HYGIENE IN BAR & BOOTH.

Observer, Volume XXIX, Issue 46, 31 July 1909, Page 21

HYGIENE IN BAR & BOOTH.

Cleanliness up-to-date.

THESE are days when the watchful bacteriologist is perpetually issuing trumpet warnings as to the dangers that lurk in. improperly guarded food products, and also in the use of inadequately cleansed vessels for the serving up of food and beverages. No one will venture to dispute the scientists' dictum, for this is a matter izi which common observation and experience marches with the declarations of the expert. Cleanliness in the handling of food and drink is an absolute necessity of modern business, and the trader who provides himself with apparatus that ensures it is the trader who deserves and receives the confidence of the public. Moreover, any invention that makes for greater purity of vessels in public places, and especially that gives proof of that purity in the presence of the purchaser of liquid refreshments, is a boon and a blessing to men.

In this category stands an ingenious little machine which is being placed upon the New Zealand market by the enterprise of an Auckland concern known a.s the L. and D. Automatic Glass and Tumbler Washer Company, Limited. The title of the company exactly describes the apparatus which is tine basis of its business. That apparatus is a contrivance for the cleansing of glassware with the maximum of thoroughness and the minimum expenditure of time. The mystic initials " L. and D." are merely an index of the origin of the idea." It is the invention of a Victorian named Lawrence, who, with a partner named Dixon, holds the Australian patent rights. So far as New Zealand is concerned, these rights have been -purchased by the Auckland " L. and D. Company."

As with most of the' successful inventions, an outstanding merit of

the new cleanser lies in its simplicity.. It consists of a cylindrical glass, chandler, into which has been brought a high- water pressure supply, the discharge of Which is governed by a lever ending in. a cross - shaped a.nd rubber - covered, centre - piece. The tumbler ' tobe 'operated . upon is introduced, mouth downwardSj through a rubber-guarded opening in the top of the chamber. Light pressure being -applied ■, several jets of water play briskly upon the interior and exterior of the vessel, and hey,!, presto ! in the space of two or threfeseconds the tumbler is cleansed and eet aside to drain into the nickelplated tray which is supplied as an attachment of the concern. City and town water supplies provide aIE the pressure of water that is requisite. For country use, however,, there is an air-compressing contrivance, somewhat on the principlewhich is seen in the Primus stove, by which pressure is artificially provided.

It will be obvious that it is in hotel bars and on "soft drink" counters that the " L. and D." Glass Washer will find its chief usefulness. The advantages to both owner and customer are also self-evident. Instead of the glassware being sluiced! in a. trough or sink, in still water which may have been used for thewashing of dozens of other tumblers, and have taken into solution the dregs left by dozens of drinkers, each vessel is rinsed by a powerful spray of its own, and the water runs clear away, removing all risk of contamination. There is no need to emphasise the advantages as regards sanitation. From the point of view of the hotelkeeper and cordial seller there is the further recommendation that the risk of brjea.kag)e is practically nil. whereas the trough and towel plan isnotoriously destructive to glassware. As a matter of hygiene, convenience and hygiene, then, the " L. and D."' has everything to recommend it. Its adoption by numbers of hotelkeepers is proof that these pointshave already become widely recognised.