The Ketchikan miner., 1907-07-06
LABOR SAVING IN CANNERIES.

nomical evolution. brought about by the introduction of the "Iron Chink, the wonderful mechanical fish clean ing device, invented by F. A. Smith, of-Seattle. and which is now being gradually installed in the canreries, Mr. Smith. who is now making the rounds of the Alaska canneries. said quite rencetly to representative ot The Miner: I've have installed a number of these machines on Puget Sound and in British Columbia can neries. and have had nothing but sat isfactory reports upon their efficiency and the economy and speed with which they perform their arduous duties. In conversation with Mr. F. B. Deming, manager of the largest salmon packing plant in the world, the Pacific American Fisheries Con- pany of Bellingham and one at Ana cortes. Mr. Deming told me of his experience with the iron chink: de- monstrating that with the use of the machines. coupled with rare foresight and generalship. Mr. Deming was able to make a great cleanup in l9oo
 At the beginning of the run of 1905. tthe big run. sixteen thousand fish came into the cannery, and they were run through the two iron chlnks in two and n half hours. MT. Deming being then satisfied that the machines could preform the work expected of them. ceased bringing fish to his plant. but sold to other canners the entire output of his traps while fish were selling at lSc.. be, and l2lac. Then as soon as the fish reached the Sc mark. which happened week after the commencement of the run, Mir. Deming sold no more fish, but packed them all. He therefore sold sufficient fish at the high prices 10 pay for putting down his traps, operating them and operating his plant. So that with the aid Of his iron chinks at the butchering end he was enabled to practically make a clear profit of every can of salmon he put up.
 In 1901 sthe Pacific American Fish cries Company had ten lines of ma chnery, and with all the Chinese butchers working in the daytime, and white men at nighs. the company's 's high day pack was eighty-siX hundred cases. In 1905 with seven lines of ma chnery and two iron chinks. the high
 days pack was ten thousand six hundred cases. and the average day : pack was 9. 300 cases.
 Mr Smith says that it appears to him that in using q machine. canner- ies will be able to gain big results during a big run, for operating with out fish-cleaning device have to lim- it their boats, when fish become very cheap, and packers using machine in a cannery could we'll afford to let the high priced fish go to the other canners, and reserve themselves for the cheaper fish for. as the iron chink never gets tired. the cannery can run. day and night, and in the course of tn rec or four days will have as many cases put up at the cheaper rate as the other packers who have had a weeks start.
 It is a well known fact that an eX pert Chinese butcher cannot handle more than twenty-five hundred ifs h day, and that only when the man is in good condition at the beginning of the season and is not overcrowded or tired but as the season advances and he is pressed with work, he gradually falls down on account of sore hands and weariness. and the more weary he be- comes the more carelessly he wields his knife. and instead of cutting through the bony part of the fn, he cuts deeply into the fatty part of the fish which goes to make the oil, SO much sought after by buyers. It was remarked by buyers from the East last. year. on several packs, on the great showing of oil in the cans, and it was traced back to the iron chink.
 It is also well known that the capa- city of the packing plant of a cannery is always that of the butchering end, because the packing part is almost perfect, being nearly all operated me chanically. and it only means running afew more hours in order to increase the pack, and as the operators of the various machines have no manual h. bor to perform to any great extent, they can stand up to the press of work even if they are worked six or seven hours overtime, and also in working these men overtime, while they may get tired, the hundred and twenty cans a minute continually pass over the line. and the quality of the work does not suffer; whereas, the butcher as soon as you press him into long hours, fails as to speed and quality of the work performed, and waste of the necessary oil immediately commences, the result being dry, tasteless salmon. But the most desirable result likely to be effected by the introduction of the iron ciiink is the practical eli