HOW" TO BOTTLE FRUIT AND TO MAKE FRUIT-BOTTLING PAY. 103 



was continued in principle, but with variations, by large firms such as 

 Crosse and Blackwell, Lazenby, &c. 



With the introduction of steam and the discovery of its adaptability to 

 various purposes, extensive plant was laid down in factories, especially in 

 France, Germany, and Switzerland, and fruit was bottled by the ton and 

 placed on the market.* 



The extensive demand for sterilised milk has led to its being done also 

 by steam, and by adaptation the same steriliser can be used for bottling 

 fruit. 



The expense, however, of the plant and the skilled work required is 

 a drawback to sterilising by steam except on a very large scale. It is 



Fig. 30. — Lady Warwick College Patent Steriliser for Fruit, 

 Vegetables, Jams, etc. 



believed that the patent steriliser which has been brought out at the 

 Lady Warwick Hostel will meet this want of a simple apparatus for 

 bottling fruit. Before describing it, however, it may be well to pause and 

 explain what the process of sterilisation "is. Briefly, it is to make sterile 

 or deprive of vitality the bacteriological germs in fruit and vegetables 

 which cause decay and putrefaction. 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 to be 

 sterilised is packed into a glass jar, which is then filled with water ; heat 



* In the catalogue of a French firm I saw the other day an illustration of a corking 

 and capping machine which was guaranteed to do GOO to 700 bottles an hour ! 



