THE TIN-CAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 690, 15 June 1929, Page 7

THE TIN-CAN

DESPISED, BUT THE MOST UNIVERSALLY USED Practically all of the myriad articles so necessary nowadays for our comfort and well-being can be packed in tins and thus be transported to any and every part of the world; articles which if it were not for the tin-can, would be far beyond our wildest dreams. The tin brings salmon from the frozen wastes of Alaska; tropical fruits from the torrid zones, and takes away in exchange our own products to the distant corners of the earth. For clean, safe and attractive packing. the tin-can cannot bo surpassed. How many of the millions who so casually open a can and pitch the empty tin aside, realise the labour and equipment that has been necessary to bring- tins insignificant article into existence? A tin, contrary to the popular opinion, is not made of tin, but from thin steel sheets covered with a thin film of pure tin to keep the steel from corroding. The rolling-out of these sheets and covering them with the coating of tin alone is a huge undertaking. and forms one of the chief industries of Wales. It is from Wales that Messrs. Alex Harvey and Sons draw their huge supplies of some thousands of cases of tinplate each month.

In the case of a lithographed or printed tin. the first process is the lithographing or printing. The litho factory of Alex Harvey and Sons in Victoria Street West, is easily the largest and most modern plant in New Zealand if not in Australasia. The tin printing done at this factory is equal to any in the world. The next process in the production

of the tin takes place in the canmaking department, where batteries of presses are at work stamping out in one operation the smaller-size tins and the tops and bottoms of the larger ones. In the case of the larger tins, the body of the tin is cut out, rolled in the form of a cylinder, the sides seamed, and then the tops and bottoms machined on. All this work is done here in Auckland. Alex Harvey and Sons, with their highly-efficient plant and large number of trained New Zealand workers, are daily turning out thousands of tins for the packing of tea, honey, iobacco, paints, oils, sweets, and many other articles.