Iron Chink — Blaine, WA
Posted by: 
Dunbar Loop
N 48° 58.747 W 122° 47.454
10U E 515300 N 5425154
There is little doubt the name Iron Chink was a racist and pejorative phrase. However when it was invented it greatly automatized the salmon canning process. From a worker processing two fish per minute, the machine 110 fish per minute.
Waymark Code: WMTGMD
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 11/22/2016
Views: 2
Along the Northwest Pacific coast from Alaska to Oregon fishing for salmon has been a huge industry. Once the fish were caught and landed the canneries that dotted this coastline began to process them.
It was a labour intensive employee thousands of people during the height of the salmon runs. Quickly butchering the fish and then preparing for the canning process. These jobs often went to Chinese and Japanese as it was a dangerous and low paying job.
In 1903 Seattle inventor Edmund A. Smith develop a mechanized method of butchering the salmon. However, when he patented the process he used the racist term "Iron Chink" to describe it. The machine could butcher 110 salmon in a minute. By hand the more proficient worker could process 2 salmon in the same time.
Today the Iron Chink is still in use but the racist term is gone being called a Iron Butcher.
THE IRON CHINK
PROCESSED OVER 30,000 SALMON PER DAY
The Iron Chink, patented with its racially charged name in 1905 by Edmond Smith of Seattle, revolutionized the salmon canning industry. Each of the nine Iron Chinks as Semiahmoo too the place of 15 to 20 people on the fish line, jobs traditionally held by contracted Chinese laborers.
Entering the machine from the right side, the salmon was beheaded with a curved knife, the tail and fins were removed, and a round saw blade at the top center of the wheel split the body open. Wheels and brushes removed viscera and scrobbed the fish cavity. Water continually sprayed on the fish to aid the cleaning process. The machine could process more than 100 fish per minute.
Chinese laborers played an important role at the Semiahmoo Cannery. Cannery managers valued the skilled labor they provided for the short summer canning season. Working conditions were often dangerous and dirty, yet determined laborers sent money home to help their families and improve their communities.
Here are some more interesting links about this machine.
- A video with historical footage of the salmon industry. This was produced for the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience is Seattle. Watch the video.
- Employees of BC Packers discuss the working conditions a fishing cannery. Read here.
- A video of a modern iron butcher. Watch the video.