REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [132] 



cess. At this time it was found that there was a growing prejudice 

 agaiust salt mackerel, owing to the size and quality of the packages in 

 wbich they were placed upon the market. The smallest packages known 

 to the trade were kits holding from 15 to 25 pounds each. These con- 

 tained more fish than the average family cared to purchase at a time; 

 and after a package was once opened, unless ifc was properly cared for, 

 the brine was apt to leak out, leaving the fish exposed to the air, thus 

 causing them to rust and otherwise deteriorate. 



In the fall of 1872 Mr. Edward Pharo, of Philadelphia, obtained a 

 patent covering the packing of salt mackerel in small hermetically sealed 

 packages.* For some time the business was very limited, but later 



*We arc indebted to Mr. A. Howard Clark for the following letter of specifications 

 regarding Mr. Pharo's patent: 



Improvement in putting up salt mackerel and similar fish.— (Letters Patent 

 No. 132,316, October 15, 1872.) 

 * Heretofore salt mackerel have been put up in wooden barrels, kegs, and 

 kits. The form or kind of vessel was made necessary by the fact that it was difficult 

 or practically out of the question to make a square water-tight box. Hence, also, the 

 size of the package was limited; that is. no package smaller than the kit — which 

 holds, say, about 25 pounds of fish — could be conveniently employed. The result was 

 that many families were deprived of purchasing from first hands, as even the smallest- 

 sized package — a kit — is much too large for many persons to buy. Another objection 

 was on the part of dealers who, not selling in bulk, were obliged to open the packages 

 and handle the mackerel, a necessity particularly disagreeable to country dealers, 

 who keep stocks of silk and dry goods which are soiled by a contact with brine. The 

 odor, too, arising from an open barrel of salt mackerel is held in extreme repugnance 

 by many people. To obviate these several objections I have devised a method whereby 

 salt mackerel can be put up in any sized packages, so as to come within the reach of 

 persons of limited incomes, which will enable the dealer to keep on hand a stock 

 whence no offensive odor arises, and which can be disposed of without breaking pack- 

 ages. My invention, then, consists in putting up salt mackerel in hermetically 

 sealed packages, preferably in metallic boxes. The boxes are made of any size and 

 shape, though I prefer to make them cubical in form, and of dimensions to hold, say, 

 five, ten, or fifteen pounds of mackerel. When metal is employed in the construction 

 of the boxes, I design using a wash or varnish to protect the same from the action of 

 the pickle. When metal is not used, but instead some material which may not be 

 acted upon by the brine, this wash may be dispensed with. Although metal is deemed 

 the most suitable material for the boxes, India rubber or some other substance may 

 be advantageously employed. 



Besides those already enumerated, another advantage of this method of putting up 

 salt mackerel is that the purchaser pays only for what he gets. Thus a quarter barrel 

 of mackerel is supposed to run fifty pounds, and a purchaser, in buying a package of 

 that size, imagines that he gets that quantity. Frequently, however, the packages 

 run short; a quarter barrel, for instance, of " repacked" containing generally only 

 about thirty-five pounds. When, however, he buys by the pound, as he must do 

 in this case, he pays, as already remarked, only for what he gets. Still another ad- 

 vantage of this method is that, as I design using only the best quality offish, the inter- 

 est of the purchaser is consulted, which is not always the case now, as the packer, not 

 having a due regard tor reputation, puts up an inferior qualify of goods, and does not 

 give full weight. 



What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by letters patent, is the herein- 

 described method of putting up salt mackerel, nainely, in a hermetically sealed box. 



EDW. A. PHARO. 



