LOCATION AND CONSTRUCTION.
LOCATION -- WATER SUPPLY -- SEWAGE -- ODORS AND PREVAILING WINDS
-- CLEANLINESS -- DESIGNS AND ERRORS -- CHARACTER OF BUSINESS --
REQUIREMENTS -- PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN.
=Location.=--Location is a moderate sized word with a vast meaning. It
has two definitions as applied to meat packing houses.
_First._--Location as to a live stock supply. Pioneers in foreign lands
looking for a cheap supply must take into consideration the quantity
immediately available, the probabilities based upon feeding, climate,
natural enemies--beast and bug--and the ambition of the people to
produce as well as their ability to produce.
Sometimes an apparent supply is at hand but a searching investigation
will show that it is an accumulated surplus, soon exhausted, with a
resultant dearth. In the case of cattle, a supply cannot be created in
a day but by persistent effort and in several generations of human life.
Transportation by trooping and by train, or the ability of the cattle
to withstand the first or the ability of the railways to handle for
want of facilities, are at times matters of much consequence.
_Second._--Location as applied to a position for operating,
applicable to domestic or foreign works. There are several items of
prime importance to be considered in selecting a location from this
standpoint. In many instances a plant is established near a locality
producing a sufficient quality of live stock suitable for a certain
purpose, for example pigs suitable for export trade. In some instances
the selection of a location is made for trade reasons, or to be
adjacent to a stock yards; and in instances because property is owned
in a certain locality. Where situation can be of choice, the matters
for most serious consideration are sewage disposal, water supply,
prevailing winds and transportation facilities.
=Water Supply.=--This is of great consequence. The quantity to be
used for condensing purposes, refrigerating machinery operation,
for cleansing, and in the regular course of business, is a very
large amount, and if purchased from water supply corporations or
municipalities, at prevailing rates, become a burdensome item of
expense. The principal use for water can be classified under three
headings:
_Boiler Purposes_--This naturally will be selected from available
sources based upon fitness, irrespective of cost.
_Condensing_--First, for refrigerating machinery ammonia condensing
and for steam engine condensing, in conjunction with the production
of power and operating steam engines on refrigerating equipment.
For this purpose cold water is desirable. If it can be obtained
from wells it is the best practice, owing to such water usually
being of low temperature. However, the cost of production must be
considered, and that calls for engineering knowledge as to relative
conditions. Usually, unless the surface water be in large quantity
and available from a stream, the wells prove economical unless the
water must be raised from great depths involving air lift pumping.
There are instances, however, where turbidity makes water from streams
undesirable and where well water is unobtainable, and in instances of
this kind use of settling basins, reservoirs and cooling towers is
resorted to.
_For Cleaning and Other Purposes_--The water for cleansing purposes,
for food products, fats and premises, should be clean and free from
contamination that render it unfit for potable uses.
=Sewage.=--The question of sewage disposal from a packing house is of
more consequence than the water supply, which is usually determined by
the relative cost. The former is a matter of disposition. No matter
how carefully the refuse from the slaughtered animal is collected for
passing through the rendering department, or how carefully the waters
from cooking are collected for evaporation, quite large quantities
of nitrogenous particles and many substances which are more cheaply
disposed of by the way of the sewers, ultimately reach them. If the
refuse finds its way to a rapidly flowing stream, it is taken care of
by bacterial action, but if discharged into a dry stream or pool, or
to a sewage disposal plant, it becomes a serious burden that sooner or
later reverts to the packer.
=Odors and Prevailing Winds.=--Naturally to minimize the distance of
transport to stations for shipping or delivery to the consumer, or
to be near to a supply of labor, every manufacturer is desirous of
locating his works near to a city or on its outskirts, if not at a
commercial stock yards. Where the latter are of comparatively large
consequence to a community, the odors arising are usually considered a
“necessary evil” and the packing plant as a part of that.
