HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 163 



his son Henry E. Wells started the first factory in the vicinity of Green- 

 port, using steam for making oil and scrap. "At that time there were 

 some few pots (whalemen's try-pots)used by other parties in boiling the 

 fish in water and making a very imperfect oil and scrap, but were not 

 very successful. The first oil made by D. D. Wells & Son was very black, 

 impure, full of fleshy matter, and had a very offensive smell. It did not 

 come much into use, and for a long time the profits of the business 

 were small ; but by persistent effort in perfecting machinery the qual- 

 ity of the oil was so much improved as to come into general use for 

 certain purposes, such as painting, tanning, manufacture of rope, and 

 adulterating other oils. The scrap was also very much improved by 

 grinding and drying, pulverizing, &c., so that during the war the business 

 was quite remunerative. At that time quite a number of factories were 

 established and for a time the business was somewhat overdone, which 

 caused some to abandon it altogether, and others to consolidate 5 and 

 at the present time there are ten factories in operation, doing a fair 

 business, giving employment to a large number of people and bringing 

 up a hardy race of boatmen and sailors." 



Professor Baird, visiting this region in 1857, wrote : " Quite recently 

 several establishments have been erected on Long Island for the man- 

 ufacture of oil from the moss-bunker. The fish, as brought in, are 

 chopped up and boiled, and the oil skimmed off ; a heavy pressure on the 

 residuum expresses the remaining oil, and what is left is still useful as 

 a manure. The oil finds a ready market. It has been estimated that a 

 single fish will furnish enough oil to saturate a surface of paper eigh- 

 teen inches square."* 



Notwithstanding the fact that the coast of Maine was adapted for 

 much more profitable prosecution of the oil manufacture, nothing of im- 

 portance was done there until 18G5. The trade grew rapidly for about 

 four years, but has not augmented considerably since 1870. Twenty 

 factories were built in a short period, fourteen of which are still in 

 operation, though several have failed from the too sudden expansion of 

 their business. As has been seen, the only points at which the trade 

 has any statistical importance are within a limited area on the coast of 

 Maine, on Narragansett Bay, and on Long Island Sound. At other 

 points, one or two factories absorb the whole business; they are but 

 half worked, and many of them have been abandoned. I am informed 

 that efforts are being made to establish factories on Cape Cod and on 

 the coast of South Carolina. 



Great improvement has been made in the processes of refining and 

 clarifying the oil, and the clear, yellow, nearly odorless substance now 

 produced is vastly different from the article manufactured in early days. 



The ijrocess of extracting oil by steam was patented in 1852 or 1853^ 

 by Wm. D. Hall, of Wallingford, Conn., the originator of the Quinnipiac 

 Fertilizer Company. Mr. Hall was engaged in bone-boiling and tallow- 

 * Fishes of the New Jersey Coast, 1855, p. 33. 



