Automated salmon processing machine, "Iron Chink," Seattle, ca. 1909

• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1909
• Subjects: Machinery > Washington (State) > Seattle; Fishing industry > Washington (State) > Seattle; Crates > Washington (State) > Seattle; Inventors > Washington (State) > Seattle; Smith; Edmund Augustine; Mohai; Pacific; Yukon; Alaska
• Online Access: http://cdm16786.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/imlsmohai/id/3458

In 1902, machines called "Iron Chinks" started replacing the largely Chinese cannery workers who butchered and canned the fish. The use of a racial slur in the machine's name is one example of the discrimination faced by Chinese immigrants to the US. The name continued to be used into the mid-20th century. Today they are called butchering machines or iron butchers. The machine slit the fish open, cut off the fins, and removed the guts. With this machine, workers could process fish 50 to 75 percent faster than they could by hand. At the same time, this invention put many Chinese laborers out of work. Caption information sources: "Butchering Salmon," http://www.intheirwords.ca/english/canning_salmon_butcher.html "Automated salmon cleaning machine developed in Seattle in 1903," by David Wilma, HistoryLink Essay 2109, https://www.historylink.org/File/2109. Inventor Edmund Augustine Smith is at right. John Haubner is second from left seated. Sign in image: 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, the "Iron Chink" will be in Actual Operation Daily During the Exposition - Capacity 1 Fish Every Second [.]. Typed on verso: Iron chink Fish processor. Caption by MOHAI staff. 1 photographic print mounted on cardboard: b&w; 7 1/4 x 9 3/4 in.