Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1896 — EVAPORATED FRUIT. [ARTICLE]

EVAPORATED FRUIT.

A Croat Industry That Has Crown Up Around Rochester. In IS7I Elam Hatch, a farmer living 111 the town of Webster, by accident discovered that sliced apples could be made n clear, pure white by tbe use of fumes of brimstone. The old'way of drying apples was to slice them and carefully distribute them on trays, which were then hoisted to the roofs of outbuildings and shells of farmhouses or elevated from the ground on iwsts, being left exposed to the rays of the sun, which. If the day was pleasant, would half dry them. The result of this method of drying the apples was not entirely satisfactory, however. The apples were always of a peculiar reddish tint, anil lost considerable nourishment In the process of snn- drying. Mr. Hatch Is said to lmve been the first one to have put Into use the plan of preparing apples by tbe use of the fumes of brimstone, which dried them and left them of a white color. When these dried npplcs first came into the local market they commanded a price far above that of the sun-dried variety, and were at once In demand. Other growers at once took up with the Idea, and DaVlil Wing, of Brighton, began to deal In the product extensively. Men set aliput attempting to find the easiest nnd least expensive wuy of preparing apples for the market, and the result was the building of many fruit evaporating towers. It was found that by shoving In a sieve laden with the sliced fruit and allowing tin* fumes to pass through It, then hoisting that sieve and shoving In another, then hoisting the two and shoving In a third, and so on until the sieve first put In had reached the top of the tower, the heat could be best applied and the process ,l|e liest simplified. Patents were immediately applied for, but. so tunny technical Improvements were made that no one device ever came Into nuy very extensive use. Through all these years the original plan of the drying lower has remained the temporary feature of the drying process of wlmt has now grown to be an extensive Industry. The Idea of blenching by the use of brimstone Is not. a now one, Instance* being recorded of Its liavjpg boon used In the process of preparing barley and malt 2,<KM> years back, anil it was in rather extensive use In tJernmuy sev-enty-five years before It. was ‘put to any great use hero. In J 847 a noted chemist of that country rend a paper In which he practically foreshadowed the results which have since been achieved. , The fact of the* matted Ts .that the Industry has grown to such'proportlons In the United Htntes, and .uiju'p especially In the Immediate vicinity of Rochester, that the product ls : shipped to all parts of the world. Large shipments are annually made to France, Germany and Russia. , ' * A man who has traveling much abroad and who has just returned to the city told a reporter of the PostExpress that when he was In France lie met n foreigner Interested In the fruit-drying Industry. The foreigner learned that the traveler watt from New York state, and he ns one* Inquired If lie knew where Rochester was located. The American Mnlllngly said that he did. "Wei};” Said the Frenchman, "all the people pvpr here know a great deal about Rochester. It must be a great place, -Do t}ie people there do anything aside from drying fruit?" Being assured that 'the city was one embracing a great mahy various manufactories and.noted for other Industries he expressed surprise. He actually believed that’ nothing wa* done by the Inhabitants here except the preparation of dried ffuit, so well known Is the Rochester product.— Rochester (N. Y.) PosPExprcss.