[PW] ?: George H. Burrows

[Brian Whatcott]

At 05:38 PM 7/22/2008, you wrote:
>Last week I discovered a 1902 obituary for an inventor and Somerville
>resident named George H. Burrows. The obituary writer credited
>Burrows with the invention of refrigerated
>
>shipping, and wrote that he took the first cargo of meat ion refrigerated
>containers from Boston to Liverpool. While I can find numerous patents
>in the name of George
>
>Burrows, I can no record of any connection he may have had with refrigerated
>
>shipping.
>
>Furthermore I cannot find reports in either the Boston Globe or New York
>Times databases about early transatlantic refrigerated shipping--which
>I assume would have been big news at the time.
>
>Can anyone point me to any more information about George H. Burrows
>or to the early years of refrigerated shipping?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Kevin
>

This URL offers a timeline, from which I extracted a few (unverified) events.


<http://www33.brinkster.com/iiiii/inventions/reftranstimeline.asp>


1869
Henry Peyton Howard (1829-1913) of the United States transported a shipload of
beef frozen in a salt-ice mixture from Indianola, Texas, to New Orleans and
served it in hospitals, hotels and restaurants.
1873
Timothy C. Eastman exported chilled beef by ship from America to London, and
shortly thereafter built up his trade to an annual tonnage of around 10,000 t.
The insulated cargo space was cooled by ice, which was loaded on departure.
The success of this method was limited by distance and climate.
1876-
1877
  French engineer Charles Tellier and the steamship Frigorifique achieved the
  first overseas shipment of meat under artificial refrigeration. Three
methyl-ether refrigerating machines kept the cargo in a chilled state during
the 12,000 km voyage from France to Argentina and the return trip.
The preservation of the meat was less than perfect; full success would
have to wait until the voyage of the Paraguay.
1877-
1878
The French vessel Paraguay, equipped with refrigeration machinery by
Ferdinand Carré, traveled from France to Buenos Aires and back. 150 t
of meat, kept at -27 to -30 deg C, arrived in Argentina in excellent
condition after 50 days.
1878
  Gustavus F. Swift (1839-1903) of the United States put into operation
  a refrigerator car to ship fresh meats. The car body was well insulated
and the interior cooled by ice. Fifteen years later the operation had
expanded to 97 thousand units.


Brian Whatcott    Altus OK    Eureka!