MEAT-PRESERVING APPARATUS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2136, 25 October 1867, Page 3

MEAT-PRESERVING APPARATUS.

The following account of Mr Mort's new patent is abridged from the Sydney Morning Herald In a small nook, near the top of the winding valley of La Croza, stand the New South Vales Ice Company's works, sheltered from hot winds and fervid afternoon sunshine, by steep banks of earth and ranges of rock. It is not a spot which presents any very peculiar local attractions, for everything is in that rather disagreeable transition state which seems to be inevitably antecedent to all material improvement and hopeful progress, A number of gentlemen visited the Ice Company's works on the 17th inst., and there gratified their curiosity and increased their knowledge by a personal inspection of Mr MorVs meatpreserving apparatus—an invention which has been already guarded by Australian patents, and for which Mr Mort is about to seek the additional protection of patents iu Eugland, in France, and in America. About seven years since, when fat sheep and cattle were fetching but verv low prices, Mr Augustus Morris endeavoured in the neighbouring colony of Victoria to form an association of Australian stock owners, with the object of raising a sum of money sufficiently large to induce men of science to turn their attention to the discovery of some practical method by which- the surplus fat stock of the colonies might be introduced into the European markets. Mr Morris proposed that scientific experimental research should be particularly directed to the reduction of temperature, as likely to prove the readiest means for producing the desired results. His enterprising and far-sighted proposals were, however, not received with the favour which they deserved at the hands of the public. Bather better than two years ago he' became acquainted with Mr. Nieolle's method for producing cold, and felt convinced that he had at last met with the man who was of all others, the most competent to realise his long cherished hopes iu this direction. Mr jJicolle, as we are given to understand, entered with commendable zeal into the matter, and expressed himself confident of being able to carry out all that was desired by Mr Morris, who vainly endeavoured to interest other stockowners, so that a fair trial might be made, as a test of the proposed plan. Still those whose interest it most certainly was to give encouragement to the project, held aloof, and a trial of its value might, perhaps, have been indefinitely postponed had not the matter been brought under the notice of Mr Thomas 8. Mort, who immediately appreciated the importance of the proposal, and, with characteristic liberality, offered to bear the whole expense of the necessary experiments. Since the time that Mr Mort

MS known to have come to such n esolntion, lie, of course, lias had to JOIIP his share in the bantering and liseouragement previously lavished pn Mr Morris aud Mr Nicolle, Notwithstanding many obstacles rising principally f ro m the want of ight materials and men accustomed o the work—an admirable apparatus ms been invented, constructed, and >ut in use—au apparatus capable of reezing several hundred tons of meat, m of keeping it in such a refrige'ated state. The powers of theapJaratus have been fully tested, and the invention has been crowned with a vith a most triumphant success, Meat 'reserved in a perfectly fresh and unsoolted state for months has been partaken of at the table of the Governor, lfc tlie clubs, and in many private louses; and in all instances the viands ihus preserved have met with unqualiied approval, It is, moreover, a renarkablo fact that meat thus kept rozen neither loses flavour nor be:otnes putrescent immediately upon ts thawing, as does meat preserved iu ce, or frozen in the open air. On the iontrary, it has been found that meat bus preserved, when suddenly reeased from the refrigerating influence o which it has been subjected, will ; ee P as long as when obtained fresh rom the butcher. Mr Mort has obained a patent for this invention inder the laws of New South Wales, ind has also applied for similar profiction in the other Australian cololies. The title of the invention is— A self-acting method of, and apparaitis for, preserving fish, flesh, and fowl ind all other articles of food, by r )rocess of refrigeration." The inventoi n his specification, filed in the Supreme Court of this colony, 01 ivhich the patent has here beei: granted, states that—"The inventioi )eing an application of Faraday's dia :overy of the liquefaction of certaii ?ases by pressure, and the canacity o mch gases for the absorption 'of hea m their release from liquefaction, ha; for its object the introduction o improved mechanical arrangements svhereby such gases may be employe) to produce a temperature sufficient!' low to secure the preservation of al" irticles of food. Although claiming the use of other liquefying gases, ! claim and propose to work my appa ratus by means of ammoniacal gas which, by reason of its great solubiliti in water, aud of the quantity of calorii (vhich it absorbs in passing from tin liquid to the gaseous state, and 01 account of its safety for use on ship board, appears to be the most suitable agent to employ." The apparatus nov in active use at the lee Company' works has been set up in ashed on thi eastern side of the yard, and is suffi cient for preserving as much as 3001 bullocks—or, say, 1000 tons of meat The apparatus is more particularly de signed for use on board ship, tb whole of the machinery and fitting being so arranged that everything car be conveniently stowed away,' am space so be properly economised, Thi larger portion of the.apparatus is to bi placed between decks, the feeders and desiccators, &c., where the watej flows, being on deck, aud the largi meat-receiver or receivers down below The material used is ammonia, th liquid ammonia of commerce. Thi

being greatly rectified, is put into cylinders called separators, the quantity of absolute ammonia in such cyliaders being indicated by glass gauges. From a small steam boiler the steam is led by a coil which passes into a closed cylinder, called a separator ; the object in using the steam being to heat the ammoniacal solution in theseparator," and so to cause the ammonia to be volatilised—or, in other words, resolved into gas. So gasified the ammonia ia driven off from the water, and conveyed, by a series of pipes, through a number of coils into a bath or tauk of water on the deck of

