494 FISH-GUANO. [APPENDIX. 



had long since been indelibly fixed upon his own mind. It was at 

 this epoch that M. de Molon associated himself with a M. Thurnys- 

 sen, who understood the vast field of enterprise which was thus 

 opened up. 



"This factory was erected by them at Concarneau, between 

 Lorient and Brest, in the department of Finisterre. This is a mere 

 fishing village, not far from the town of Quimper, containing 

 scarcely two thousand inhabitants, and built upon a rock in the 

 middle of a bay formed by the ocean. The catching and prepara- 

 tion of the sardine, which employs about three hundred to four 

 hundred boats annually, is almost the only industry of the district, 

 if we except a factory for the manufacture of iodine. 



" The factory of MM. de Molon and Thurnyssen is placed at the 

 end of the port, and the boats come and discharge their fish under 

 its walls. In its actual condition this factory is capable of manu- 

 facturing daily about 4 to 5 tons of fish-manure, in a perfectly dry 

 condition, which represents 16 to 20 tons of fish or of fish-offal in its 

 fresh state. The proprietors receive all the offal of the curing-houses 

 of Concarneau and those of Lorient ; and in addition all the coarse 

 fish which were previously thrown into the sea, or which were even 

 abandoned on the very quays of Concarneau, to the great detriment 

 of public health. 



"The factory is entirely constructed of deal planks that is to 

 say, with all the economy possible, and contains the following ar- 

 ticles of plant : A steam-engine of ten-horse power, and a boiler of 

 eighteen-horse power ; two boiling-pans a la bascule, with steam- 

 jackets for boiling the fish at the temperature of a water bath ; 

 twenty-four screw presses to press the material when boiled ; a rasp 

 exactly similar to those employed in beet-sugar factories ; a large 

 stove ; a Chaussenot's coccle-furnace, for heating the stove ; a coni- 

 cal iron mill, similar to a coffee-mill. 



" The following is the mode of employing these various utensils : 

 The fish or the offal is introduced by the upper part of the boiling- 

 pans into the interior, one of which is capable of containing about 

 10 cwts., and the other from 16 cwts. to one ton. The vessel is then 

 hermetically closed, and steam of about 50 to 55 Ibs. pressure ad- 

 mitted into the steam-jacket, the steam room of which is about two 

 inches wide, and into a tube nearly eight inches in diameter, placed 



