Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/107

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PACKARD
75
PACKING INDUSTRY


PACKARD, ALPHEUS SPRING, an American naturalist; born in Bruns- wick, Me., Feb. 19, 1839; graduated at Bowdoin 1861; for a time assistant to Agassiz at Cambridge. State Entomol- ogist of Massachusetts in 1871-1873. In 1878 Professor of Zoology and Geol- ogy at Brown University. He is best known as an entomologist; his classifica- tion of insects, 1863, has been generally accepted. As an evolutionist, Professor Packard was one of the leaders of the Neo-Lamarckian school. His writings include "Structure of the Ovipositor of Insects" (1868); "Development and An- atomy of Limulus Polyphemus (1871- 1885); "The Cave Fauna of North America" (1888); "The Labrador Coast" (1891); "Text-book of Entomol- ogy" (1898); "Lamark" (1891); mono- graphs on geometrid moths, a locust's brain, phyllopod crustacea, etc. He died in 1905.

PACKARD, FRANK LUCIUS, an American writer, born in Montreal, Canada, in 1877. He graduated from McGill University in 1897, and took post- graduate courses in Europe. For sev- eral years he was engaged in engineer- ing and in 1906 began contributing to magazines. He was the author of "On the Iron at Big Cloud," (1911): "The Miracle Man," (1914); "The Beloved Traitor," (1916); "The Sin That Was His," (1917). He also contributed many stories to magazines.

PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTI- TUTE. A girls' school in Brooklyn, N. Y., built in 1853 to succeed the Brooklyn Female Academy, the buildings of which were destroyed by fire in the preceding year. Mrs. Harriet L. Packer endowed the new institution with $65,000. The courses now given provide primary, secondary, high school, and collegiate in- struction. The enrollment in all depart- ments in the year 1914-1915 was 641. The total value of the buildings and equipment of the institute is approxi- mately $600,000. The library is an un- usually large one for schools of this type, having 11,000 volumes.

PACKFONG, a Chinese alloy of a sil- ver-white color, consisting of copper, zinc, nickel, and iron. It was formerly used by watch makers, mathematical in- strument makers, and others, for a vari- ety of purposes for which nickel alloys are now employed.

PACKING INDUSTRY. The pack- ing industry involves the purchase of live stock, the conversion of live stock into saleable products, and the distribu- tion of those products. In the last fifty years the packing industry has come to be one of the most important industries in many American cities, especially in the middle West. The history of the industry begins in New England in the 17th century, when quantities of pork and beef were packed in barrels for foreign trade. The first packing house in the West was established in Cincin- nati in 1818, and that city remained the center of the packing trade for nearly fifty years, when Chicago surpassed it. The tremendous and rapid growth of the meat packing business is due to the invention of the refrigerator car in 1868 by William Davis of Detroit. Before that time meat had to be killed near the point of consumption, and the pack- ing industry was largely confined to the production of barreled beef, and the curing of pork products in winter. Even the canning of meats is a fairly recent development. In the slaughtering of vices are used, and there is now a very animals a great many labor saving de- fine division of labor in the enormous stock yards and packing houses _ of Chicago, and the other large cities. The animals are first stunned by a severe blow on the head, then killed and bled, after which they are passed through scalding vats and through an automatic bristles. As soon as the carcasses have scraper which removes the hair and been dressed and thoroughly inspected, they are chilled by refrigeration, which is the basis of all successful meat curing. The meat is shipped to Eastern markets in refrigerated cars owned by the packing companies, and placed in cold storage warehouses to be sold to local dealers, or transferred to iced rooms in the ocean liners to be delivered in Liverpool or Glasgow.

Originally little or no use was made of the so-called waste products of ani- mals, but the packers have shown great ingenuity in their use of the by-prod- ucts. In addition to the sale of the car- casses of cattle, sheep and hogs, the packing industry now includes the mak- ing of glue from the hoofs, horns and bones, leather from the hides, brushes from the hog bristles, fertilizer from the meat scraps, soaps, tallow from the fats, pepsin from the stomach, and lard, one of the most valuable and profitable by- products. Two grades of lard are leaf lard. In dressing hogs, nearly 20 made; steam lard, and the more refined per cent. is waste, or is used for glue or fertilizer. The most profitable part of the industry is the making of sausages. The meat used for this purpose is for the most part trimmings. The meat is chopped, mixed with potato flour and