256 
kephart’s patent fruit and vegetable preserver. 
KEPHART’S PATENT FRUIT AND VEGE¬ 
TABLE PRESERVER. 
The outer columns in the above cut represent 
walls of stone, enclosing the inner construction. 
The light shading at the bottom, descending to 
the centre, represents the earth. 
The dark shadings, a, a , and k, k, represent two 
boardings, with from six to ten inches space ; and 
this space filled with a substance that will best ex¬ 
clude heat. 
/, is the fruit-room, in which articles are to be 
placed for preservation. 
c , c, a floor or cover to the fruit room, made 
water-tight, with a coat of pitch over its surface to 
prevent moisture from penetrating. 
i, an apartment to be filled with ice supported by 
the floor, c, c, and designed to contain ice enough, 
when filled, to last during the whole year. 
b, b, and d, d, are spaces around the fruit-room, 
intended for the meltings of the ice on the top floor 
to pass off. This ice-water as it passes down these 
spaces around the fruit-room, and over the tight 
floor at the bottom, in the space d, d, serves to ab¬ 
sorb any heat which may find its way through the 
non-conductor, k, k. 
o, the outlet for ice-water. 
h, hatchway, or entrance into fruit-room. 
The fruit-room,/, is intended to be below ground, 
and the ice apartment, i, if desired, can be above; 
'buildings above ground being now generally pre¬ 
ferred for ice to those below. 
Jt will be seen from the construction, that the 
non-conducting substances, a, a, and k, k, are de¬ 
signed to prevent the admission of heat from the 
earth, at the sides and bottom, in the fruit-room f; 
while the ice upon the floor, c, c, acts by keeping 
the fruit room at a constant uniform temperature, 
dry, and so cold as to exert a preserving influence 
upon articles placed therein. 
As will be seen by the above drawing, its suc¬ 
cess depends entirely upon chemical truths. 
The room/, in which fruits, &c., are placed for 
preservation, will remain the whole year at a con¬ 
stant, uniform temperature, so near the freezing 
point as to arrest the rotting as well as the ripening , 
process of fruits, &c., without danger of freezing i 
them. That the fruit-room, /, will remain at this 
temperature will be evident from the fact, that the 
air, in contact with the floor, c, c, on which the ice 
rests, becomes nearly as cold as ice itself. This 
condensed air will immediately sink; while the 
air at the bottom of the room, if .but half a degree 
warmer, will rise to the floor, c, c, and give off its 
heat; thus maintaining a unifcrm*temperature, cor¬ 
responding with that in contact with the floor, c, c. 
Articles placed in the preserver, remain as per¬ 
fectly dry and free from moisture, as if kept in the 
best ventilated apartments. The air descending 
from the floor, c, c, being always about half a de¬ 
gree colder than the boxes or barrels of fruit, &c., 
cannot deposit any moisture thereon ; it being an 
established fact, that no object can condense moisture 
unless colder than the air coming in contact with said 
object. It is a theory long maintained by Liebig and 
other eminent chemists, that a temperature, dry, 
uniform, and near 33° Fahrenheit, will arrest the 
processes of decay which take place in fruits, &c.; 
but never, until the above invention, could the truth 
of the theory be tested. Two years of experiments 
have proved the truth of the theory, and estab¬ 
lished the entire success and utility of the invention ; 
as , fruits, fyc., foreign and domestic, viz. oranges, 
lemons, apples, pears, peaches , plums, grapes, fyc., as 
well as the most delicate fruits ; also potatoes, green 
corn, melons, ^rc., can be kept as long as desired; 
add to these butter, eggs, bacon, &.C., which can be 
kept throughout the whole year, as fresh and sweet 
as when first placed in the preserver. 
Fruits, &c-., in common temperatures undergo 
saccharine fermentation, or what is known by the 
mellowing or ripening process, which is followed 
by the vinous, acetous, and putrefactive fermenta¬ 
tions, which complete the rotting process. A tem¬ 
perature so low arrests the first process towards de¬ 
cay, so that fruits, &c., if placed in the preserver 
when first plucked from the tree or vine, will retain 
all their original juices, freshness, and flavor. 
It will readily be seen, that the only way in 
which fruits, &c.,can be kept during all seasons of 
the year, is by the plan offered in this invention, 
and one of its greatest advantages is, that fruits, 
&c., can be kept in all climates—not only in the 
North where ice is produced, but in the South, 
w 7 here it has become an article of extensive com¬ 
merce; being shipped in large cargoes, buildings 
must be erected for its reception. For this purpose 
the room, i, will be most appropriate—thus afford¬ 
ing the double facility of selling ice from the tep, 
and preserving fruits, &c., below. 
All desirous of a further knowledge of the ope¬ 
rations of the preserver, can see one by addressing 
Flack, Thompson & Brother, Spring Garden, Phila¬ 
delphia, or Peter Kephart, Western Hotel, Baltimore. 
To Prevent the Running of Candles. —If you 
wish to prevent the running or guttering away in 
an hour or tw T o of an ordinary candle, place as much 
common salt, finely powdered, as will reach from 
the tallow to the bottom of the black part of the 
v 7 ick, rvhen, if the same be lit, it will burn very 
slowly all night, yielding a sufficient light for a bed¬ 
chamber; the salt will gradually sink as the tallow 
is consumed, the melted tallow being drawn through 
i the call and consumed in the wick. 
