585,162. Fish filleting machines. TRIGGS, W. W. (Atlantic Coast Fisheries Co.). April 24, 1944, No. 7587. [Class 28 (ii)] In a fish filleting machine having upper and lower pairs of slitting knives 10 and 11 to make incisions in the back and belly side of the fish on opposite sides of the backbone as the fish is pushed tail first and back down past these knives; as described in Specification 572,935, a tail guide 17 is held in position to press the tail half of the fish downwardly on to the lower cutting knives which thereby cut to meet the top side incisions along a length from the tail up to the beginning of the ribs, and as the ribs approach the knives this tail guide 17 is released and the upper knives are raised out of the path of the fish so that the ribs still attached to the backbone can pass between the top and bottom knives without being cut off, but the lower knives still continue to slit up to the backbone and along to the neck. To remove the fillet now attached at the ribs only the fish is projected and pushed along the top of a pair of fixed ribbing knives 18 which enter the incisions made by the lower knives and strip the flesh outwardly thereby peeling the fillets from the ribs, and allowing them to drop into a receptacle while the skeleton and fins. pass on to waste. In case the fillets adhere at odd places to the skeleton, a pair of cut off knives 19 spaced apart permit the skeleton to pass but complete the severance. The fish is fed and positioned between a pair of swivel guides 20 which open as the fish pass between them. When the wider belly opens the guides wider, the guides control a latch 114 which releases the tail guide downward pressure and also releases the upper knives so that they rise as required above. If a small fish does not open these guides sufficiently to cause release a compensating mechanism operates in relation to the longitudinal travel of the fish. Cam mechanism operated by the longitudinal travel of the fish resets the upper knives and the tail guide. Specification 572,935 referred to, describes a feed trough, a centreing trough and a positioning trough to feed a fish to the cutting knives 10, 11 therein. The fish are placed by hand in a feed trough and travel through a tilting trough 14, and in leaving pivoted combs 15 are raised by the fish as it passes under them and accordingly position the tail accurately between the slicing knives. The tail fillets up to the belly are then completely cut through, the latch 114 holding the arm 110 in its upper position causing arm 106 to bear down to hold the upper knives depressed. Also shaft 91 attached to arm 106 is held at the limit of its counterclockwise movement to hold down bracket 85 and the tail guide 17 attached thereto. As the fish advances a cam 112 timed with respect to the conveyer feed also advances past roller 111 so that the arm 110 is free to move down when the latch 114 is released so that the upper knives rise out of action. As the thick belly half spreads out the guides 20 the latter actuate slide mechanism 25 to the right, Fig. 9, so that cam surface 144 of cam segment 142 engages pin 145 and pushes pawl 116 back to release the latch 114. To actuate thus with fish of varying size the cam segment 142 is continuously oscillated in a vertical plane by a link 151 actuated by cam 157. The cam-surface 144 progressively shifts the arm 117 back as segment 142 lowers so that 142 releases the latch 114 even though the fish is too small to actuate the slide 25. After cutting up the belly, springs 95 push the tail guide up out of the path of the fish and the upper knives float upwards under tension of spring 56 and during further cutting by the lower knives they are idle. During this time the fish is held down against the lower knives by plates 180.