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It is in larger vessels where the crew are housed in different rooms that the
disadvantages of the bogie stove are manifest.
In the first place it is dirty. A common sight in crew quarters during the winter
months is a bogie stove in each room with no means of storing coal, heaps of ashes and
coal strewn round the stove, and the paintwork black with soot. In the second place
it is uneconomical. The life of a bogie is short, a year or two at the best, and the
flues and cowls are constantly becoming defective. Each stove requires a store of coal,
which is usually issued in a sack, so that there is a sack of coal in every room.
It is obvious that paintwork very quickly gets dirty in a room containing a bogie
stove.
In the method of central heating by low-pressure hot water, the boiler is situated
in the crew mess room, or in the galley if it is adjacent to the forecastle, and requires
very little attention. Pipes run from the boiler to the various compartments, and
thus the alleyways through which they run, as well as the rooms, are warmed.
This method is much cleaner and more economical than bogie stoves, and when the
quarters are grouped together in the poop, as they usually are in modern ships, it
appears to be very efficient.
The initial outlay may be higher than for bogies, but if central heating is installed
when the ship is being built, the difference in cost should be very small, and should
very soon be more than repaid by the reduction in fuel consumption. The following
figures are taken from two motor vessels belonging to the same Company.
Both vessels carry eight hands, are of about the same size, and engaged in a similar
trade. One has a coal-fired galley range and a boiler for central heating by lowpressure
hot water. Two tons of coal last one month. The other has a coal-fired
galley, a coal stove in the saloon and a bogie stove in the forecastle. Two tons of
coal last ten days. Moreover, the Master of the latter vessel says his room is never
warm, as it only has borrowed heat from the saloon. The Chief and Second Engineers
have oil stoves in addition.
Central heating by low-pressure hot water was recommended in the Report of the
Manning Committee of the Shipping Federation on " Officers' and Crews' Accommodation
in Cargo Vessels," issued in 1930.
Steam heaters are clean, but tend to make the atmosphere of compartments too
hot and too dry. Moreover, steam is often not available when the ship is in port.
Electric heating is clean and convenient, but is easily damaged, and again is often
out of commission when the vessel is in port.
VII.— FOOD INSPECTION.
Chilled Meat from Australia and New Zealand.
(By F. J. Massie, Food Inspector.)
During the year ending 1935 there was a considerable increase in the amount of
chilled meat imported from Australia and New Zealand into the Port of London.
The quantities are given in the appended Table. The examination of the meat
covering the two years showed very little variation in general condition upon discharge.
This fact is indicative of a strict adherence to the method of transportation prescribed
by the Cambridge Low Temperature Research Department, viz., an agitated air and
gas circulation of 90 per cent, of air and 10 per cent. C02, in addition to chilling by
brine circulation. Three systems of air and gas circulation are employed. In some
steamers an end to end or fore and aft method, and in others a side or thwartships
delivery, is adopted. A third system is that of overhead delivery from ducts let into
the deck head, or through perforated hanging rails.
Of the three systems enumerated, the latter method is said to be the best, because
in descent a more thorough and efficient diffusion is obtained. All three systems form
a completely enclosed air cycle.