14 REPORTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. 



laboratory in Washington, D. C, to provide equipment, and to 

 initiate investigations of importance to the industry. 



The building is 45 by 80 feet, with two floors and an attic, and is 

 of hollow-tile and concrete construction. On the fu"st floor there 

 are a large mechanical laboratory, low-temperature rooms for storage 

 and refrigeration, chemical laboratory, incubation room, stock room, 

 and a built-in smokehouse. On the second floor there are a labora- 

 tory, a fishery-products exhibit and demonstration room, an experi- 

 mental kitchen, and offices. 



The mechanical laboratory contains equipment for the canning, 

 freezing in brine, drying, and smoking of fishery products, hydraulic 

 press, filter press, grinder, steam boiler, vacuum and compressed air 

 pumps, and various other appliances. For canning purposes there 

 are a complete plant for sealing the cans by a double seamer, a retort 

 with controlling and recording instruments, complete apparatus for 

 sealing and processing glass containers by vacuum process, and 

 another apparatus for processing tin containers, also by a vacuum 

 process. In the experimental drier the heat, humidity of the air, and 

 volume of air driven over the product can be controlled and registered 

 and the weight of the material can be recorded, so that the exact 

 conditions governing the drying of various fishery products may be 

 worked out. An experimental plant for freezing fish in brine has 

 been imported from Denmark and has been shown to persons inter- 

 ested in refrigeration. This plant, which was the first of its kind to be 

 brought to and used in this country, enables the Bureau to demon- 

 strate to the trade a new method and to afford the scientific staff of 

 the laboratory a means of investigating the various types of brine 

 freezing and comparing them with the customary freezing in air. 

 The built-in smokehouse is of hollow-tile and cement construction, 

 lined with white, glazed wall tile, provided with a flue, iron door, 

 ventilators, shaving pans heated with gas, long-distance recording 

 thermometer, and dampers for control of heat and ventilation. 



The refrigeration plant is equipped with a 5-ton carbon-dioxide 

 machine, and three rooms of different temperature are provided. 

 The chemical laboratory is supplied with soapstone furniture, im- 

 proved cabinets for classifying and holding chemical stock, viscosi- 

 meter, refractometer, polarimeter, colorimeter, specific-gravity bal- 

 ances, supercentrifuge, apparatus for determination of amino groups, 

 apparatus for gas analysis, and other equipment needful for chemical 

 study of materials and processes. That the factors which influence 

 the character of the product may be known, measured, and con- 

 trolled, provision has been made for recording hygrometers and 

 thermometers, thermostats, pitot tubes, and pressure and vacuum 

 gauges. 



In the absence of a laboratory of this kind for a guide, much study 

 and effort had to be expended in working out plans and details of 

 equipment. The building was completed during the year, and 

 several important investigations therein have already been instituted. 



This laboratory has been planned and equipped for the study of 

 the general problems of the industry, to enable its investigators to 

 try out new methods and suggestions for improvement of common 

 practices, and to overcome difficulties encountered in the field. It 

 is intended for a workshop in which the properties of fishes and 

 fishery products may be subjected to careful and thorough investiga- 

 tion and uses developed therefor, a place in which to perform the 



