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Appendices to Fifth Annual Report 



For soldering the tins, the only special apparatus required consists of 

 an ingenious but simple turn-table, revolving on a pivot, and furnished at 

 the top with a * cage,' into which the tin fits closely, while the top (or 

 bottom) is being soldered in. A foot plate at the bottom enables the 

 workman to rotate the table at will ; while, with the soldering-iron in one 

 hand and a thin stick of solder in the other, he rapidly closes the 'joint' 

 between the body of the box and the lid. 



As already stated, this operation is the crucial one in the whole process 

 of preparation. In order to keep a check on indifferent workmanship, it 

 is usual to pay the tin-men so much for every hundred boxes 1 made ' and 

 'soldered down,' and to deduct so much for every tin that remains 

 * bombe ' after boiling. As a means of identification, each workman marks 

 the tins he makes and the lids he solders down with a special mark; and 

 it is easy for the foreman, when examining and counting the tins, to 

 check the number turned out by each workman, and to trace to its author 

 every flaw that leads to the rejection of a tin. 



Other methods of making and closing tins are being introduced, and in 

 this and various other details the process of preparing fish a, la sardine is 

 open to modification. The system above described, however, is that 

 commonly adopted in France, and was successfully applied by me to the 

 preparation of pilchards in Cornwall. In some French sardine factories 

 the fish are baked in hot ovens, instead of being boiled in oil. Occa- 

 sionally, again, the fish, whether baked or boiled in oil, are soldered down 

 as soon as packed (emboites), without the addition of oil in the tins. 

 Sometimes the fish are not subjected to any preliminary cooking, but are 

 packed as soon as dry, and thoroughly cooked by prolonging the operation 

 of boiling in the tins. How far sprats can be treated in these (and 

 other) various ways can only be determined by actual experience. The 

 exact length of time during which they must be subjected to the several 

 operations of salting, cooking, and boiling, and the proper proportions of 

 spice and so forth, will depend on the size of the fish, the size of the tins 

 in which they are packed,* and other considerations which must also be 

 determined by careful experiment. That sprats can, however, be pre- 

 served in tins a la sardine, is proved by the fact that at least one factory 

 of the kind already exists on the south-east coast of England, and a ready 

 market can no doubt be found for a largely increased supply abroad, if 

 not at home, and more particularly in India and in our southern Colonies 

 where supplies of fish are scarce. But, owing to the shortness of the 

 sprat season, no curing establishment could probably afford to be de- 

 pendent solely on the supplies of this one fish. During a great part of 

 the year the tin-men would no doubt find continuous employment in 

 making the tins, in anticipation of the curing season ; but it would be 

 found economical to keep the other hands at work in the tinning of 

 other kinds of fish in their season. In the factory at Mevagissey, in 

 Cornwall, where I was instrumental in establishing (with the help of 

 Messrs G. C. Fox & Co.) the industry of preserving pilchards in tins, 

 other kinds of fish are similarly prepared, and find a ready market. In 

 Scotland, herrings, hake (in slices), cod, ling, and other kinds of fish, 

 besides crabs and lobsters, would no doubt readily lend themselves to 

 modifications of the mode of cure above described. The ' tinning ' of 

 vegetables also serves, in Cornwall and in France, to keep the works 

 going at times when fish are scarce. 



Considerable quantities of young herrings are, I believe, taken at certain 

 times in the garvie or sprat nets. This admixture of the two species has the 

 effect of reducing the value of the catch under ordinary circumstances, but 

 * The small tins, known as ' |-tins,' are best for the Colonial market. 



