CANNING WILL SAVE US FROM STARVATION

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 81, 6 April 1938, Page 13

CANNING WILL SAVE US FROM STARVATION

modern industry of canning is

one whose statistics are enormous, and nothing could be more fitting than that its introduction should be ascribed to the man of titanic conceptions, Napoleon Bonaparte, says the Birmingham Evening Despatch.

More properly the first great name in the history of canning food should bo that of Francois Appert, who died in 1840.

It was he who, subscribing to the Emperors famous dictum, “An army marches on its stomach,” conceived the idea of preserving animal and vegetable substances in hermetically sealed tins.

In 1795 Napoleon perceiving the necessity of energy-preserving food in portable form for his troops, offered a prize of 12,000 francs for a successful method of preserving supplies. Nine years elapsed before Francois Appert, brother of the philanthropist Nicholas Appert, came forward with his idea.

Appert did not use tins, but widemouthed bottles, which he corked and sealed. He knew nothing of the modern method of cooking under pressure, which is the secret of successful and rep id canning. Not much food preserving was carried out after his discovery, despite the fact that he was successful, and won the reward offered. Glass jars were fragile and expensive. The impetus towards a cannirtg industry came next from Peter Durarid, an Englishman. He discovered the invaluable properties of tin. Tentative experiments in canning oysters, salmon and lobsters were being carried out in America. It was he, however, who used the first can, or as he called it, though it was a later inventor, Thomas

Introduced by Napoleon

t:ve tin of food intended for soldiers during the Crimean War was opened and discovered to contain bacon, peas and beans in excellent condition.

The proposed method of storage is in food dumps, in cellars through which currents of air would be continually

passing.

The view that a diet of canned food would be monotonous and perhaps deleterious to health is out of date to-day. The number of commodies which can be put in tins and preserved appears tc be unlimited. Canners have gone beyond fruit, vegetables and meat and come to beer, bread and cheese.

In the eighty British factories the canning season has just ended. 100,000,000 cans have been used for storage.

Bristol University led in the research work on canning, in 1930, made necessary by the Act which made the use of certain colouring substitutes illegal; since that ime the industry has steadily developed in this country. About 2,000,000 tins a day can be produced by English factories.

It has been estimated that the nation w r ould need 350,000,000 tins a week- on which to live. Thomas Kensett’; workman could produce only sixty cans a day.

To-r’qv -m tic machine mah.. them at the rate of 300 a minute. They can be sealed at 100 a minute and cooked 1,000 at a time.

Will there be enough tin to round? Tin producers are being pressed to discover new sources of tin. The cost of tin has risen. True, one pound of tin covers 25 square yards of metal. Whether new metal substitutes will be found, is a question asked anxiously, not only by the canning industry, but by all other trades interested in tinplate.