In 1903, Seattle inventor Edmund A. Smith (1870-1909) developed a machine that gutted and cleaned salmon for canning 50 to 75% 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 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 innovation increased cannery profits, but forced thousands of people to find other forms of work.
Embossed on mount: Hamilton - Colman Bldg., 811 First Ave., Seattle. Handwritten on verso: Edmund Augustine Smith w/[Dunc] Col. Tuesday. E.A. Smith - This is my father's signature. Typed on verso: Smith, Edmond [sic] Augustine, inventor of Iron Chink, autographed on back.
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.
