HISTORY OP THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 169 



Lancaster County, Va., who was formerly connected with the Qnhmi- 

 piac Fertilizer Company. A third was the Manokin Oil Works, owned 

 in 1873 by Crockett & Co., and a fourth on Tangier Island, owned in 

 1873 by Ford, Avery & Co. The Manokin Works are said to be in 

 Pocomoke Bay. A factory was operated near Norfolk in 1872 by Mr. 

 Fitzgerald, but this has since been destroyed by fire. 

 F. n. Harker has a factory at Hampton, Ya. 



Factories on the southern coast. 



23G. South of Cape Henry there are no factories now in operation. 

 Mr. W. F. Hatch, keeper of Body's Island light. North Carolina, gave 

 the names of the following factories in that vicinity which had at that 

 time already been abandoned : 



Excelsior Works (cost $30,000). 



CnuRCn & Co. (cost $5,000). 



Adams & Co. (cost $5,000). 



There is still another abandoned factory near Beaufort, N. C. 



At Charleston, S. C, are the works of the Pacific Guano Company, 

 which consumes immense quantities of menhaden scrap. This is however 

 brought from the water by the vessels which carry on their return trip 

 a supply of South Carolina phosphates for the other factory owned by 

 the company, at Wood's HoU, Mass. 



A company in Charleston has a charter for establishing a menhaden 

 fishery at the mouth of Charleston Harbor. — (0. C. Leslie.) 



43.— Methods of oil manufacture. 



The principles involved. 



237. The manufacture of menhaden oil is simple in the extreme, con 

 sisting of three processes : boiling the fish, pressing, and clarifying the 

 expressed oil. The apparatus absolutely needful is correspondingly 

 free from complication, consisting, for the first process, of a cooking ves- 

 sel; for the second, a press, and for the third a shallow vat or tank. 

 These were used twenty-five j^ears ago by Mrs. Bartlett, the manufact- 

 urer of the first menhaden oil, who produced au article little inferior 

 to the best now iu the market. Very few patents for improved methods 

 of manufacture have been granted: Mr. W. D. Hall's patent for steam- 

 rendering is the most important. The principal changes have been in 

 the introduction of labor-saving appliances, which enable manufactur- 

 ers to carry on their business with the smallest possible force of work- 

 men. Steam is of course an important auxiliary in handling the fish 

 and iu working the presses, and is also used to great advantage in 

 heating the cooking-tanks, as well as for i)umping the water and oil. 

 The hydraulic press has replaced the old fashioned screw-press in most 

 of the larger establishments, and the size, shape, and arrangement of 

 the bleaching vats, as well as the methods of drawing and pumping the 

 oil from one to the other, have been perfected. 



