‘ excellently 
well.’ He died a few days later, but his death does not appear to have been 
in any way connected with the stuffed fowl. 
The use of cold as a preservative no doubt arose by man observing that 
in cold climates such foods as meat lasted longer than in warmer ones, and 
the delay in its development was probably due to the difficulties of trans- 
porting natural ice. With the improved means of transport available at 
the commencement of the nineteenth century, we find Wenham Lake ice 
being imported from America, and when, later, the trade was transferred 
to Norway, Lake Oppergard was renamed Lake Wenham to preserve the 
trade name. Sir William Hardy, who loved the sea and everything con- 
nected with it, was fond of telling how he remembered lake ice being brought 
to this country in sailing vessels, and how he watched the ships discharge 
ice alongside a type of smack long since vanished, which brought cod back 
alive in a ‘ well,’ the ship’s “ well’ being open to the sea by holes bored in 
the ship’s bottom. 
MEAT ARRIVES FROM AUSTRALIA. 
The success of cold as a preservative, limited though it was in application 
owing to the relatively small supply of natural ice in summer-time, and 
ignorant though we were of the cause of preservation, led to a bold experi- 
ment being made in 1860. It must be remembered that during the previous 
half-century the rapid expansion of the population of this country was 
creating a good deal of anxiety for our food-supplies, especially meat, and 
had given rise to a trade with North America, and later with South America, 
in live cattle. It was obvious that the transport of live cattle over long 
distances was not a convenient solution of the problem, and Australia and 
New Zealand, with an ever-increasing surplus of sheep, were too far away 
for transport of these animals to be undertaken with ease and profit. So it 
was that in 1860 an experimental cargo of meat was shipped by James 
Harrison from Australia with natural ice to keep it cold, but, as many 
expected, the ice failed to last the voyage, and the meat had to be jettisoned. 
But the experiment attracted much attention, and it is not surprising to 
learn that a few years later natural ice was successfully used for shipping 
meat on the much shorter voyage from North America. 
ENGINEER’S ICE. 
The failure of James Harrison stimulated engineers to build refrigerating 
machinery for ships, and in 1877 the first cargo of meat to be shipped and 
preserved by ‘ engineer’s ice’ was landed from Australia by the steamer 
Sirathleven, a Bell-Coleman refrigerating machine being employed. 
Five years later—that is, in 1882—the sailing ship Dunedin of the Shaw, 
Savill and Albion Line, fitted with a machine of the same make, made the 
voyage from Port Chalmers, New Zealand, to London in 98 days, and 
landed five thousand carcasses of frozen mutton which fetched 6d. per Ib. 
Thus it was that the transport of meat from Australia and New Zealand 
began, and the beginning of the story is but fifty-seven years ago. In 1865 
