300 deg. 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 deg. plus the 70% humidity.

Then the second problem, if you want to make one, is to get that
temperature standard in al