I RECOMMEND this apparatus, having, for many years, employed exactly
such an one in my own business.
THE CHIMNEY should be three brick walls of light structure, a back and
two sides, to be run up to the height of about nine feet from a paved
floor. It must be open in front for a yard high from the bottom, and
then a wooden door-frame must be put in, to carry a door five feet
high, or, preferably, two doors, each two feet six inches, one above
the other, the advantage of which will be seen when you come to make
use of it. Above this door there must be brick-work again, for one
foot higher, and then the top must be covered over. The inside of the
chimney must be one yard wide, and two feet six inches deep, that
is, from the front to the back. On each side there must be fixed a
framework of wood, with strips one inch square, nailed across at the
distance of six inches apart, these reaching from the bottom of the
door-frame and terminating within a foot of the top of the chimney; on
these strips will rest your spits or rods when laden with fish. Six
inches from the top, two or three iron bars, with movable hooks running
on them, must be fixed in the brickwork, which will be able to sustain
the weight of sides of bacon, hams, salmon, &c. &c. A sheet of strong
wire-work, or a plate of sheet-iron, perforated with many holes half an
inch in diameter, must be fixed upon the bottom of the door frame. This
will distribute the smoke in its ascent, and receive any small fish
that may fall from the spits while being smoked. Six inches from the
top of the chimney a wooden pipe six inches square must be introduced,
to carry the smoke out of the room or shed, and in this must be put a
valve or slide, which, when shut, will increase the volume of vapour
in the chimney, and when opened will discharge the same; thus you will
have the force of the fumigation completely under your command. A door
of light sheet-iron should be hung at the open space at the bottom of
the front, and so as to be let down or kept open at your pleasure, by
means of which the heat from your fire may be reduced as necessity may
require, by letting in the cold air, and this can be let down partially
or totally when it is desirable to increase the draught. This iron door
must not reach quite to the floor, but leaving about six inches open,
to keep a small current of air always in the chimney. This construction
has many advantages over the old-fashioned close-fronted chimneys.
THE SPITS, OR RODS, must be of any tough wood, perfectly round and a
little pointed at one end, half an inch diameter and three feet long.
These are for bloaters, &c. For sprats and other small fish, you must
have spits of iron wire, also a yard long, and pointed bluntly. For
split mackerel, kippered herrings, &c., you must have deal rods of inch
square wood, and with _wrought_-iron sprigs, two inches long, driven
through them, and protruding on the other side, on which the shoulders
of the various sorts of fish must be fixed.
THE HORSES, on which the rods must rest while drying the fish, must
be plainly made by fixing two upright posts, in figure like the Roman
capital letter T _inverted_, thus ┴ at the distance of three feet from
each other, by means of two or three connecting rails. The posts may be
six feet long, with strips of wood nailed across them six inches apart;
on these will rest all the different sorts of rods when loaded with
fish, and will correspond with the wood-work inside of your chimney.