386 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES PISH COMMISSION. 
main corridor. They are rented at 2 francs per square meter of surface if the goods are to be 
subjected to a temperature above zero, and 3 francs per square meter of surface if a temperature 
below zero is wanted. 
In London there are cold-storage warehouses at the Central Market, which belong to a company 
called “The Central Markets Cold Air Stores, Limited.” 'I'he immense cellars of the enormous London 
meat market are used for these warehouses and have a capacity of 1,000 tons. The warehouses are 
iised partly by the company itself, which does business in Australian frozen meat; and are partly 
rented to butchers at £2 per ton for four days. Besides meat a large quantity of game is stored here, 
including 100 tons of itoultry from Kussia annually. The whole underground market consists of a 
series of large rooms with thick insulated walls. A square wooden pipe, the sides of which are also 
insulated, passes along the ceiling of all the rooms in the basement; and there are orifices in this 
main pipe in every room through which cold air can be admitted. Here, too, the refrigerating 
process is based upon the expansion of compressed air. At first the air is compressed by steam jjower. 
It is then driven violently into a vacuum, where, as it expands, it lowers the temperature. From this 
room the refrigerated air is conveyed into conducting pipes for general distribution. These engines 
are built on the Bell &, Coleman system and are constructed in England by the firm of Holsam & Co., 
Engineers, Derby. The temperature can be regulated at will. For meat it rangiss from 14° to 9° F., 
but never higher than 14°. 
The exportation of frozen meat from Australia has lately attained great dimensions. Forty 
steamers, equipped with apparatus for the transportation of frozen fish, run to London. 
Freezing by machinery, for the storage of fish, was first employed in Russia at Astrakhan, by Mr. 
Supuk, who first built an ice barge for freezing by means of air engines of the Lightfoot system. 
This occurred in 1888. In this new enterprise Mr. Supuk was subjected to great losses through his 
failure to induce others to send their fish to his barge. Not obtaining any cooperation on the part of 
the fish-dealers of Astrakhan, and becoming convinced that he would have to procure fish for himself, 
Mr. Supuk, ill 1891, requested the aid of the Russian Fishery Association, which, however, could not 
furnish him any material assistance, but which, through its members and by articles in the press, 
greatly contributed to the establishment of this new business. Recently Mr. Suiiuk’s business has 
been considerably enlarged and is on a firm footing. 
I borrow from Mr. A. K. Heinemaun, who inspected Mr. Supuk’s ice barge at the time of its 
construction, some of the chief details concerning it. Its capacity is estimated at 10,000 j)oods. 
It is intended to freeze and to transiiort in the frozen state not only large bnt small fish. It is fit for 
going to sea and for ascending the Volga as far as Nijni-Novgorod. The cold-storage room occupies 
nearly the whole length of the barge, and is formed by double walls with the space between them 
filled with sawdust. The walls are at a little distance from the sides of the barge, and the ceiling of 
the room does not reach the deck, so as to avoid heating. The engines stand, one in the bow, the 
other in the stern of the barge. The chamber contains five sections, two of which serve for freezing 
fish and the middle ones for storing fish. In the former the temperature is about 12° R., in the latter 
it is ke^jt at 2° to 3° R. The capacity of the two freezing chambers is 4.50 to 500 imods [10,200 to 
18,000 pounds]. The largest fish is frozen through and through in 24 to 36 hours. The cold air, in 
its passage from the engines to the freezing chambers, is conveyed through a separate snow chamber, 
in which the superfluous moisture of the air is condensed in the form of snow; from there the cold 
air is conveyed through wooden pipes to the freezing chambers and the cold-storage rooms. The 
admission of the air is regulated by espagnolettes. 
Having procured the capital needed for the whole operation of the jiurchase and sale of fish on 
his own account, Mr. Supuk ljuilt at Astrakhan, on the bank of the Volga, a stone edifice for freezing 
fish and for storing the frozen fish, and the barge is used exclusively for the transportation of the 
frozen fish from Astrakhan to Tsaritsm. On the whole, the undertaking proved very profitable, and 
Mr. Supuk is extending his business, making improvements, and proceeding to the construction of 
a second barge, intended for the southern part of the Caspian Sea. The new barge has a capacity 
of 25,000 poods [450 tons] of fish. The freezing machine is placed in the middle of the barge. It is 
furnished with electric light. 
Freezing by machinery is carried on on a still larger scale by the great fish firm of Vorobielf, at 
Petrovsk, which has built large cold-storage warehouses, at a cost of 185,000 rubles [$71,865]. 
A mixture, composed of ice and salt, is employed for freezing fish at Mariupol and Henichesk. 
.Judging by the printed reports, fish are frozen at Mariupol in tubs made for the purpose [4 by 2J 
by 2 arshines] with a capacity of 100 poods [3,611 pounds], in which the fish are kept for days m a 
