PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 119 
REPAIRING CANS. 
Imperfect cans which are discovered after cooking and are repaired 
at once and whose contents are recooked are still very good, the only 
difficulty being that by blowing or venting them a second time they 
lose weight. The above goods usually go in with the regular pack 
of their kind and are not classed as regular ‘‘do-overs.”’ The latter 
were generally defective cans, which, owing to pressure of other work, 
could not be repaired until considerable time ee elapsed, by which 
time decomposition had set in. The cans which can not be repaired 
immediately are now thrown onto the cannery dump. 
On coming from the retort the coolers are lowered into a bath 
of lye, or, as in some canneries, the cans are run through such a 
bath on an endless belt, which, with the aid of a slight rinsing and a 
few rubs with a brush over the top, removes from the can all the 
rease and other material. The belt then passes them into another 
bath where the lye is washed off in hot fresh water. The cans then 
go to the cooling room, where a stream of water is played upon them, 
or during rainy weather are placed out of doors upon the wharf, and 
there allowed to cool, in order to stop the heat inside the can from 
continuing to cook the fish. In some canneries the lye bath before 
cooling is dispensed with, as the earlier washings are supposed to 
have cleaned the cans. 
The top and bottom of the cans contract in cooling, and for several 
hours a sharp popping noise is heard. Here, as in nearly every proc- 
ess through eh they pass, the cans are again tested, this time by 
tapping the tops with a small piece of iron about 6 inches long, or, 
sometimes, a 12-penny nail. The sound conveys to the ear of the 
tester an unmistakable meaning as to the condition of the can, and 
the faulty cans that escape notice during the other tests are almost 
invariably found in this one. 
LACQUERING. 
A common custom in the salmon-canning industry, but one 
that is not common in the canning of vegetables, fruits, etc., is that 
of lacquering the cans. This idea of protecting the can on the 
outside has been followed from the very beginning, for two reasons: 
(1) That the English market which, at that time especially, absorbed 
the greater part of these goods insisted on their shipments being 
finished in this way, and (2) from the fact, as these canners speedily 
found out, that if they did not protect their cans in some way enor- 
mous losses through rust would ensue. 
The first experiment of this nature was to paint the cans by hand 
with red paint, treating each singly. Next a.composition of logwood 
extract and alcohol was tried, which, however, did not produce satis- 
factory results for a very plain reason—the can was dyed instead of 
being lacquered. The next attempt was to varnish the cans with a 
japan varnish reduced with alcohol, but this was found to dry too 
slowly for speedy handling. After extended experimentation the 
quick-drying brown lacquer of the present time was evolved, which 
carries asphaltum in the form of an asphalt varnish as its base, this 
being supplanted in some cases by gilsonite. This lacquer can be pro- 
cured in either a heavy or light body, is generally reduced with ben- 
