The Portland daily press., 1895-08-20
HALF A MILLION HERRING.
A Factory Capable of Putting Them
Into Boxes in Day.

Into Boxes in a Day.
Boothbay Harbor's New Enterprise-The
sardine Factory Which Employs over
One Hundred Persons-How the Little
Fishes are Baked and Packed in Oil,
Boothbay Harbor, Me-, August 10,
1885, About 100 persons working day
with modern apparatus ara able TO make
the required number of cans boil half
million little fishes in oil, put them IN
the cans and seal them up. 1t was Arte
mus Ward who referred to sardines as
little fishes billed in ile. - AS matter OF
fact the little fishes put up in Maine are
small herring, and they are baked instead
of being boiled. The Maine sardlne in
dustry has heretofore been confined
mostly to the eastern part of Maine, CEN
tering in Eastport and the vicinity. This
spring Mr.. Charles f. Capen, who also
owns large sardine factory at Eastport,
erected a factory in this village, and 1t
has now been in operation for about two
months. The factory itself is two story
modern building erected on a wharf
whore cargoes of fish may be landed at
its doors. Running along the wharf and
into the lower story of the building is an
elevated track like that used in cold
storage houses for carrying big SIDES of
beef about The little fishes for use in
the factory are caught in weirs con-
structed in bays and inlets along the
shore. A small steamer and couple of
sailing craft make frequent trips to the
villages near which these weirs are located
and collect the catch. When the steamer
| reaches the factory there is lively time.
The fish are hoisted in baskets to the
wharf and run along the elevated track
into the factory. Ihey are dumped on
| tables in a big room, where stand about
| so men who act as cutters. The tables
| are in the shape OF shallow troughsland as
the men receive the fish, heads are cut
off with one quick fash of the knife, ian
other movement takes out the entrails,
| the fish are washed in another twinkling
and thrown into baskets. The men work
| with great rapidity and the baskets load
ed with the dressed fish are hoisted
| through hole in the floor of the room
above in an endless procession, until the
| whole cargo has been thus disposed of.
The fish are now ready for the baking.
They are cooked in two story brick
| the doors which open into the oven proper
| being on the floor above. In the soven is
| a great wheel, something in make up
| like the paddle wheel of steamer, but
so arranged that the arms which CORES
pond to the paddles maintain themselves
in horizontal position as the wheel
revolves. The fish are spread upon frames
of heavy wires, and these frames are laid
upon the arms of the wheel in the oven.
| One revolution of the wheel cooks the
fish so as each big arm or spoke rises to
| the level of the door, the frames it bears
are taken out loaded with the, freshly
cooked fish, and other frames with raw
fish are put on. Then the man at the
crank which turns the wheel sends it
spinning around again. Near the oven at
| long tables are 30 or 40 younglWomen who
pack the fish. They have before them
piles of the familiar sardine boxes, with
the French inscriptions on the yellow
Sides Into each of the small boxes, the
20 ung women pour spoonful of the
clear, golden colored oil which stands in
pans on the tables Then she deftly
packs the fish in layers, in the way
familiar to people who have opened sar
dine cans There are some larger cans in
which the fish are packed in mustard,
but the greater part go into the cans of
the usual shape and size.
Ten fish in can is regarded as the
proper number, but as they vary in size,
this rule cannot always be followed.
While the cutters and the bakers and the
packers are at work, from another room
come, the thumpS and rattle of rapidly
moving machinery. Here the can makers
are at work. You see sheets of tin on
one side of which is printed over and
over again the advertising matter on the
sides of the sardine cans. Reading across
the sheet Of tin there is first the wording
which will be found on one end of the
box. then comes that for one side: then
the other end and the remaining side.
There are twenty of these strips in a
sheet. A boy picks up the sheet, puts it
into a ohopping machine, and with a
clip, clip, clip the knife rises and falls
and cuts the 20 sets of printed matter into
20 long, marrow strips Another boy feeds
these strips into another machine and the
ends are ground Still another machine
grooves them along the edges. Then they
ara seized upon by boy running con-
trivance which bends the strips SO that
they form the four sides of the boxes. In
a somewhat similar way the bottoms have
been cut and then sides and bottoms go
to the men, who solder them together,
making the complete boxes minus tho
tops They are now taken to the packing
room, where the young women put IN the
: oil and the fish. Now more can makers
take them and solder on the top. This
apparently completes the process, but
there is still a lot Of cooking to do, and
the sealed boxes are put into great recep-
} tacles, where they are treated to steam
bath for about an hour and half After
this the cans are cooled, cleaned in saw
dust and dropped down chute to the
packing room, where they are packed away
, in wooden boxes for shipment. A herring