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Show America In Action I .K daily, can conserve its own weight in about ten days' operation. In some theaters of operations green coffee is obtainable locally and by using the portable coffee roaster it is possible to eliminate the shipping problem entirely. Furthermore, since roasted coffee deteriorates rapidly, even if not ground, and green coffee does not, the use o these overseas portable roasters greatly simplifies the coffee storage problem. Green coffee in bags can be safely stored in any dry warehouse which affords protection pro-tection against the elements. The portable coffee roaster-grinder when set up for operation is about 11 feet high and occupies a floor space .of only nine feet square. It is powered by a small gasoline engine en-gine and the roasting unit utilizes coal, coke, charcoal or hardwood. Separate gas burners are provided with each unit for use in localities where either natural or manufactured manufac-tured gas may be available. Released by Western Newspaper Union. QMC PORTABLE COFFEE ROASTING UNITS Roaster-fresh coffee is reaching American soldiers in all parts of the world, direct from the quartermaster quartermas-ter corps' portable combination roasters and grinders that eliminate vast quantities of strategic steel and tin and save untold tons of valuable shipping space. According to the war department, units of portable coffee roasters and grinders are now serving the armed forces in many theaters of operations opera-tions making it possible for fighting men to receive steaming cups of coffee lacking nothing in strength, flavor and aroma, even though the scene is 10,000 miles away from the nearest coffee plantation. Developed some two years ago by quartermaster corps subsistence experts, ex-perts, the portable units were designed de-signed chiefly to provide good fresh coffee in foreign fields. Today their value is enhanced by the great savings sav-ings in space and critical material they effect. Due to the fact that coffee expands considerably when it is roasted it is highly advantageous to ship it in its green state. When coffee is shipped green in burlap bags and roasted at overseas bases, freighters can carry 39 pounds in each cubic foot of space. On being roasted this .coffee materially increases in bulk but shrinks in weight to approximately ap-proximately 33 pounds. Due to the volume of increase during the roasting roast-ing process, however, only 22 pounds of roasted coffee can be carried car-ried in a cubic foot of shipping space. Consequently the freight space yield is 50 per cent greater when green instead of roasted coffee is shipped. To deliver good coffee to troops at the front it must either be roasted and ground in the vicinity of consumption con-sumption or roasted in the United States and shipped overseas in vacuum - packed containers. The portable coffee roaster can produce 6,000 pounds of roasted and ground coffee every 24 hours. To package that much roasted and ground coffee for overseas shipment requires approximately ap-proximately 713 pounds of steel and tin about one-tenth of the weight of a portable machine. Thus one machine, operating on three shifts |