A NEW PROCESS OF PRESERVING MEAT.

Otago Witness, Issue 953, 25 April 1889, Page 9

A NEW PROCESS OF PRESERVING MEAT.

In reference to the process of preserving fooi by antiseptic. or refrigerating substances Mi Alexander Beck, mechanical engineer, Christ church, writes to the Christchurch Press & follows !— v i\ , Your article on the "New Process oi Preserving Meat," as described by the New Zealand Lean and Mercantile Agency Company anc the Financial World, is based upon the produc toon of sulphurous ■ acid (SO2) by butrifoj sulphur in air-tight rooms. The gas produced is heavy, its density being, 1*42. It goes, at stated, in thejotyer part of the chamber^ leaving azote, or nitrogen} at the top pa*> Both gases are antiseptic, (resisting putrefaction); Thfe process is old, and confirms, in some instances; the few lines so kindly published in your issue of the 23rd November last about the " Preservation of eggs by nitrogen." The bleaching of the meat* is easy to understand, as -the sulphurous acid is used for bleaching every animal stuff like flannel, &c, .which would be >. spoilt by the action of ckloriue. The ciunamon ' has nothing to do in the. matter, except to reduce partly the bad smell of the gas. tJntil now the drawback of the .scheme, except for eggs, is its inefficacy to preserve food for along jouraey without adjoining some refrigerating power. In France, Switzerland, and specially in the French River Plate Companies, the process of preserving meat, &c. . . . without refrigerating engines is thoroughly studied. Between the several schemes in that way, the most successful, in my opinian, will be the, enormous refrigerating power of the liquid sulphurous acid when it evaporates in the air.' Temperature as low as - 70 Fahrenheit is obtainable. The advantages are: First, the cheap cost of sulphurous acid ; second, the easy way -to liquify the gas again after used by its own refrigerating power at + 10 Fahrenheit, producing the required ice in the meantime. It may be permanently regenerated with very , little loss. The above questions, also the better utilisation of our slaughterhouses &c, refuse, ought to. be more studied in New Zealand, where even the mechanical appliances of our boiling-down are in many cases behind the progress of the age. '