Show DAILY DAIL Y HASKIN LETTER LETTERI I I THE CANNING INDUSTRY S II Its Its History By FREDERIC J. J HASKIN The Tho whole problem of r tho food supply supply sup sup- pI ply Bunder went a a. tremendous revolution during tho the nineteenth century These new now factors affected it so 60 radically that the problem bears no resemblance to that exist existing ng at tho t time mo sa say of the American revolution In that day a great majority of the people raised their own grain anti and vegetables and produced their own meat Now a considerable con con- majority are absolutely ignorant ignorant igno igno- rant runt of the tho origin of their o fo-o food Ic-cd sl supply Tho The three factors that effected this revolution re were ere tho application of steam to transportation the discovery that foods might be le preserved in cans a and aid d tho the invention of ot tho the artificial ial ice machine machine ma ma- chine hino which made cold and re refrigeration re- re fri possible 1 or instance Kin King George V. V in Lon Lou don at his dinner tOlay may JUay have roast beef that camo came frozen all tho way from Argentina With it he will eat cat French Tench pens peas that were canned mR maybe mabe be two 3 years ears eari ago and anti for dessert ho will vill have hac oranges and bananas brought to him on swift fruit steamers from the tropical islands None of these things would have been pO possible for Kin King George III Chronologically the tho canning industry v was as the first ot of the three things that revolutionized the food supply The original discovery was made toward the close of the eighteenth century but hut it was not until the bacteriologist and tho the chemical engineer had attacked the problem that it was perfected Time Thus one ma- ma masay sa say the canning industry was born in jn 1 1793 hut but did not approximate mate mat its present perfection until 1895 1805 a full till cen century lIr later Steam t Steam n was applied to transportation on I by water In fu 1811 1 and norl b by land a decade I later and b by 1870 h had a practically I reached its climax The i c machine I was v invented in Florida in 1814 but received re rc- re- re I no recognition at all for twenty years and did not begin to affect the food lood supply until 1880 Back to the canning industry A Frenchman named Appert in invented invented in in- vented a process for preserving foods in hermetically sealed receptacles Wh When n nono one ono remembers that France wa was waa then in inthe inthe the thc throes of tho the revolution it is all themore tho the more remarkable that Appert's discovery ef cry ery received much greater governmental support and public appreciation than usually is accorded to pioneer disco He was awarded a prize of 16 francs for fol his invention jU His process process pro pro- cess consisted in placing the tho articles to bo be preserved in corked receptacles and then subjecting these to the tho heat of boiling water for varying ing lengths of time depending on the nature of oC tho foods food l Every vcr effort was made to keep this process process process' a secret but in a f few w soars oars it ith h Lad bad d reached England and in l 1815 l was brought to America It was used here however only in a domestic wa way housewives housewives house house- wives m prizing the secret as the tho method of putting up fruit for the winter In Tn 1819 1810 an Englishman named Daggett Daggett Dag Dag- gett established a cannin canning factor factory in Yow Sow York City the thc pioneer of the great reat canning canning- industry At first 1 ho packed only oysters o salmon and lobsters but butin butin butin in l he began to can ean fruits and aDd vege tables Tin Cans Patented in 1823 In the tho be beginning gJ glass ss containers used exclusively some sonic of them bottles with corks and some somo of them jars with glass tops top that were scaled sealed with sealing wax vax The expense of the tho glass jars their liability to breakage not only from roni accident but nut in the boiling boiling boil boil- ing water was so great that it led to an experimentation tation with nith tin cans The first p patent for tin cans was ws taken out in in 1823 and tw tv i years ears lat later lator r the tin tin cans were introduced into the United States In the ori original A Appert process boiling boil boil- ing water only was used ascii to heat the cans and sterilize the foods This proved pro to be insufficient to pre preserve erve many products and so 80 l later ter on salt was Vas added to the tho water to raIo tho boiling point This was afterward supplemented supple supple- by bj tho the addition of calcium chloride so that temperatures up to degrees Fahrenheit could be produced in 1874 18 an oyster packer in iii Balti t more invented a closed