This slide represents a catch of salmon on the floor of the cannery. In the larger and more modern plants very specialized machinery is used. The first machine through which the salmon are run is the "iron chink". This removes the head and the fins and opens and cleans the fish. The work is done very rapidly and quite completely. The cleaning, however, must usually be completed by hand, which process removes clotted blood and other waste material.
This slide shows a view of the warehouse with thousands of stored salmon tins. The cans are lacquered as soon as possible. This is also done by a machine through which the cans are run, coating them with a thin layer of lacquer which prevents rusting while stacked in the warehouse or on the shelves of the retail merchant. The final process is the labeling, which in the larger canneries is done by a labeling machine. The cans are run by belt through paste and the labels are rolled on the cans are dumped out as fast as two men can carry them away. Some canneries are provided with a weighing machine for the final testing of the finished product. The scales are very delicate, tripping off to one side the cans that are even very slightly under weight. These must be properly labeled as under weight and not sold with the general standard weight lot. Before shipment the cans must be crated. The cases or boxes in which the cans are packed for shipment come to the canneries knocked down and must be assembled and nailed. In the best grade of salmon the cans are often wrapped in paper by hand before packing in the cases, as shown by the slide.
