FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 9 
FISHERY PRODUCTS LABORATORY. 
A step has been taken in this direction, however. On July 2, 1918, 
the President approved and authorized an allotment of $125,000 
from the fund for the national security and defense to enable the 
Bureau to build and equip in Washington, D. C., a laboratory in 
which to conduct work of this character. Work was begun immedi- 
ately on the plans for the building and its equipment. Before the 
end of the year construction of a building of hollow tile and concrete, 
45 by 80 feet, with two floors and an attic, had been begunand orders 
for equipment were being placed. It is expected that it will be 
completed and fully equipped by July 1, 1919. 
On the first floor there is a large work laboratory, a chemical 
laboratory, low-temperature rooms for storage and refrigeration, a 
built-in smokehouse, incubation room, and storeroom. On thesecond 
floor are a large laboratory, a fishery-products exhibit and demon- 
stration room, an experimental kitchen, and offices. Convenient 
arrangements for supplies of water, gas, and electric power have 
been made, and a steam boiler for supplying steam to the various 
units is provided for. Vacuum and compressed air pipes will be 
placed in convenient places. 
For canning purposes there are to be a complete plant for sealing tin 
cans by a double seamer, an exhaust box, a retort with steam supply, 
a complete equipment for sealing and processing glass containers by 
a vacuum process, and another for tin containers in vacuo. An 
experimental plant for freezing fish in brine by the Ottensen method 
has been imported from Denmark and has been employed to demon- 
strate the method to interested members of the industry. For drying 
fish and fishery products an apparatus is being provided in which 
the heat will be controlled, the feruiekiee of the air brought to any 
degree desired and held at that point by an air conditioner, and the 
volume of air driven over the product by motors controlled with 
dampers. ‘This is, of course, not intended for commercial purposes, 
but for experiments of wide latitude. There is also a built-in smoke- 
house of hollow tile and cement, with a flue, iron air-tight doors, 
ventilators, shavings pans heated with gas, a long-distance recording 
thermometer, and dampers for control of heat and ventilation. 
Cooking vats, a hydraulic press, a filter press, and a grinder will be 
provided for use in problems connected with the utilization of fish 
waste. 
The incubation room will be provided with a recording thermometer 
and hygrometer and electric heat. Automatic control will afford 
means of holding any constant temperature above ordinary temper- 
atures up to 112° F. For refrigeration purposes a carbon-dioxide 
machine is to be employed, and three rooms of different temperatures, 
automatically controlled, the lowest ranging to —20 or —25° F.,. 
are to be provided. The experimental kitchen is fully equipped for 
the purposes it is to serve, as is the chemical laboratory. 
In the conduct of experimental work it is regarded as of great 
importance that all factors which influence the character of the 
products be known, measured, and controlled, for it is usually by 
altering factors that improvements are effected. In the industry 
these factors—time, temperatures, strengths of brine, fuel for smoke- 
house, and purity of materials—are seldom measured and never 
