NO. 3 (192I) MANUFACTURE OF FISH OIL AND GUANO 1 73 



tanks, and the separating pits alongside the presses. The pits are 

 sunk in the floor, well built and cemented, and so arranged that 

 the oil and water automatically separate. For small work there 

 are tall metal cylindrical separators which work very well but are 

 not suited to commercial or large scale work. The barbecue is a 

 concrete floor, also cemented, but is not large enough. The 

 effluent water runs into a sunk tank whence it is hand-pumped into 

 a trough which carries it out of the yard : unfortunately the sea has 

 now receded some 200 yards from the yard boundary, and it is now 

 impossible to take the water to the sea : this will be further dealt 

 with below. 



55. Method. — As originally started at Cannanore by the Fisheries 

 officers and Mr. U. Choyi, this consisted in simply boiling the fish 

 over an open fire, pressing the mass in a wooden press, separating 

 the oil and water in a collecting pit by means of a "coffee-pot" 

 arrangement, re-heating the oil to sterilize it, and then passing it 

 into barrels ; the fish guano was sun-dried on mats on the sand ; 

 the effluent water was run direct into the sea. Owing to the 

 immediate success of this simple method, many persons followed 

 the same plan, and except that the boiling pans have become 

 larger, that the presses are compact ones of iron, and that barbe- 

 cues are common, the above methods are still general. 



The ordinary procedure is that the fish, often some hours dead, 

 are thrown into heaps or kept in bins near the boiling pans which 

 are then crammed with fish ; these are slowly and imperfectly 

 boiled by open-fire with frequent and laborious stirring by wooden 

 spades or paddles ; the mass is then removed in coarse coir bags to 

 the adjacent presses whence the mingled oil and water run into a 

 masonry pit from which most of the water is removed by a useful 

 device called in America the " coffee-pot" ; see below paragraphs 

 67 — 69. The oil is then generally boiled to drive off most of the 

 water still suspended in it, and is then removed to a storage pit 

 while the guano is dried on barbecues or on the sand and stored in 

 bulk in a shed. The foul effluent water is carried off by a drain to 

 the sea, backwater, or merely to a pit in the sandy beach. 



56. The defects found are numerous : 



(l) The U-shaped pans are often too large for the convenient, 

 economical, and rapid utilization of the fuel: a pan, 8 feet long, 

 between 2 or 3 wide and deep is unwieldy and difficult to heat 

 either rapidly or evenly especially with crude, unscientifically 



