FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 19 3 7 175 



A few years ago, the Division's technologists developed a smoke- 

 house for curing flsli which automatically controlled the temperature, 

 humidity, and volume of smoke. In semicommercial operation, this 

 produced a product which had a pleasing appearance and taste and 

 one which was a considerable improvement over the usual smoked fish 

 product prepared by "rule-of-thiimb" methods. Many members of 

 the fishery industry made use of this work and are now producing a 

 better smoked fish product than heretofore. It has recently come to 

 the attention of the Bureau that the results of this work are also being 

 applied to the commercial smoking of meat products hj the meat 

 packing industry. 



Our technologists are now conducting a cooperative investigation 

 with a company interested in the temporar}^ chemical preservation of 

 fishery products until they can be concentrated at a central point for 

 conversion into useful byproducts. The results of this work have been 

 applied commercially to the preservation of various types of fish and 

 fish products. In addition, the renderers of byproducts of the meat 

 industry have taken advantage of this development to their economic 

 benefit. 



Several years ago, researches of the Bureau revealed that fishery 

 products as a class are higher in iodine than most foods from land 

 sources. As is well known, iodine is a mineral essential in the diet 

 of man and animals. The fishery industry made considerable use of 

 this knowledge attained by the Bureau to promote the increased 

 consumption of aquatic foods. In addition, the salt industry utilized 

 the scientific facts and now markets a product known as iodized table 

 salt which is the usual salt to which a small amount of iodine has been 

 added. 



LABORATORIES 



Diu-ing 1937, the Division carried on its teclmological studies 

 under the direction of Dr. J. R. Manning, senior technologist, at its 

 laboratories located in Washington, D. C., College Park, Md., and 

 Seattle, Wash. In addition, certain cooperative investigations were 

 conducted by members of our technological staft" in the laboratories 

 of the University of Maryland, and Maryland State Agricultural 

 Experiment Station at College Park, Md.; the University of Wash- 

 ington, Seattle, Wash.; and Washington State College, Pullman, 

 Wash. 



Construction of the small technological laboratory building in 

 Seattle, Wash., referred to in last year's report, was completed. 

 Heat, light, power, and plumbing facilities were installed and a greater 

 portion of the Bureau's experimental equipment was set up in readi- 

 ness for operation. Actual experimental work was undertaken shortly 

 after January 1, 1938. 



The building was designed to provide facilities for setting up experi- 

 mental macliinery and equipment necessary in investigating methods 

 for preserving and utilizing fishery products. It is of frame con- 

 struction, 26 feet wide and 40 feet long. The walls of wood are 11 

 feet high and are planned for future brick veneer. The concrete 

 floor slopes to a center drain. The standard equipment includes a 

 lO-horsepower, high-pressure, oil-fired steam boiler, a steam- jacketed 

 dryer, vacuum pump and condenser, an hydraulic press, a filter 

 press, three centrifugal separators, a hammer mill, an attrition mill, 



