87 



Brine Tank and Coils of a "Gravity Brine System" Cold Storage. 



One feels depressed in the room not A-entilated besides the unpleas- 

 ant odor from the damp barrels. Some kinds of wood give olt a 

 disagreeable odor and when barrels are made from these kinds of 

 wood, the odor from them for the entire season is almost sickening. 



The ammonia and carbonic acid gas systems of storage call for 

 houses of 40,000 or more barrels capacity to keep the cost of operat- 

 ing down to a paying basis. Two complete duplicate systems of 

 machinery must be always ready in case one should break down and 

 two competent skilled engineers must always be on hand, one for 

 day and one for the night shift, and in the Brighton, N. Y., stor- 

 age three engineers working on an eight-hour shift at $25.00 each 

 per week, and these must be kept the year round for they cannot 

 be picked up when wanted. They also employ two firemen. This 

 makes the operating of storage plants very expensive where ma- 

 chinery is used. The cost, at the present time, of an up-to-date 

 storage house is about $2.00 per barrel for the plants requiring dup- 

 licate machinery and about $1.50 per barrel for the ''Gravity Brine" 

 houses, thus giving the brine operated houses the advantage in 

 building as well as in operating. Electric power, where a cheap 

 rate can be secured, is the cheapest power, but the new internal 

 combustion engine like the Deisel & Busch using crude petroleum is 

 worth investigating as petroleum is a very cheap material to pro- 

 duce power. The ice and brine plant requires no high priced or 

 expensive machinery in duplicate, but with its systems of fan cir- 

 culation the outside cold air can be utilized, thus insuring good air 

 and saving ice. The size of the plant does not enter into the prob- 

 lem as with the two first propositions, but natural ice at a low cgsz 