retort for cooking with superheated steam This was the pro progenitor of the modern cookin cooking cook ook in lag ing retort in which temperatures s from the boiling point up as bl high h as can possibly possibly pos pos pos- sibly bo be noco necessary sar may mar be produced according ac ac- ac- ac corlin cording to the pressure of steam cm- cm I S But But But- still something was lacking Some Sonio foods could not be preserved and there wore unaccountable failures that the packers could not understand Tho The first theory advanced to account for forthe the these failures was that the spoilage of the food was caused by air I It is interesting in in- to note that Appert the o original ili nal inventor in believed that the tho spoilage spoil spoil- spoilage age could bo be caused only bv by air from the outside and not by air ir that was in inthe inthe inthe the at the tho time timo of heating That he was correct in this theory has been demonstrated Ideas Were Not Accepted But his ideas were wore not accepted and for many years cars it was the custom to attempt to exclude all the tho air from the container This was done b by taking the tho cans while they wore were still hot lOt I punching a hole t to permit the tho air to esc escape pc and aud then scaling the vent Others attempted to get rid of tho the air by br and man many mechanical methods were developed dc to produce a n vacUUm in tho receptacle Still some foods spoiled in the cans and and nobody knew Dew why I Another Frenchman then came camo to the rescue It lt was Pasteur lie brought his microscope to bear upon tho the Invisible in invisible In- In visible but densely populated world o ot of the micro micro organisms He lie discovered that the in canned goods was due to bacteria His general discoveries cries eries were put to practical application 30 so o far as the cannin canning industry wa was con corned by br Russell Russen of the tho University oj pf of Wisconsin who in 1895 demonstrated demonstrate that canned goods g spoiled b because of the presence of bacteria which has survived sur sur- an insufficient attempt at R Russell's Russells investigations were confirmed by by others and the results of this scientific discovery were first explained cx ex to the Packers Packers' association con cori convention convention con con- held in Buffalo in 1898 From that day the science of cannin canning was taken out of the realm of pure puro mechanics mechanics mechanics me me- and tho the ba st and the chemist were invited to do what they could That they have done much and andare andare are doing loin much is proved not on only b b. by bythe tho the increased quality of the canned cannad goods on the market and by tho the extreme ex cx- rarity of but by y the tho fact that tho tue National Canners Canners' association association association asso asso- now m maintains a well equipped laboratory where many scientists do do- vote ote their entire time timo with microscopes and test tubes attempting still further to improve th the basic basi knowledge upon which the industry is Most of us remember that our OUT mothers moth moth- ers ere in the kitchen cannery cannery had no dim in putting up cherries and blackberries blackberries black black- berries and gooseberries 80 so that thor they would keep the tho while winter through h. h But our mothers di discovered ro red that it was wa cx extremely remely to fo to pu put up corn or string beans The scientist now could tell them what their difficulty was St Sterilizing Sterilising Has Two Divisions The Tho heat of boiling water which of course was all that was used in the tho kitchen was vas sufficient to the tho bactoria bac bac- term toria that might later set up putro putro- f faction but was insufficient to kill the snores of r snore bearing or 41 Thus there are aro two st d lO will 1 be ls lh killed I out at boiling fI water least LO de degrees ces Or degy dep Cf to kill the of heat It isto is' is But another spore bet factor hearin or or in thoP that the spores win will t food in ha having than de' de I 1 per cent ot of acid aci Thui te it t is not for a heat necessary to required to kill fore forc mother waa was the r berries herries j which aro are ful with acid and 11 th lu SUar r corn corn h An And if i is wo could wo we would discover discO r that find out tb n. n on th fow few occasions Wh t f when were h ho successful la In corn their Putting tI success tI thata wa was due that a liberal tot J amount amoun of added adae to the tho corn while other words e the mixture had bad been boiling POint raised aboy But aU all of the I difficulties ners have ot of not been I solved of food occasionally cans that the and on o opt to arB a oiled eliminate even cn this l 1 cl n is now the chief a t every canning country i |