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Show DESERET EVEXIXfi NEWS SATURDAY! XOYEMDKll I- I- 1019 1 n'P NICHOLAS APPERT ef Franc, who work lb cinc canning, nd mad tb Amcricaa pioneering rrt4 of food henitboldar everlasting bi debtor. y K y all the worthwhile history gets the covers of a school-boopages may resound with the din of mighty' battles, but how many Americans realize that European military necessities of more than a hundred years ago were re- sponsible indirectly for the establishment of a colossal American industry whose varied output is found today on millions of American tables? The origin of this industry dates back to the year 1795, when the French Government to avoid the enormous losses caused by 6poil-- age of army and navy food supplies, offered a reward of 12,000 francs for an improved method of preserving foods for sea service. ' Among th6 contestants for the prize (a fortune for those times) was one Nicholas Ap-per-t, an expert confectioner and chef, of the same Marne where ts more than a century later, thousands of fellow .countrymen were to hold the advancing lines and save the situation for the Allies. M. Appert conducted a number of experiments which for the mostpart, resulted indifferently. Nothing daunted, end with the wars of the great Napoleon constantly emphasizing the need for success, he kept at it, with the rare pluck and perseverance peculiar to his race. At length our Frenchman hit cp the device which, with modifications, is in use to this very day that of heating the product and NOT possible an American industry which at the call of the Great War could produce, as one item in its program, three billion cans of k. food for the A. E. F. alone. APPERTS discovery was at years ago. In that year Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett, using the method discovered by Appert, packed salmon, lobsters and oysters, in New York. Boston quickly followed suit William Underwood and Charles Mitchell packing damsons, quinces, cranberries and currants there in 1820. Baltimore, the center of the oyster canning industry in this country, built its first cannery in 1840 the year that witnessed the death of the father of the canning industry. The next year saw the beginning of the sardine industry in this country, in East-por- t, Maine. The first canning factory on the Pacific Coast was started in 1856. The first canning factory in the Central States began in 1860 on the eve of the me Ap-per- Civil War. was made in canning prior to the Sixties. In the first place, cities weresmalL Fruit and vegetables could be grown near them and delivered fresh by demand for wagon. The present-da- y foods amf foreign foods, did not exist. In short, the conditions which today make canned foods a practical necessity, were conspicuous by their absence. Just as the wars ofNapoleon gave stimulus to the establishment of the industry, so ouf own Civil War stimulated its development in this country. Soldiers in the detention camps and hospitals, being supplied with foods packed in cans, were quick to appreciate their convenience and excellence, and were later instrumental in spreading the good news broadcast throughout the country. The large development of the industry dates from this period. Not until several years later, however, were formulated the principles which form the basis of scientific canning, as we know it today. Nicholas Appert, successful though he was, could not himself tell why foods kept when treated according to that method. He ascribed it, as we shall see, to the exclusion of outside air, after applying suffi-- - - -- . cient heat to the food. In his work entitled The Art of Preserving and Vegetable Substances,;he wrote: All trials progress however 1ITTLE United States Under modem methods however,' canned food is sterilized after it is hermetically sealed in the container. Right here was bom the mighty industry whose highest development has been made possible by American inventive genius. Nicholas Appert, after laboring strenuously for fifteen years, reaped the reward of his toil in 1810. .He claimed the 12,000 francs, and incidentally, made the world everlastingly his debtor. Apperts- - discovery stands as a fitting monument to" unflagging industry and ex- -. haustless patience. The work done since his time has been , mostly hi the nature of improving e mechanics of the canning art Seven-leagu- e strides have been taken in this direction, buLj to Appert belongs, the honor of establishing the basic principles for all time and making National Canners Association ' A of organisation formed in of all varied of natfoa-wid- e lating prodocara eaalad caoiwd food which hav 1907, eon--' bn harm.tkally Itarilizad b Dithr prodnea. bu,. nor aalla. lia J ia o for tba mutual benefit of tha aaaura, poo and tho public, tba beat canned food that Scientific koovMf and human aldU can produce. boat It try Washington D. C recog-Jl- jl nized as the solution of the problem, and was put into commercial use In America as early as 1819 or exactly one hundred then hermetically sealing the container. i once . I have made convince me that the abeohite privation of the contact bf external air (the internal air being rendered of no effect by the action of hot water), and the application of heat by meana of the water-bat- h, are both indispensable to the complete preser- , 7 rr is interesting to note that the Boaton firra whkji canned fruits in 1820, is now in As 100th year and is stQl hale and hearty, the dean of canning establishments in these United States. Similarly, the business established by Nicholas Appert, and continued by his descendants, is the , oldest in Europe. If M. Appert were to visit a modem American , canning factory, it is safe to assume that his amazement at the progress achieved since he strove for the imperial prize of 12,000 francs, would know no bounds. He would marvel at the thousands upon ' thousands of plants engaged in this gigantic business of food production and preservation I The immense variety of foods made available by his method for - the every-da- y table --The widely separated regions drawn upon for food I The marvelously intricate machinery, employed in almost every factory F He would thank his lucky star that to him belonged the signal honor of having benefited mankind so f; 1 enormously.' - v - 3, . vation of alimentary substances. Subsequently the French Government appointed Guy Lussac, the foremost chemist of his time, to investigate this phenomenon. Luseac confirmed' Appert s theory that the 'exclusion of air from the container prevents the spoiling of foods contained. This explanation prevailed until another eminent Frenchman Louis Pasteur, discovered most of the fundamental principles involved in the science of ,,, bacteriology. - The first application of the new science to canning in this country was made in 1895 by H. L. Russell, of the. University of Wisconsin, In 1896 Professors Prescott and Underwood of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, supplemented this application with other notable experiments. , |