HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 209 



said to bave pat up a manufactory at Concarneau, in the department of 

 Finisterre, for the manufacture of guano from the refuse of the sardine 

 fishery, and one on the coast of Newfoundhmd, at Quirpon, near the 

 eastern entrance of the Strait of Belle Isle, for the utilization in similar 

 manner of the refuse from the cod fishery. According to the Chemie 

 IndustrieUc, the establishment at Concarneau, in 1854, employed sixteen 

 operatives and worked up daily eighteen or twenty tons of refuse into 

 four or five tons of manure. The composition of this article is noted by 

 Payen at 11. G percent, of nitrogen and 10.3 per cent, of phosphoric acid, 

 with only 2.5 per cent of fat. Other analyses gave about 12 per cent, of 

 nitrogen and G.7 per cent, of phosphoric acid. The Quirpon establish- 

 ment was reported as able to produce 8,000 or 10,000 tons of manure 

 annually. 



A manufactory offish guano by the De Molon process was rejiorted as 

 in operation at Lowestoft, in England, in 1850. The same process was 

 said to be employed in 1S57-18G1, by the Oceanic Oil and Guano Com- 

 pany at Southold, Long Island, N. Y. A pamphlet put out by this com- 

 pany describes the process as follows : 



"The raw fish, in quantities of one and two-third tons (or about 5,000 

 fish), are jilaced in the inner chamber of a revolving cylinder, the 

 vacuum between the inner and outer chamber being heated by steam at 

 about 80 pounds pressure. Before letting in the steam the cylinder 

 must be put in motion, so that each fish, as the cylinder revolves, is 

 constantly changing its position. The cooking at this pressure of steam 

 requires but ten minutes, during which time a uniform temperature is 

 maintained by means of one head of the inner cylinder being perforated 

 so as to allow the escape of the steam generated from the water con- 

 tained in the fish, which prevents the dissolution of the gelatine and all 

 the soluble parts, and they are therefore retained in the fish. When 

 the heat in the inner cylinder has arrived at the temperature to produce 

 steam from the fish, it escapes through the perforated head, and thus 

 enables the fish to receive a temperature just sufficient to open the 

 cellular tissues and give an easy and speedy egress to the oil. 



" After the fish are thus steamed, they are put into strong bags, pre- 

 pared in size to fit the top of the press-head, in layers of eight inches of 

 thickness; between each layer or bag is placed a strong iron plate. In 

 this manner the press is filled, when they are subjected for about five 

 minutes to a powerful hydraulic pressure. After the oil has ceased to 

 run, the remains are then put through a strong picker, which reduces 

 the cakes to small particles for the drying process. It is then diied by 

 heated air or by platforms exposed to the sun." 



Early manvfacture in Rhode Island. 



279, Prof. Charles T. Jackson, writing in 1834, remarks : 

 '' In this country a company- has been formed, in Rhode Island, for the 

 manufacture of fish manure, and the fat menhaden of Providence River 

 14 F 



