bi centenary of the tin can

A Canny Invention

The humble tin can celebrates its two hundredth birthday this year, it has changed the way people eat and given us a much healthier diet. These days when billions of cans are sold every year across the planet, and Andy Warhol chose the baked bean can for its 'ordinariness' for his poster; it is hard to believe that the can was once at the cutting edge of technology, and employed the thoughts of some of the cleverest scientists of the age, and that it owes its existence to warfare and Colonialism. Napoleon offered a prize of 12.000F to anyone who could solve his problem of feeding large numbers of people on the move, and Nicholas Appert came up with the idea of canning' though his method used glass jars instead of tins. But. it was in Britain that Bryan Donkin opened the first tin can factory on 3rd May 1813.

Prior to canning the main methods of preserving food was by salting or covering in fat, since food rations on ships consisted of salt meat and biscuits many sailors died from illnesses resulting from malnutrition. So it was the Navy who first adopted eating from a tin can. While the race had been on to find ways to preserve food not much thought had gone into how to get at the food out of the tins, and it was not until the 1920's that the first modern can opener arrived on the market. Before that cans were opened with rocks, hammers and chisels and Fortnum and Mason even published a pamphlet showing customers how to open a can with a knife.

The tin can still seems to be holding its own despite competition from freezers and plastic tubs and pouches. When I first got married I was sniffy about tinned food but through the years I have come to appreciate the value of the emergency cupboard. Looking through my emergency cupboard it contains baked beans, tinned tomatoes, a few cans of tinned fish, and although I usually make my own soups, there are a couple of cans of soup, a can of condensed milk and the much loved Spam. I think it would be hard to find a replacement for the aluminium can because it holds up well against its competitors on price and ecological grounds. Plastic pouches and tubs may be lighter and easier to transport, but tins are more durable and have a longer shelf life,and are recyclable. Food stored in fridges and freezers have a limited life span, after which they start to deteriorate, they also need electricity, so cost money to run, and are not that useful in a disaster or when power lines are down. So, here's to the aluminium can and long may it continue.