﻿REFRIGERATION OF DRESSED POULTRY IN TRANSIT. 



27 



TEMPERATURE OF PACKAGES IN CAR. 



During the late winter and spring of 1912 an investigation was 

 made of the variations in the temperature of the poultry in different 

 parts of the barrel and box packages, of the inequalities in tempera- 

 ture in different parts of the car, and of the fluctuations of car tem- 

 perature as affected by outside atmospheric changes. J. F. Fernald, 

 mechanical assistant, Bureau of Plant Industry, made several trips, 

 accompanying carloads of dressed poultry from Tennessee to the New 



York and Phila- 



delphia markets. 



The necessary 



thermometer 



readings were 



made at intervals of three or four 



hours during the day, at times when 



the train happened to be at rest. 



For these tests a thermograph in 

 a wooden box of three-fourths inch 

 material was suspended from the 

 bottom of the car (see PI. I, fig. 1) , to 

 obtain a continuous record of the tem- 

 perature of the outside air. Inside 

 the car five thermographs, insimilar 

 wooden boxes, were used — one at 

 the top and one at the bottom of the 

 load next to the bunker, two others 

 in a similar arrangement at the cen- 

 ter of the car midway between the 



doors, and 

 the fifth 

 next to the 

 side wall 

 of the car. 



These thermograph records were supplemented with the readings 

 of eight electric thermometers, located at similar positions in the car 

 (see PI. I, fig. 2). The conduit wires from the thermometers con- 

 verged in a small holder or box which was suspended just beneath the 

 lid of the ice hatch at a point which would be easily accessible from 

 the top of the car. From this position the thermometers were read 

 by means of an electric apparatus carried by the messenger in charge. 

 This operation was performed without opening the car doors, and was 

 thus protected against the admission of warm air and artificial air 

 currents. These electric thermometers are about 10 inches long and 



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Fig. 12. — Simple box bunker. 