the ,vessel. The object of this is to refrigerate the gas, condensing the aqueous vapour (by which the ammonia is accompanied), so that it may return to the " separators" below, j-his particular portion of the apparatus is termed the " desiccator" In the employment of cold water for this purpose, in the bath of the desiccator, a great economy is made available; the desired end—the " drying "of the gas —not being otherwise attainable, except by an expensive chemical process. The gas, being thus dried, is forced by tlie heat of the steam into an iron cylinder immersed in a bath (also on deck), and there by pressure on itself—being a non-permanent gas —it becomes liquefied. This lastnamed vessel is called the " liquid gas receiver." .From this receiver, the gas, in a liquid state, is passed by pipes into an outer compartment of the "meat receiver"—a large double iron cylinder, as capacious as may be required. The meat receiver of the apparatus of the ice works is a large affair, somewhat resembling an enormous long cask outside, and in its interior not unlike a cavern. The meat receiver is made with a double casing, so as to form a compartment intervening between the " cave" and the outer surface, its walls perfectly tight, to contain the liquefied gas suggested from the liquified gas receiver. This vessel is to be surrouuded with some good non-conduct-ing substances, such as charcoal, ielt or gutta percha, enclosed in a wooden' covering, painted or varnished to exclude all moisture. The two shells of the cylinder are eccentric to each other so that the inner shall rest on the bottom of the outer one, leaving at the top a space of about two inches. At the ends of the meat receiver are two holes, big enough to give entrance to a man, through which the meat re-

ceiver may be conveniently emptied or loaded. These orifices are made to be fastened upwithwooden covers or doors which are fitted round their oval rims with gutta percha, and securely attached into their proper places by means of screws. Having thus furnished an idea of the general nature of the apparatus, a description of the manner in which the refrigerating gas is generated and conducted to the compartment surrounding the interior of the meat-receiver, follows The gas

having been driven out of tho " separator," the heated water is first forced by the heat (arising from the action of the steam supplied from the boiler) through two "coolers." ]t\> om t| lo " coolers" it passes on by a pipe into an iron cylinder called the "re-ab-sorber," which is immersed in a water tank. Tbe "separator" being now emptied, is again supplied with fresh ammoniacal solution from the " feedor" on deck, aud the process is repeated. The re-absorber, now containing a weak solution, is prepared to receive the gas coming into it from the compartment round the meat-receiver. It must ]) 0 understood that ammoniacal gas has so great an affinity for water that water at 60 0 Fahrenheit will take up six hundred and seventy times its volume of gas. The consequence of this is that when, by opening a stopcock, admission for the gas to the water in the re-absorber is obtained, it rushes in with great violence, passing from its state of liquefaction into a gaseous form, and carries with it all the caloric or heat contained in the meat, &c„ it has been surrounding. Ifc i 8 i n thi ß transition, when the liquid expands into a gaseous state, that the freezing, or complete refrigeration, takes place! Only as much ammonia is required at a time as will fill one of the series of receivers. From the special details of the apparatus, there is no loss whatever of the chemical substance employed. The compartment round the

meat-receiver is filled with the icy current from time to time, and emptied off by the stopcocks, until all the meat, &c., in the place is frozen with as much intensity as may be desired. The ammoniacal gas is capable of freezing to 100° below zero. Beyond, at 103 0 bplow zero, however, that gas itself becomes solidified. To freeze a compartment on board ship containing 100 tons of meat would be accotn-

plished by Mr Mort's apparatus at the ice works in about twelve hours. The particular apparatus we have been describing would take up about thirty tons of cargo space on board a ship. The refrigerating power attained by it is enormous considering the small bulk of the apparatus. But Mr Nicolle has discovered a modification which will reduce the Bize of the apparatus to one-third, and at the same time

increase its refrigerating power tenfold. The geutlemen who visited the self-acting meat-preserver yesterday, and who ventured into the meat-re-finally fouud themselves (as we have intimated) in a small cave, on the dark sides of which the air was, in some places, condensed into snow an inch or two thick. All along the floor of the compartment tin buckets, from two to two inches and a half inches across in their narrowest part, and about six inches high, stood full of what appeared at first, by the dim light of the candle, to be vrater, but which, by the application of experimental fingers, were found to be full of solid ice. Fish' poultry, legs of mutton, saddles of

mutton, and such other goodly provisions, were piled up near tie entrance, and at the further end, all frozen, hard as pieces of board, but sweet and good. Mr Morris unlocked a large metallic box, and shewed his friends a frozen rabbit, ready trussed for the table, a fish which had come three weeks ago from Governmenthouse, and was destined to be returned to that locality. Some of the meat there had been in that icy don for more than twelve months, some for six months, and some only for a week or two. The larders of most of the city clubs were well represented. The change from the hot wind outside to the sharp and frosty air of the receiver, was, to say the least of it, a very remarkable sensation—one that could not be experienced without astonishment. Oil the whole, however, the visitors evidently preferred the warmth ot the atmosphere of Australia, and wondered at the stoical indifference j which Mr Morris manifested for the intense cold. Mr Mort claims eight tilings as peculiar to his invention. First, the continuous operation of the apparatus without the use of any external force, beyond the occasional application of heat from a steam boiler; second, the mode in which he applies heat to the "separator;" third, the mode by which lie rectifies the gases after liquefaction; fourth, the mode by which he removes the weak liquor from the " separator" into the "re-absorber" by its own pressure; fifth, the mode by which he sends up into the " feeder" the strong liquor from the "re-ab-sorber sixth, the mode by which he returns the strong liquor into the separator;" seventh, his admirable arrangement of the " meat receiver and, lastly, the arrangement he has made of what he calls the " portable meat preserver."