78 Commercial

ity of the cans made were the short ones, but some tall ones were made for canning mackerel. Wallace McEwen was the foreman of the shop. Bill Gillam ran the press that made the bottoms and covers of the cans. Ephraim MacKenzie cut out patterns for sides of the cans. John Woods and Henry McLaren ran the moulds that made the seams along the sides of the cans— the seamer, it was called. Frank MacCormack put the bottom on the can and Angus MacDonald ran the sledger that attached the bottom to the can before it went into the floater. Jack Cantwell ran the floater which sealed the bottom covers on. Solder and rosin was kept heated on a coal stove and the cans were run through this solution. A crank operated device kept the cans going through. Tom Poole put the flanges on the top rim of the can and placed them in the cases. Henry Ford wasn’t the only one with an assembly line production going in those days!

Waste not, want not was the motto. There was very little waste to a sheet of tin but, even so, the little triangles left from cutting the round tops and bottoms were in great demand for covering rat holes.61

This was not the only can shop in Souris as the following quote from Claws, Tales & Tomally shows:

At Souris, C.C. Carlton and Son were among the earliest to start a lobster factory at the cove in Lower Rollo Bay with James A. MacRae as manager. The factory, built possibly in 1876, was booming by 1877...C0mpetition came in ’77 when C.J. Haley of Boston started a factory at Souris east of the breakwater, below what was later to be the Light- house Point. His foreman, Frank H. White of Barring'ton, Nova Scotia, was an expert tinsmith and cannery specialist.

Photo given to Ray Itard by Jack Doyle and is reprinted courtesy Pictures of the Paul by llardl

The Fred Carlton lobster factory at Sheep Pond is on the left.

Again quoting from the same booklet: At Souris West T.K.’s factory (just south of the western approach to the bridge) had a can shop in which the lobster foreman, Isaac White, was for many years also the can-maker.62

Acorn’s Mill

For many years, before the days of radio, housewives and merchants checked their clocks by the shrill blast of the steam whistle of Acom's Mill. It sounded at seven, twelve, one and six.

Children picking spruce gum off the logs piled around the mill were unaware of the serious business of the Mill or of its importance to the Town’s economy. Their only concern was to pick enough gum before being run off the premises and away from the danger of rolling logs.