The Press. SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1909. PROGRESS OF REFRIGERATION.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13336, 30 January 1909, Page 8

The Press. SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1909. PROGRESS OF REFRIGERATION.

According to a recent cable message the International Association, suggested at the Paris Congress of Refrigerating Industries, is now an accomplished fact, Austria and Germany alone bavin.? reserved making a definite decision. Its object is to foster refrigerating interests both from a commercial and scientific point of view, and tho results of its operations should be to bring about still further progress in an industry which is practically the creation of the last quarter of a century, but which has already made the most astonishing strides. New Zealanders, "who see the industry at close quarters," take it as a matter of course, and probably few ever stop to think how much the prosperity of the Dominion is duo to the successful application of scientific principles to commercial ends. A writer in "Chambers's Journal" gives an interesting review of the many directions in which refrigeration has been utilised. He points out that it is only a little moro than a quarter of a century ago when tlie Strathleven, fitted with an insulated chamber of 4000 feet cubic capacity, landed in England the pioneer cargo of frozen meat from Australia, consisting of some forty tons of beef and mutton. It is an intei-esting circumstance that Mr M. T. Brown, B.Sc., tlie engineer who accompanied tnat consignment on behalf of Messrs Bell and Coleman, the designers of the freezing engines, is now honorary treasurer of the Cold Storage and Ice Association. From this small beginning tho industry has made the most marvellous progress in-a short period of time. It was in 1884 that the first meatfroe_ing works were established—by British capital—on tho banks of the River Plate. To-day, according to the writer in '*Chambers's Journal," nearly a dozen companies are busily occupied lit tho export of fro_en meat, and no less than 41 .per cent, of the half million tons of refrigerated meat that entered the United Kingdom last year came fcrom South America-

j Hardly less important than the freezing and "chilling"of mentis the trade I in refrigerated dairy produce. The imports into Great Britain in the year ended 30th June, 1908, amounted to nearly 70,000 ton* of butter and close on 100,000. tons of cheese. Six countrießr^4^» ra^a *' ; Canada, New Zealand, :*_trgentrna. Russia and the United 4_t_t_s contribute to this total. As an example of refrigeration not only creating a trade, but tairaing a pest into a big industry, thc export of frozen rabbits i_ mentioned. Victoria alone has, during the last five years, shioped nearly forty-one and a half million

rabbits. _\or is it used simply to facilitate the carriage of animal products —even the vegetarian benefit- from this great discovery. Tasrxlania last year exported nearly half a million cases of apples in cool chambers, and fancy fruite from tho Cape, brought over in the same way, are now a regular feature on the London market. Not only apples, but even nectarines and grapes ore included in the consignments from South Africa.

Nor have we yet exhausted the list of food- industries assisted' by artificial oold which are quoted by our authority. Canadian, Russian, and Australasian poultry is enabled! to compete with Home stock, fish is .preserved., and tho modern steam trawler, equipped with refrigerating machinery, is enabled to work on distant fishing grounds a thousand miles away and bring home fish in perfectly fresh condition. The biscuit maker, the sweetmeat manufacturer, the dairyman, *ho s-s ar refiner, tbe bacon curex. tho cheese curer, the brewer, tho aerated water manufacturer, all find their work very much facilitated by refrigerating machinery. Even now we ore only at the beginning of this fairy-tale of science. Already the seasons of flower bulbs, roots and plant- are altered, "chronometers " aro timed on a machine controlled "temperature; cigars are stored in "cool chambers; wines are condensed "audi stored 1 under refrigeration's " care; iron-smelting is carried on " more economically in furnaces whose "air is dried over refrigerating coils; " hops are kept with tlueir full aroma "from year to year; explosives are " made andi kept integrate in cold "storage; candles, oils, and stearino " are manufactured moro efficiently "with refrigeration; margarino works " are equipped with cooling machinery ; " photographic processes are facilitat- " eeL by it; even mines aro sunk in " flooded soil by the aid of mechanical " freezing, and furs aud textiles aro " kept where neither moth nor rust " doth corrupt—in a cold l store." It is difficult to act a limit to what the future may have in store in the shape of further developments. Meanwhile, so far as the ire_idents in Christchurch are concerned, we are faced -with something very like an anti-climax. We are in one of the great centres of tho freezing industry. Wo havo publio abattoirs, on which a very large sum of money has been spent for the purpose of providing'oonsumers with wholesome food. Yet our civic authorities have not yet woke up to tho fact that a cool chamber, in which meat can be kept in a sound condition in tho summer months, is a desirable, and even a necessary, adjunct to a public abattoir. So far as the Christohurch City Council is concerned, the science of refrigeration -would still appear to be quite in its infancy.