Cold Storage - Industrial & Engineering Chemistry (ACS Publications)

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May,

1911

T H E ]OURAVAL OF I n ’ D C S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y .

latter can be stimulated by a n examination of conscience. (Vigilance presupposes foresight.) I have for many years been studying the hazard of explosives. Undoubtedly the precautionary measures of the past have produced much safety in the very midst of excessive danger. I have no mental conception of the weight and energy of the dynamite and fulminate caps used in New York for the last ten years to rend the rocks that come out of the bowels of this city for the subway, the Pennsylvania cut and the Grand Central improvement, etc., but I am certain that had not the precautions been taken whose enforcement followed the Park Avenue explosion so many and so terrible would have been the accidents that the works would have terminated by public clamour. If the violation of law b y a steamship company leaving explosives in large quantity, uncared for, on a dock is relaxed, then indeed the hazard is unsupportable. If the vigilance which the firemen have exercised in our theaters, many and many a time extinguishing a slight blaze, is not to be applied to factories and buildings housing five thousand people per acre, then indeed we would have to be always prepared for the usual report of ;t holocaust in the morning papers. But desuetude and laxity bring peril in the administration of public office, even where corruption ma)’ not have penetrated. To provide and enforce such vigilance I have come t o the conclusion that in the storage of dangerous things, in the prosecution of hazardous construction, in the carrying on of risky business, and in all of our twentieth century activities in the very heart of crowds, we should provide for vigilance by forming a new kind of Committee on Public Safety. Let this be constituted by our foremost civic bodies, such as the Chamber of Commerce, let membership in i t be a valuable reward to active, thoughtful, honest citizens of eminence, who serve gratuitously, let them have funds from public subscription aided by grants fromphilanthropicfoundations, and prescribe as their duty the oversight of a special bureau devoted to considerations of how to insure public safety, its watchword being “foresight.” It could maintain a force of engineers engaged in surveying the city for possible dangers to the public not already patent to officials, or not sedulously provided against by them. For example, if there is any hazard growing into an abuse it could inform the right official and see to the enactment of laws to end it. If there is laxity in enforcing old laws public sentiment could be aroused to stimulate the negligent official. At parades and public festivities i t could aid the police, the Building Department, the Fire Department without interfering or dictating and give each of these due credit for their own good work, such as was manifested on land and water during the Hudson-Fulton celebration. The excellent purposes of the National Highways Association could be aided by this Committee on Public Safety. The clashing of different public commissions, departments or bodies could be reconciled by the wisdom of the counselors on this committee.

In the work of prevision or foresighting of danger and making preparations against disaster certain objects of study could be taken up which are nobody’s business now because they are everybody’s business. We may be certain that the fire and panic risk in factory buildings is going to be well considered now for a period, but we should have had a body working on the problem before this, and ready in the future t o see that to-day’s lessons are not forgotten. Such objects of study as I have stated as everybody’s business and hence overlooked in the confusion are the possibilities in the subway which include dangers from gas, from electricity, from wrecks, etc., possibilities from the storage, as now practiced, of enormous quantities of dynamite a t Black Tom in our harbor. The possibilities of disasters in old buildings or buildings under construction, the possibilities of disasters on our waters where perhaps the combustible and panic risks on steamboats might be drifting back to old conditions or dangers on our bridges could be studied, and lastly the duties of the commission would of course cover all considerations regarding factories, theaters and schools. The problems are unique. City officials have little time for problems other than their daily work affords them. Somebody else should consider problems of public safety, and officials will be only glad enough to apply the results. To be brief, I maintain that public safety can be only reasonably well assured by endowing some group of men with eternal vigilance and foresight and powers of investigation, and trusting them to tell us where danger lurks through newly discovered hazards or through official laxity or turpitude; and all of this in the field of fire, flood, explosion, transportation and construction. CHARLESF. MCKENSA. COLD STORAGE.

The preservation of foodstuffs so that the surplus created during seasons of plenty could be distributed throughout the year and the fresh products of one country shipped to another was a t one time impossible. The use of chemical preservatives which arrested decomposition served, in a measure, to supply the need, but this doubtful method of retarding the natural spoilage of foodstuffs has given way almost entirely with the development of methods of refrigeration which make it possible for foods of every character to be placed in cold storage and there held for considerable periods without apparent change in composition or structure. Cold storage is simply the placing of foodstuffs in rooms kept a t a sufficiently low temperature to hold the goods in normal condition until such time as these are needed for consumption. This temperature varies from a point several degrees above freezing to zero and below. Certain goods, such as fruits which can not well be frozen, can be kept without any spoilage for months a t a temperature of about 34’ F., while butter and meats are stored a t a temperature ranging from below zero t o freezing. Poultry is usually stored a t a temperature

