358 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, [1 Nov., 1898. 
Viticulture. 
ARTIFICIAL COOLING FOR WINE-MAKING. 
Tue Viticultural Department of the College of Agriculture at the University 
of California has completed a series of successful experiments with an apparatus 
that is expected to revolutionise wine-making. The apparatus is a wine cooler 
or refrigerator, and by its use “ stuck tanks” will be a thing of the past. Ag 
wine-growers lose thousands of dollars yearly from “stuck tanks,’’ the 
importance of the discovery can easily be realised. The experiments—which 
have been causing sleepless nights to the viticultural staff—were under 
the charge of Professor A. P. Hayne, head of the depattment, who is the 
inventor of the new process. It is the result of his studies of wine-making in 
Africa and the French colonies of Algiers and Oran, where the temperature is 
high. While admitting that many improvements are yet to be made, Professor 
Hayne claims that his refrigerator will put an end to “ stuck tanks,” and make 
fermentation possible in temperatures unfavourable to it. In most of the 
large wineries of the State the “stuck tank” is the béte noire of the wine. 
maker. It causes not only the loss of valuable wine, but also renders it 
unsound, and reduces it in quality. In cold regions the “stuck tank” iy 
unknown. The “stuck tank” is a fermenting vat that suddenly stops all 
activity before the work is completed. When fermentation sets in, and the 
temperature is not favourable to the proper functioning of yeast cells, the 
activity at once ceases, or becomes so slow that organisms unfavourable to the 
wine staré up. When all the sugar in the juice of the grape is thus not split 
up in equal parts of alcohol and carbonic acid at first, the wine is apt to become 
an easy prey to the wine disease germs, that may subsequently cause the total 
loss of the wine. The question of temperature during this first fermentation 
has been one of the questions for makers of refractory wine for years, and 
Professor Hayne now believes the problem solved. 
The apparatus now at the University is simplicity itself. According to 
Ice and Cold Storage, it consists of thin-tinned copper tubes, flattened so as to 
allow the maximum surface consistent with a working volume of output of 
wine. The old spiral is discarded to render rapid cleaning of the tubes 
possible, and makes the apparatus consist of eyen tubes of well-tinned copper, 
4 inches x 13 inch cross-section diameter, and 4 feet long. ‘These are placed 
one above the other, with a 2-inch space between. At each extremity clamps 
fastened with thumbscrews enable the apparatus to be cleaned with an iron rod 
at will. The surface exposed to the cooling agent is 42 feet. The height of 
the whole apparatus, when placed upright, is 5 feet; width, 43 inches; and 
the length, 4 feet. The total weight is 120 1b. he cost of the machine was 
75 dollars. The idea is to watch the temperature of the fermenting tank by 
plunging a thermometer into it, and pumping the partly-fermented wine from 
the bottom of the tank to the top should the temperature approach an 
unfavourable height. There is no extra work by the use of the apparatus, and 
Professor Hayne declares the method of cooling to be as simple as the 
mechanism. One method is to plunge the apparatus into a box just large 
enough to hold it, and pass a stream of cool water into the box at the bottom. 
Another is to have a jet of water, in the form of fine spray, fall on the surface 
of the tubes, and at the same time fan them with a current of air. Professor 
Hayne considers the second method the more practicabie, as it does not depend 
upon the temperature of the water, which cannot always be had below 
75 degrees Fahrenheit. When the experiments were made at the University 
both methods were found to work admirably, and wine several degrees above 
a favourable temperature was quickly reduced by the cooler,—Lngineer, 
