10 
paid the expense of his trip and stay there. If the result was 
successful, he would only require a fair and reasonable royalty on 
each 100 tons of fruié shipped. 
After I left California quite a rapid development took place. 
The engineer appointed by the Southern Pacific Railway Com- 
pany reported in the most favorable’ terms on the Perkins pro- 
cess, and so approved of it that the railway company took a large 
number of shares in the California Transit and Storage Company, 
as the new company to utilize and work it was termed. The 
Southern Pacific Company also gave Dr. Perkins permission to 
have a fruit car suitable for adaptation to his process, for trial 
purposes built in their workshops, under his own personal super- 
intendence. This was done, and in November last, a Perkins 
car load of grapes and peaches were sent on a trial trip to New 
Orleans, from Oakland, a suburb of San Francisco. A number 
of bunches of flowers were also cut and put in.the car with the 
fruit. The car was ran to New Orleans and back again to 
Oakland, doing a journey of over 5,000 miles, and being absent 
fifteen days. The trial was a perfect success, the cut flowers in 
the car on their return being taken out perfectly fresh, and the 
grapes and peaches in the same condition. The following report 
appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, of 11th November, 
describing the arrival of the car at New Orleans :— 
“ A despatch from New Orleans to a gentleman in this city 
announces that Dr. Alfred T. Perkins’ experimental carload of 
fruit; grapes, berries, and cut flowers had arrived in that city in 
excellent condition. The fruit, grapes, and berries were as fresh 
as the day they were gathered, and the flowers had not lost either 
their fragrance or their bloom. Dr. Perkins’ plan for shipping 
fruit promises to revolutionize the fruit-shipping industry and save 
thousands of dollars every year to the California growers who 
send their products to eastern markets. The doctor preserves 
fruit by means of compressed air. But few people in this state 
have any idea that such a method exists, but in Paris the name of 
Dr. Perkins is well known, and he has been honoured by the 
Academy of Sciences of that city sending him a gold medal in 
recognition of his merit as an inventor. Dr. Perkins is the 
pastor of an Episcopal church in Alameda. Six years ago he 
began on his experiments, and for at least five years his method 
of preserving fruit, flowers, and meat has been in practical opera- 
tion at his home. The principle involved is very simple. 
Attached to the locomotive is an air-compressor, in which the 
pressure of air reaches over 80 lbs. to the square inch. Air com- 
pressed to such an extent becomes heated to such a degree that 
the germinal life it contains is destroyed. The sterilized air is 
passed into a receiver, where it is cooled and then forced into an 
airtight car in which the fruit is placed. The germ-laden air is 
in turn forced out of the car, and the fruit is carried to its des- 
tination in perfectly pure air. Mold and other matter of a fungus 
