Isinglass Isinglass Isinglass () is a substance obtained from the dried swim bladders of fish. It is a form of collagen used mainly for the clarification or fining of some beer and wine. It can also be cooked into a paste for specialised gluing purposes. Its origin is from the obsolete Dutch "huizenblaas" – "huizen" is a kind of sturgeon, and "blaas" is a bladder, or German "hausen blas", meaning essentially the same. Although originally made exclusively from sturgeon, especially beluga, in 1795 an invention by William Murdoch facilitated a cheap substitute using cod. This was extensively used in Britain in
Fish drum Fish drum The fish drum () is a Chinese percussion instrument. The name actually designates two rather different instruments, a membranophone and an idiophone. The membranophone fish drum is the symbol of Elder Zhang Guo, one of the Eight Immortals. This drum is a long and slender piece of bamboo with a dried fish skin stretched over one end. Two smaller pieces of bamboo resembling golf clubs are used as Castanets. There is also the idiophone, which is also called a wooden fish. This type of fish drum is used to accompany performers of "changben" or Chinese narrative ballads. They