3-016-812 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Fish-rearing house at Twickenham, 1864. 'Piscicultural establishment...constructed by Mr. Francis Francis, at Twickenham...At one end is a huge slate cistern, supplied from the main, and which contains 2500 gallons of water. The cistern is raised...from the ground; and from each end of this double rows of trays, containing the ova, are carried down, one below the other, in regular gradation to the ground, upon timber supports. Some sixty-six of these are now in use, and the apparatus contains at this time about ninety thousand eggs of salmon, salmon trout, great lake trout, common trout, and charr, some forty or fifty thousand eggs, &c., having already been distributed. The plan adopted is that invented by M. Coste...The eggs are placed upon a grille composed of fine glass rods, the grille being supported in an earthenware tray. As soon as the eggs are hatched the fry fall between the bars, and are extracted by drawing a cork from a hole near the bottom of the tray, when they are carefully placed on gravelled trays of larger dimensions. In the centre of the building is a brick tank...this is divided into three compartments by slides of perforated zinc, and is for the accommodation of the fry when they require to be enlarged'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.