No matter how carefully the plant may be operated, if the full
commercial value is taken out of all products there are some
departments in which it is difficult to abate the smells, and if the
prevailing winds are towards a residence district, it is likely to
cause disturbance. This statement can be qualified, however, because it
is a fact that plants can be designed and can be operated so as to be
kept within proper bounds and be of no more nuisance than the handling
of the live animals, but it will always be well for the prospective
packer to recognize that he would not care to live on the premises,
nor will his neighbor appreciate his works any more than he. A packing
house properly belongs to a district at a reasonable distance from
residence property, and where the prevailing winds are not toward the
residence district.
=Cleanliness.=--The features contributing most to the operation of
a plant so as to avoid it becoming noisome is that of cleanliness,
first, last and always; ample equipment to promptly dispose of all
by-products, and to do it promptly.
=Design and Errors.=--The location disposed of, the design and
construction is a problem that cannot have too careful consideration.
There are two grievous errors that may creep in; overbuilding and under
building. Overbuilding recognizes the construction of a plant too large
for present needs, thereby making the capital investment too large
for the business to be done, and sometimes resulting in the handicap
of insufficient monies for plant operation with all the difficulties
entailed. Under building, failing to recognize the growth that might
occur and failing to so arrange that the growth can be made in a way
that keeps the plant in balance and makes for economical operation.
Either condition may lead to regrets.
=Character of Business.=--At this point comes the consideration of the
character of the business to be conducted and the proportioning of
departments one to another suitably. For instance, in a beef shipping
plant for fresh beef the coolers may have a hanging capacity equal to
at least three times the daily slaughtering capacity, while at some
market points the ratio may be ten times. Whereas, at a freezing plant
it becomes a question of room to accumulate a cargo dependent upon
transport facilities.
=Requirements.=--The requirements in the various localities, as to
arrangement of departments; to comply with sanitary necessities as
to light and ventilation, and the classes of materials required in
construction, are changing from time to time and no set rule can be
made, but these are axiomatic:
(1) Products prepared for food purposes must be quickly and thoroughly
isolated from non-edible products.
(2) All departments should, so far as possible, be maintained in
separate buildings.
(3) Building materials should, so far as possible, be non-absorbent.
(4) Light and air should be arranged for in plenty.
(5) The question of movement of product to minimize labor should be
given proper attention. In the building of a packing house it is only
within the last few years that this matter has been studied from the
standpoint of obtaining the best results at the least expenditure for
operating.
(6) Formerly it was considered proper to build the killing house and
coolers on the ground level, excavating a cellar for the storage of
some of the products; the power house, tank rooms and other buildings
for the disposition of by-products were placed without reference to
economy in operation. Experience has proven that it is economical to
slaughter animals on the upper floor of a building, and instead of
spreading out on the ground and covering a large area as formerly, to
build higher over a smaller area. With a proper incline the animals
will walk to an elevation of 50 or 60 feet without detriment to their
condition, and it is much cheaper to do this than to kill them on the
ground level and elevate the products, or to convey or transport them
to distant buildings on the same level.
(7) The use of gravity is recognized as a proper procedure in all
departments from a low labor cost standpoint. The locating of the
buildings, one to another; to minimize the transferring of products;
and the grouping of products as to convenience in shipping by wagon, by
car or by boat, as the case may require, are also important.
(8) Very important is the question of grouping cold storage departments
so as to minimize the wall space and exposure from radiation; likewise
the concentration of buildings requiring heat to avoid the loss of fuel
by reason of long steam lines, and radiation which can not be prevented.
=Principles of Design.=--The crux of the plant appears to be the
slaughtering department for it is here the work begins and from this
source radiates the various parts for disposal. One well-known and
successful designer works with the idea of beginning at the rendering
department, and establishing the tops of the rendering tanks, or
digestors, on a level with the viscera separating floor, from which
the refuse is readily transported without the use of elevator or lift
service.
The slaughtering floor is naturally above this level, and all other
departments disposed to meet the various needs. Obviously there being
so many controlling factors, no examples can be set out to meet all
conditions. There follows however, a ground plan and sectional view of
several plants of varying sizes with descriptive data.