Editing Gustavus Franklin Swift (section)

==Advent of the refrigerator car==
{{main|Refrigerator car}}
[[File:Early refrigerator car design circa 1870.jpg|thumb|left|An early refrigerator car design, ''circa'' 1870. Hatches in the roof provided access to the ice tanks at each end of the car.]]

A number of attempts were made during the mid-19th century to ship [[agriculture|agricultural]] products via rail car. As early as 1842 the [[Western Railroad of Massachusetts]] was reported in the June 15 edition of the ''Boston Traveler'' to be experimenting with innovative [[freight car]] designs capable of carrying all types of perishable goods without spoilage.<ref>White, p. 31</ref> The first known [[refrigerator car|refrigerated boxcar]] or "reefer" entered service on the [[Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad|Northern Railroad]] (or NRNY, which became part of the [[Rutland Railroad]]) in June 1851. This "icebox on wheels" was a limited success in that it was only able to function in cold weather. That same year, the [[Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad]] (O&LC) began shipping butter to Boston in purpose-built freight cars, utilizing ice to cool the contents.

The first consignment of dressed beef to leave the Chicago stockyards was in 1857, and was carried in ordinary [[boxcar]]s retrofitted with bins filled with ice. Placing the meat directly against ice resulted in discoloration and affected the taste, hence proved impractical. During the same period Swift experimented by moving cut meat using a string of ten boxcars which ran with their doors removed, and made a few test shipments to [[New York City]] during the winter months over the [[Grand Trunk Railway]] (GTR). The method proved too limited to be practical. [[Detroit]]'s William Davis patented a refrigerator car that employed metal racks to suspend the carcasses above a frozen mixture of ice and salt. He sold the design in 1868 to George H. Hammond, a Detroit meat-packer, who built a set of cars to transport his products to Boston using ice from the [[Great Lakes]] for cooling.<ref>White, p. 33</ref> The loads had the unfortunate tendency of swinging to one side when the car entered a curve at high speed, and the use of the units was discontinued after several derailments. In 1878 Swift hired engineer Andrew Chase to design a ventilated car that was well-insulated, and positioned the ice in a compartment at the top of the car, allowing the chilled air to flow naturally downward.<ref>White, p. 45</ref>

The meat was packed tightly at the bottom of the car to keep the [[center of gravity]] low and to prevent the cargo from shifting. Chase's design proved to be a practical solution to providing temperature-controlled carriage of dressed meats, and allowed Swift & Company to ship their products all over the [[United States]], and internationally. This radically altered the meat business. Swift's attempts to sell this design to the major railroads were unanimously rebuffed as the companies feared that they would jeopardize their considerable investments in [[Stock car (rail)|stock cars]] and animal pens if refrigerated meat transport gained wide acceptance. In response, Swift financed the initial production run on his own, then &mdash; when the [[United States|American]] railroads refused his business &mdash; he contracted with the GTR (a railroad that derived little income from transporting live cattle) to haul them into [[Michigan]] and then eastward through [[Canada]]. In 1880, the [[Peninsular Car Company]] (subsequently purchased by [[American Car & Foundry]]) delivered to Swift the first of these units, and the Swift Refrigerator Line (SRL) was created. Within a year the Line's roster had risen to nearly 200 units, and Swift was transporting an average of 3,000 carcasses a week to Boston. Competing firms such as [[Armour and Company]] quickly followed. By 1920 the SRL owned and operated 7,000 ice-cooled rail cars. The [[General American Transportation Corporation]] assumed ownership of the line in 1930.
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:One of the first cars out of the Detroit plant of American Car & Foundry - Built 1899 for Swift Refrigerator Line - Chicago Historical Society.jpg|thumb|A builder's photo of one of the first refrigerator cars to come out of the [[Detroit]] plant of the [[American Car and Foundry Company]] (ACF), built in 1899 for the [[Swift Refrigerator Line]].]] -->

'''Live cattle and dressed beef deliveries to New York ([[ton]]s):'''
{| class="toccolours"
|-
|
|align=center | ''(Stock Cars)''
|align=center | ''(Refrigerator Cars)''
|-
|align=center | &nbsp; '''Year &nbsp;'''
|align=center | '''Live Cattle &nbsp;'''
|align=center | '''Dressed Beef'''
|-
|&nbsp; 1882
|align=center | 366,487
|align=center | 2,633
|-
|&nbsp; 1883
|align=center | 392,095
|align=center | 16,365
|-
|&nbsp; 1884
|align=center | 328,220
|align=center | 34,956
|-
|&nbsp; 1885
|align=center | 337,820
|align=center | 53,344
|-
|&nbsp; 1886
|align=center | 280,184
|align=center | 69,769
|}

<small>The subject cars travelled on the [[Erie Railroad|Erie]], [[Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad|Lackawanna]], [[New York Central Railroad|New York Central]], and [[Pennsylvania Railroad|Pennsylvania]] railroads.</small>

<small>Source: ''Railway Review'', January 29, 1887, p.&nbsp;62.</small>