Proceedings, &c, for 1868. xv 



been alluded to at the previous meeting. That process had how- 

 ever been tried, by the dipping of meat in hot paraffine at a tempe- 

 rature of about 150 degrees ; however a great obstacle to its 

 employment was the liability of the paraffine to crack. Some years 

 back he had made some small experiments by placing joints of meat 

 in the ice-house on the banks of the Yarra. The first joint turned 

 out bad, but the second and third tried were successful. He con- 

 sidered the failure with the first joint arose from allowing it to thaw 

 gradually in the open air before cooking and so permitted of its 

 being acted on by the floating germs of decomposition. The other 

 joints were placed in hot water to thaw. 



Mr. W. S. Gibbons approved of paraffine, and said that a Mel- 

 bourne firm were trying a plan of packing meat closely and then 

 running hot tallow over it before fastening the case. He said meat 

 thawed in hot water would always eat flabby, and referred to the 

 plan adopted by the Cunard Line of Steamers where the packets 

 were victualled with meat cured and packed in ice. 



Mr. Blair had seen, years back, in sailing from Scotland to the 

 Arctic seas, meat preserved by being simply tied to the mast-head. 

 It had then been sawn by the carpenter like a piece of red gum, 

 but was perfectly sweet and tender. On the return voyage and as a 

 warmer climate was approached the meat decayed. 



Mr. Newbery said he had, in North America, seen venison frozen, 

 but noticed that when thawed it decomposed quicker than fresh 

 meat, caused, he thought, from the fact that the cells in the meat 

 burst, as water pipes would when the liquid became frozen. 



Mr. Postle said his plan would soon be tested, as an eminent 

 capitalist had made up his mind to construct the necessary machinery. 

 He then referred to what he considered were the- defects in Mort's 

 patent. 



Mr. James Harrison said eleven years ago he was enabled to 

 witness the process of freezing, by the condensation and expansion 

 of air. The machinery was of a first-class character, driven by a 

 90 horse-power steam engine, and the air was cooled by water, 

 nearly ice cold, taken from the Eegent's Canal at Camden Town, 

 where he had inspected it. Yet the result of three days working 

 was only one hundred weight of ice. The fact was, the process 

 itself was bad ■ theoretically the process ought to be a failure. A 

 pound of air occupied a space of little more than 12 \ cubic feet. 

 The specific heat of air was only one-quarter that of water, so that it 

 would require four pounds, or 50 cubic feet of air to heat or cool 

 one pound of water to a mean temperature. If the air be cooled to 

 say 10 degrees below the freezing point, it would require 700 cubic 

 feet of air to abstract the 1-40 degrees of latent heat in the water 

 before it would freeze. With a condensing cylinder of fifteen inches 

 diameter, and ten horse engine, this would be done in three and-a- 

 half minutes, equal to a production of 411 lbs. of ice in twenty- 



