That is where we should have started at West Virginia, but we didn't. We began at the other end after the thing was through and began studying pasteurization. The Government had recommended, I believe, temperatures of up to 300°F. for pasteurization. We found out right away--that is, I didn't, Dr. Colmer and Harvey Erickson, who are now--one of them--in Baton Rouge and the other one in Seattle, and they would know about it. They found out that after temperatures of over 300° the nuts tasted toasted and they would not keep nearly so well or so long as an unpasteurized nut.
After inspecting what pasteurizers they could get access to they concluded some work was necessary, so they spent 12 months and found that at a temperature of 160 and humidity of 80 per cent a more efficient job of pasteurization was done, and at the same time the kernel was not hurt at all. The taste was identical with an unpasteurized nut, and it would keep just as long. At that point one of them, as I say, went to Louisiana and the other went to Washington, and the research fell on my shoulders, that didn't know much about it.
We started to construct the machine. Meanwhile, Mr. Erickson told me he had developed a new strain of bacteria which was much more hardy and 160 degrees at 80% humidity would not kill the thing. So we constructed our machine to run a temperature of 180 at 70% humidity for 30 minutes, and that will kill them.
Now, in 15 minutes I can't give you anywhere near all the details of construction of that machine. I can give you a few of the principles. On the outside, of course, is a well insulated box. The nuts are fed through the top with a revolving drum with fins on it. They comes down to a belt that travels this way for six feet, drops to another, travels back, a series of five belts. It takes them just half an hour to go through. The layer of nuts is perhaps three-eighths of an inch thick. The temperature is kept up with electric coils. It is regulated with a thermostat.
We had some difficulty with the humidity. Try it and see. As we raised our temperature it was hard to keep our humidity up. Finally we went back to the simplest thing, which usually works. We just took a pan of water, with a solenoid valve and float such as you have in the modern hot air furnaces and put a magnetic switch on it. As the water boiled it helped raise the temperature, and it gave off vapors. The automatic switch and the wet and dry bulb from the thermometer and thermostat will shut the water off and shut the heat off automatically when you get the required temperature and the required humidity. In that machine our nuts start at the top, take 30 minutes to travel through. From the time they start at the top until the time they get to the bottom they have a standard temperature of 180° plus the 70% humidity.