COLORING CIFRUS FRUIT IN FLORIDA 5 
COLORING GRAPEFRUIT AND ORANGES WITH GAS FROM KEROSENE STOVES 
In Florida, in most cases a common type of kerosene cooking stove 
with an asbestos wick is used for making the gas for coloring citrus 
fruit. These stoves may be put directly in the coloring room or tent 
with the fruit, in a pit or basement beneath that containing the fruit, 
or in a specially constructed room outside and at some distance from 
the coloring room, in which case the gas is forced through a pipe to 
the room by means of a fan. This method is to be recommended, as 
there is less danger of fire; it also furnishes a little better condition 
for coloring. 
Experiments were carried out in houses equipped with these out- 
side gas houses and in others with stoves in the room. These experi- 
ments were concerned with the best method of producing gas from 
the stove, the proper humidity for coloring, the precautions neces- 
sary in order to retain the buttons on the fruit, the temperature re- 
quired for rapid color- 
ing, and the methods (SEN aes es 
of obtaining these vari- ee = 
ous conditions. Most 
of this work was done 
in commercial coloring 
rooms attached to pack- 
ing houses, but some of 
it was carried on in a 
room built expressly 
for this experimental pordvda rye Yi 
work. eC eee 
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MODIFICATIONS OF BURNER 
NECESSARY 
In coloring the fruit 
it is essential that the 
ment mas pe murmched ie, Le uiaerem pois, jhe Panel of Bots 
in requisite concentra- in order to make stove gas for coloring citrus fruit 
tions without too much 
heat. If combustion of the kerosene is complete, the ultimate prod- 
ucts are carbon dioxide and water, and much heat is produced. More- 
over, neither the gas nor the heat colors the fruit quickly. Coloring 
is brought about by gas formed by partial combustion or a partial 
breaking down of the kerosene induced by burning it with an insuffi- 
cient supply of oxygen. Inasmuch as burners for kerosene stoves are 
designed to give as complete a combustion as possible, it is necessary 
to modify them by cutting off the air supply to the flame so that they 
will produce the right kind of gas for the work. After repeated 
trials it was found that in the method in which a metal disk one- 
eighth of an inch less in diameter than the cylinder was placed in the 
inner tube of the burner and a plate of the same material put on top, 
resting on bent wires, so that there was about one-sixteenth of an inch 
clearance between the top of the burner and the plate, the burner 
when lighted would produce the gas desired. These modifications are 
shown in Figure 1. With this burner it was found that a good pro- 
portion of the gas effective in coloring the fruit was produced with- 
