3-071-050 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Landing Australian frozen meat from Sydney in the South West India Dock, Millwall, 1881. 'There is probably no more urgent and important problem of commercial economy than that of the transport of fresh meat...from our Australian colonies to the markets of this country...We therefore hail with the greatest satisfaction every...advance...in the way of gradually perfecting the scientific processes for the preservation of [cheap beef and mutton] during a long voyage at sea...Among the different methods and kinds of apparatus recently introduced..., the "Dry Air Refrigerator," patented by Mr. Alfred Haslam, of the Haslam Foundry and Engineering Company, appears to have gained most approval. Its principle is that of surface cooling...These refrigerators have been adopted by the Orient Line steamers, the New Zealand Shipping Company, and the Cunard Company...The Catania...had been seventy-eight days at sea. She conveyed 1035 quarters of Australian beef and 1469 whole carcases of mutton, or nearly 120 tons of meat in all, which she brought in perfect condition to London. Each quarter of beef and each sheep was neatly tied up in white calico, by which means its outward appearance had not suffered from the deposit of icy particles during the voyage'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.