Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-07-13
Lobster Factories

The lobster factories are very numerous,
and can hardly escape the notice even OF
the fashionable visitor to Maine. He is
confronted by one, for instance, at the land
ing Of Harpswell, the principal island of
Cascs Bay, another at the historic old town
OF Castihe, another at Southwest Harbor,
Mount Desert, besides the one at Green's
Landing. Deer Island has factories at
Oceanville and Burnt Cove, forming part
of a series twenty-three ia number, which
belong to one firm. and stretched all the
way down to the Bay of Fundy They
cannot be called intrinsically inviting. owing
to their wholly utilitarian character,
although they are apt to have redeemlng
features in an occasional touch OF the pic
turesque.
The factory opens at one end on the
wharf, close to the water Two men bring
in the squirming loads on stretcher and
dump the mass INTO coppers for boiling.
At intervals the covers are hoisted by ropes
and pulleys, and dense clouds of steam arise,
through which we catch vistas of men,
women and children at work. Two men
approach the eoppers with stretcher and
scoop nets, and they throw rapid SCOOP
fuls, done to a scarlet, backward over their
shoulders. Tine scarlet hue is seen IN all
guarters-on the steamIng stretcher, in the
great heaps on the tables, in scattered in
dividuals on the floor, in large pile of
shells and refuse seen through the open
door, and in an ox-cartload of the same re-
fuse, further off, which is being taken away
for use as fertilizer.
The boiled lobster is separated, on long
tables, into his constituent parts. The meat
of the many jointed tail is thrust out with
a punch. A functionary called ''cracker"
frees that of the claws by couple of deft
arms are passed on to be picked out with a
fork by the girls. In another department
the meat is placed in the cans. The girl
puts in roughly a suitable selection of the
several parts. The next weighs 1t, and
adds or substracts enough to complete the
exact amount desired Zone or two pou1ds).
The next forces down the contents with a
stampt invented especially for the purpose.
The next puts in a tin cover with blows of
a little namncr. Then a tray is rapidly
filed, with the cans, and they are carried
W tuC ocldClSlo, VIM oCdl tuCih tiSub CA
cept for minute openings in the covers, and
put them in another tray, which by means
of pulley-tackle, is then plunged in bath
-caldrons, iu order that the cans may be
boiled till the air is expelled from their con-
tents through the minute openings. Then
they are sealed up and boiled again for
several hours, when the process of cooking
is complete.
In the packIng-room the cans are cleaned
with acid, painted thin coat of green to
keep them from rusting, pasted with labels
displaying a highly ornamental scarlet lob-
ster rampant against blue sea, and placed
by the gross in pine boxes to await the ar
rival Of the company's vessel, which cruises
regularly from factory to factory, collecting
the product. Nine-tcnths of the supply at
present goes to the foreign market. On
'9oaf-days." the hands occupy themselve
with making the neat cans which it is their
ordinary business to fill.