HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 171 



ing this fact, it is said to be tbe common practice of dealers to pour all 

 grades into the same vat, and this has led manufacturers to take less 

 pains to keep them separate. 



'Tt is a curious fact that oil made from early fish is not so good as 

 that made later. It is called ' weak,' and brings in market five cents 

 per gallon less." * 



Gurry oil is sold for one-third less than the other grades. 



Perhaps the most satisfactory way of indicating the processes now in 

 use will be to describe three or four of the principal factories in detail. 



The factory of The George W. Miles Company. 



240. The factory of The George W. Miles Company at Milford, Conn., 

 illustrated in Plate XXV, is said to have been the first one built after 

 the model now universally followed, with the cooking-tanks and oil- 

 presses upon the second floor of the building. 



When the fishing fleet comes in, the fish are hoisted from the holds of 

 the vessels into cars, in which they are carried over an inclined tram- 

 way to the upper story of the factory building. Here they are turned into 

 tanks, twenty thousand fish in each, and cooked by steam-power. Then 

 the water is drawn off and the cooked fish are placed in perforated iron 

 curbs, which are so arranged upon railways that they can be pushed 

 under a hydraulic press. Each curb-load of fish is subjected to a press- 

 ure of sixty or seventy tons, by which the greater part of the oil is ex- 

 tracted. The scrap is then dropped into the cellar below. 



The ship "Alabama" is owned by the same firm. It is used as an oil 

 factory, and is usually more productive than the stationary works owned 

 by the same firm. It is illustrated in Plate XXX. For several seasons 

 it has been taken to Maine during the fishing season, where it is usually 

 stationed near South Bristol. It is the intention of the owners to take 

 it to the coast of New Jersey for the season of 1878. 



The factory ofJudson Tarr d' Co. 



241. Messrs. Judson Tarr & Co., of Rockport, Mass., kindly furnished 

 the following account of their factory in Pemaquid (Bristol), Me., as it 

 was in 1873 : 



'• The size of the main factory is 30 by 40 feet, with 16- foot posts; the 

 building is two stories high, the upper story being used for cooking and 

 l)ressing the fish, the lower as an oil-room and for storing fish-scrap. 

 The engine-house adjoining tbe factory measures 20 feet by 30, with 

 10 foot posts, and contains three horizontal boilers each of sixty-five horse 

 power. In the upper story of the factory are eleven round wooden 

 cooking-tanks 12 feet in diameter and 4 feet deep ; each tank has steam- 

 pipes in its bottom, perforated with small holes to allow the escape of 

 the steam ; there are also three hydraulic presses, each with pressure 

 of one hundred and fifty tons, and a small engine of ten-horse power. 



•* Op. Cit., p. 27. 



