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2 results for: Smith Cannery Machine Company

Image of Brochure for the
Ephemera

Brochure for the "Iron Chink" fish cleaning machine, circa 1909
In 1903, Seattle inventor Edmund A. Smith (1870-1909) developed a machine that gutted and cleaned salmon for canning 55 times faster than human workers. Most Northwest cannery workers were Chinese immigrants, and Smith, with "unselfconscious racism" (in the words of historian Carlos Schwantes), called his invention the Iron Chink. The innovation increased cannery profits, but forced thousands of people to…
ID Number:1970.4992.2
Date:Circa 1909
Image of Care and Adjustment of Model
Document

Care and Adjustment of Model "G" "Iron Chink," circa 1906
In 1903, Seattle inventor Edmund A. Smith (1870-1909) developed a machine that gutted and cleaned salmon for canning 55 times faster than human workers. Most Northwest cannery workers were Chinese immigrants, and Smith, with "unselfconscious racism" (in the words of historian Carlos Schwantes), called his invention the "Iron Chink." The innovation increased cannery profits, but forced thousands of people to…
ID Number:2018.3.3.128
Date:Circa 1906

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