No. 4(i92l) BRInE-freEzinG 51 



packed in boxes in an economical manner; comparatively few fish 

 can be packed in one box and as a consequence the expenses of 

 transport are considerably increased. By the Bull method it was 

 claimed that this drawback was overcome. Shortly stated, it con- 

 sists of placing the fish in shallow trays retained therein by remov- 

 able wire net tops and bottoms, and frozen in situ into solid slabs of 

 fish. The first procedure favoured was to freeze these slabs of fish 

 in a mixture of salt and ice. This was quickly abandoned in 

 favour of immersion in brine with means provided by means of a 

 propeller at one end of the freezing tank to ensure circulation of 

 the cooled brine, in a fashion closely related to that adopted in the 

 Billingsgate method. At one time there was a great boom in 

 Norway in favour of the " Blok " system and great hopes were 

 founded upon its apparent practicability. It was pointed out that 

 the method afforded a means to effect great economies in transport, 

 and that if a van be filled with such frozen blocks superimposed in 

 piles, one has a magazine of cold which of itself will keep the fish in 

 perfect condition for a long time. There is also a great saving of 

 space compared with the ordinary method of sending fish in boxes 

 with broken ice packed amongst and around the fish. Only about 

 93 lb. of frozen fish can usually be put into an ordinary herring 

 box, but by the "Blok " system over 1 50 lb. of frozen fish can be 

 filled into the same box. Again, an ordinary fish box measuring 

 3 X 2 X ij^ feet weighs when empty about 66 lb. and in it are 

 packed 220 lb. offish and about IIO lb. of ice. In the same 

 box can be packed an average weight of 309 lb. of " Blok " frozen 

 fish. The flesh of fish consists of about 80 per cent of water, hence 

 it contains at least 7S per cent of ice and therefore a bulk of 309 

 lb. of hard frozen fish will contain or be associated with 23T lb. of 

 ice, or more than double the quantity of ice used in the ordinary 

 mode of packing. It will therefore bear a journey of double the 

 length under the same conditions; concurrently it will reduce the 

 freight to an extent of about 33 per cent on the same weight of 

 fish. 



The position theoretically appeared sound and exceedingly 

 attractive. A company was formed and building operations were 

 commenced. Unfortunately the late war at that particular time 

 took such a turn as to preclude successful trade with Central Europe 

 and the capital of the company was exhausted before any start 

 could be made. The common mistake had been made of beginning 



