Strange is packaging meat in pictures LIFE in 1939

In the 1930-ies, the production of frozen foods was considered in the US is a promising sector, but then there was no more suitable way of packing of such products for long term storage. One company solved this problem by using a latex balloon and demonstrated a new process on a pretty girl. Why is unclear, but the footage is interesting.

In 1937, the French scientist Maurice Petr came to the US for a conference on the food industry, where he spoke about the new packaging material, which at the time was tested in France for storage of frozen meat. It was about the latex — pure natural rubber, which changed just enough so that it can be processed.

The idea came to mind, the company Dewey and Almy Chemical Co. from Cambridge, Massachusetts, which has worked with latex for making inexpensive balloons (for 2.25 us dollar) for meteorological observations at high altitude and observations of cosmic rays. The researchers began developing commercial packaging poultry and meat in latex.

The production of frozen foods was one of the most active and promising young industries in America in those years. Since 1939, just five years sales have grown from 10 million pounds of meat (4.5 million kilograms), vegetables, fruit and fish to the more than 130 million pounds (59 million kilograms).

Frozen food manufacturers are constantly experimenting with packaging and was seriously concerned about the problem of storage of meat and poultry. Because these products are custom sizes, before freezing, they cannot be placed in conventional square box. Without packaging well at low temperatures the products are sometimes dried and covered with unsightly "frost burned".

One solution to this problem was patented by the company and Dewey & Almy Chemical Co. process Cryovac, which she began to use experimental. The word Cryovac means "cold and empty". Meat or poultry, which were to be frozen, tightly Packed with latex balloon, which protects them from drying, and the product with this packaging looks attractive.

As seen in the photo below, the creators of Cryovac decided to demonstrate this scientific achievement, sealed in its packaging a pretty girl. In the photo the girl gets into the balloon, which is inflated and then cooled, he remained comparatively large. The bag should then begin, pump the air out, and then spray it on warm air to latex has shrunk (I want to believe that this part of the demonstration passed without women).