AN IMPORTANT INVENTION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 9 November 1907, Page 4

AN IMPORTANT INVENTION

" DESICCATED EGGS." Some eighteen mouths ago considerable interest was aroused in Melbourne and throughout the States in a process for desiccating eggs (writes the Sydney Morning Herald of October 8). Mr Crowe, the well-known expert and Superintendent of Exports in Victoria, was

particularly interested, perceiving tli'j possibilities of the invention. However, a Sydney firm secured the rights, and the matter has now passed from the experimental stage to a business undertaking. The inventor is Mr H. Burrows, ail analytical chemist in Melbourne, who, after experimenting for some years, has produced a workiag plant. Twelve months ago the Farmers' and Settlers' Co-operative Society made arrangements with the inventjr, and Mr Burrows came to Sydney, and a plant has been erected in the company's stores. I'hc invention being an absolutely new one, everything had to 1 e started at the beginning. There was no chance of obtaining hints from other machines, or seeing how the other fel'.ovv got on. Desiccated eggs are not substitutes for eggs, but newly-laid eggs treated by a process by which only the shell and water contents are removed, and the whole substance of the egg, yolk, and albumen converted into powder. The eggs first pass through 3 dark room, being carried on a perforated rolling table over a 50-leandle-power light. Any eggs not perfectly fresh, or dirty in any way, are instantly detected, and put on one side. The sound eggs are curried along, and go into a centrifugal separator, revolving at a tremendous rate. Here the eggs arc smashed, and the sWlls Separated from the liquid matter, which flows into a

small tank, and is (hen pumped up to another tank, where a preservative is added. Mow this tank, in a very hit room, with a temperature of 120 to l"f) degrees, there arc great cylinders, or drums, slowly revolving at tho rate of Ito 2'/, minutes. The liquid egg-sub--«ttt?rce goes from the tank into the troughs below these cylinders, and as they revolve become attached to them. By the time a cylinder has completed its revolution the coating has dried, and a further coating adheres. Ultimately this coating comes off in flaky pieces, which are ground into a powder. This powder will, it is claimed to have been proved, keep for years, and only requires the addition of milk or wa f er, when the powdered eggs will reconstitute, and be ready for use for any puvpose the same as a newly-laid egg. The powder is rich and attractive-looking, and is reported by Government, Analysts of New South Wales and Victoria to contain no chemical preser/ative. No part of the egg except the water has been removed.

The importance and scope of this invention cannot escape realisation. One of the best of foods for human life hecomes available anywhere and at all times. In the most arid and desolab. portions of the earth's surface it could be used equally as in the city kitchen. The scope of such a commodity is unlimited. From the producer's standpoint the invention, if successful—and it has practically been proved so—will revolutionise the egg trade and industry. It will be to the poultry farmer wl#> refrigerating mnchincry is to the lamb-raiser and the lmtter-maker. llie market of the world will be open to them, and the old trouble of eggs bei'ig so cheap at certain periods should bo obviated. Although the new method is in its infancy, and no sfops have been taken to any extent to bring the .ii'oduet before the public, the company slates that it has orders already the fulfilment of which must materially if feet the market. The machinery at present installed will treat 2900 do-i'ii eggs in 24 hours, and with the establishment of a local and foreign trade., there must follow a good standard pru-e for eggs. This opens out a cheerful prospect for poultry breeders and fpr•aors all ever the State, and should result, in time, in a big extension of the industry. It is noteworthy that the"? is only one other method of a similar nature for the same purpose in the world, and satisfactory that a Ne-; South Wales firm should have had the enterprise to bring it into existence as a business factor.