UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 494 



'•*' Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 



WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



January 16, 1917 



A HUMIDIFIER FOR LEMON CURING ROOMS. 



By A. D. Shamel, 

 Physiologist i/rv Charge of Fruit-Improvement Investigations, Office of Horti- 

 cultural and Pomological Investigations. 



CONTEXTS. 



Introduction 1 



Object of the experiments 2 



Plan of the work 2 



Methods tried for increasing the relative hu- 

 midity 3 



The invention of the humidifier 4 



Tapp. 



Construction of the humidifier 6 



Operation of the humidifier 



Other uses of the humidifier 9 



Results 10 



S ummary 10 



INTRODUCTION- 



In the summer of 1914 the writer became interested in some studies 

 having for their object the control of humidity in the curing rooms 

 of one of the lemon packing houses in southern California. These 

 rooms, 20 in number, are about 20 feet long by 20 feet wide and 10 

 feet high. They are arranged five on each side of two corridors, 

 which are covered by monitor-type ventilators with slatted sides. 

 The rooms are equipped with ventilating doors along the outer bot- 

 tom side and inner top side, arranged in such a way that they can be 

 opened easily and held in any position desired, or can be closed so as 

 to prevent any appreciable movement of air from thi! rooms. 



The walls of the rooms are made of galvanized steel. A 4-inch 

 space between the walls, on all sides of the room except the bottom, 

 is filled with redwood sawdust. The floors of the rooms are made 

 of 2 by 4 inch wooden stringers laid flatwise on the joists, with half- 

 inch spaces between them. Underneath each room is a small earth 

 cellar, or pit, in which to place heating appliances for use in raising 

 the temperature of the rooms. 



65990°— 17 



