STERILISERS AND STERILISATION 7 
ago extensive plant was laid down in Continental 
factories, especially in France, Germany, and Switzerland, 
for the bottling of fruit, which was done by the ton, and 
placed upon both the Continental and British markets.} 
The expense, however, of the plant and the skilled 
labour required to sterilise by steam is a drawback to 
doing it except on a very large scale, and this view of it 
is therefore rather outside the more simple processes 
which we are considering. Nevertheless, we will give 
some illustrations, and explain later on, two sterilisers, 
one the ‘‘ Wyttenbach,” which is constructed especially 
for steam, the other the ‘‘ Mercia Patent Steriliser,”’ 
which can be easily and inexpensively adapted for steam, 
and in the picture, p. 4, is thus shown. 
It will be easier, however, to describe the steriliser, 
after explaining the process of sterilisation. Sterilisation 
is briefly this, to make sterile or deprive of vitality the 
bacteriological germs which cause decay and putrefaction 
in fruit and vegetables, as well as in other forms of food. 
If these germs are destroyed and kept from approaching 
the sterilised object again, it will keep perfectly sound 
and good for a considerable, possibly an unlimited time. 
This result is brought about by the following process. 
The article (fruit or vegetable) to be sterilised is packed 
into a glass jar or bottle, which is then filled with cold 
water and closed, either by a metal or glass cap fastened 
by a clip or a screw ;? the bottles are placed in a vessel 
containing cold water, heat is applied in one form or 
another (see p. 12), and the temperature of the water 
bath is slowly raised until it is sufficiently high inside 
the glass jars to kill the bacteriological germs. The 
1 'To realise the enormous quantity which is turned out, we would 
mention in passing that in the catalogue of a French firm which we 
have, there is an illustration of a corking and capping machine which 
was guaranteed to do 600 to 700 bottles an hour. 
2'The bottles, clips, and caps are explained on pp. 16, 17, and 18. 
