25 MARCH 1911, Page 18

THE EARLIEST EXAMPLE OF COLD STORAGE.

[ITO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—" Cold Storage " was known, experimentally, if not com- mercially, as early as 1663, for Samuel Pepys, on December 11th of that year, made this entry in his diary :—

" Fowl killed in December, Alderman Barker said, he did buy, and putting into the box under his sledge, did forget to take them out to eate till April! next, and they then were found there, and were, through the frost, as sweet and fresh, and eat as well as at first killed."

Does any one recall an earlier reference P2—I am. Sir, &c.,

JOSEPH WILBY.

Oak Street, Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, Ohio.