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varying from 0 - 2 5 ’ . Cheese, supposed by manufacturers to .cure or ripen in storage, is usually held a t a temperature slightly above freezing. Cold storage a t suitable temperatures undoubtedly improves certain foodstuffs up t o a certain point. This is especially true in the case of fresh meats, poultry and fruits. Other products do not improve in storage and after a time begin t o deteriorate even when kept a t temperatures which inhibit t o a large extent the ordinary processes of fermentation and decay. The investigations of the United States Department of Agriculture on the effect of cold storage on eggs, poultry and game have been carefully worked out and have developed much data which throws a new light upon the results of storage a t low temperatures. I n general the results of the studies show that cold storage when properly used is a very valuable improvement in the methods of the conservation and distribution of the food supply and that the term “cold storage” as applied to foods is in no sense a mark of inferiority or low grade. I t is true that time limits are well established beyond which goods should not be kept in storage, and t h a t if such foods as eggs, fish or poultry are held for a longer period deterioration, a t first slight and later marked, takes place. But such time limits are sufficiently long t o carry the products until the natural season of scarcity is past and in fact carrying charges, insurance and interest on the money invested does not, except under most unusual conditions, make it profitable for the warehouse men to hold goods longer. Food prices have been advancing rapidly and in part a t least this has been attributed to the increasing practice of holding foodstuffs in storage and because of this fact, as well as because of the impression that they are of poor quality, cold-storage foods are viewed with disfavor by the consumer. This feeling, coupled with the constantly increasing tendency t o throw additional safeguards around the food supply, has prompted the introdution of cold-storage bills in many of the state legislatures. I n one state a t least, namely Indiana, such a bill has been enacted into law. The bills up for consideration in the various states vary widely in character and on the whole show a great lack of information as t o the purpose and practices of cold storage. I n some measures the time limit placed upon the storage of foodstuffs is so short that the passage of such a law would demoralize the produce business and instead of reducing prices on foodstuffs would bring a return of former conditions of plenty during the season and scarcity throughout the rest of the year.

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The Indiana statute is entitled “ A n Act for the protection of the public health and the prevention of fraud and deception by regulating cold storage and refrigerating warehouses, the holding of food products stored therein and the sale of such products.” I t requires that foodstuffs which are entered into cold storage shall be marked with the date of entry and that when withdrawn for sale they shall show the date of removal. All food products placed in cold storage shall be withdrawn a t the end of nine months. I t is provided, however, that such goods shall be subject to inspection as to their sanitary condition and that if the goods are found unfit for food they shall be destroyed. The authorities are furthermore instructed to condemn and close any warehouse which is not kept in a sanitary condition. This measure does not discriminate against cold-storage goods in favor of goods which have not been so kept, but it does provide that the purchaser of eggs, poultry or meat may know how long the goods have been in storage. Another section providing that the warehouse records shall be subject t o inspection, and so making i t possible to determine the amount of goods held in storage, will have a tendency to regulate the too frequent practice of speculation in the food supply. During the past year foodstuffs, notably eggs and meat, have commanded very high prices although there was in cold storage an adequate supply of both products. The fact t h a t the owners of much of these goods were obliged to sell a t a loss and in many instances were driven into bankruptcy a t the close of the season, does in no way compensate the consumer, who during most of the months of the year paid high prices for foodstuffs although following the break in prices, they for a short time were sold below their actual value. Cold storage is necessary to the conservation of food products. It is to be hoped t h a t the public will learn to appreciate more than now its value. It should be regulated by practical laws which do n o t ‘ have for their purpose the destruction of the business but which are intended rather t o put a stop to the practice of storing foods which are not suitable for refrigeration but which have, even before entry into storage, deteriorated or become unfit for food, and to assure the withdrawal of all goods before they have been held sufficiently long to undergo partial spoilage. Such legislation will also be of decided benefit t o the cold-storage industry as all products will be subject t o inspection and to this extent a t least the quality of coldstorage foods will be guaranteed t o the consumer. H. E. BARNARD.

ADDRESSES. CHEMICAL RESEARCH AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.’ BY W u H. WALKER. Received April 1 1 , 1 9 1 1 .

Within the last few years research has become a word t o conjure with. Webster defines it as “ diligent 1 Address of the Retiring President of the American Electrochemical Society, New York. April 7 . 1911.

May, 1911

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inquiry in seeking facts or principles, continuous search after truth.” To find the truth, is, therefore the keynote of research. But although the great activity in research which so marks the present is essentially modern, an inquiry after truth is surely not new. The human mind has from the gray dawn of