Cork insulation; a complete illustrated textbook on cork insulation ...

460 CORK INSULATION
States standard double wall box car. The essentials upon which rest
efficiency in protecting perishables against heat and cold have followed
very closely the findings of the investigators of the Department
of Agriculture. The committee's plans include unbroken insu-
lation on both floor and roof. On the walls the <strong>insulation</strong> is continuous
from door post to door post. It was not possible to devise
a scheme by which the <strong>insulation</strong> could be run over the belt rails,
but the exposed surface was reduced. All the <strong>insulation</strong> is applied
in a solid mass, unbroken by air spaces. It is supported by pressure
and not by direct nailing. The excess space afiforded by the framing
is left on the inner side, under the lining, to receive such nails as the
shipper cannot be prevented from driving into the walls and which
have played havoc with the <strong>insulation</strong>. Bolt heads and tie rod exits
are protected by <strong>insulation</strong>. The bunker is a woven wire basket holding
approximately ten thousand pounds of ice, surrounded by a two
inch space and separated from the body of the car by a bulkhead
carrying at least one inch of insulator; and last, but far from least,
is a floor rack, four inches in the clear, built of 2x4 runners with 1x3
cross slats Ij^ inches apart. This rack is hinged to the side walls.
Each half may be turned up and the doorway section folds back to
facilitate cleaning the car. The length of the car over end sills
should be approximately 41 feet, and the loading space should be 33
feet; it must not be more than 33 feet 3 inches.
The foregoing is a very brief description of the essentials of the
car designed to protect perishables in transit which the Railroad
Administration has designated as "standard" and to which the lines
when rebuilding must conform. Such instructions to the railroads
should insure quick results in an increase of reliable refrigerator cars.
Of course, there should, and doubtless will be, a program covering
the building of new cars to replace at least ten thousand so-called
refrigerator cars now in the service which are camouflaged box cars
and a menace to every pound of foodstuff loaded in them.
On the basis of a standard car, the Department is now predicating
a standard icing service which should save foods and money.
It is also working on standardized methods of stowing loads and
the standardization of packages. The ability to quickly cool certain
commodities in transit by the use of salt with the ice has given a
new impetus to orchard, field and packing house handling, while the
reasonable assurance of proper care in transit of such products as
dressed poultry lends a stability to the industry which is much
needed. There has been much discontent on the part of shippers of
products requiring intensive refrigeration because they could not
obtain such cars as the large meat packers are using. The United
States standard refrigerator car will carry meat hung from rails
quite as successfully as the cars built especially for meat. In addi-
tion it will carry package loads on the floor under the meat better
than the meat cars. An important difference in the standard car as
compared with the meat car is the reserve of ice in the bunkers
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