Irving Gibson, age 12, of Allston, Mass., for his question:
Who started putting food in cans?
Rows of neat cans with clear labels wait on the modern pantry shelf,. They hold the best food in the world. It is properly ripened, fresh, clean and cooked to perfection The miracle grew from a single idea and was perfected by many inventors‑and scientists over a period of 150 years.
The idea of preserving food in cans was born in France. Napoleon‘s armies were stomping. over the Netherlands. There were bread riots in Paris, France was still in revolution and her enemies were nibbling at her borders. Out of this desperate situation of 1795 came an idea which was to ease the world‑wide food situation.
The French government offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone with a practical idea for preserving food. In Paris was a baker of fancy sweets name Francois Appert. To win the prize, he turned 'his art to preserving ‑meat. He worked by trial and error. He found that meat would not spoil when cooked and sealed in glass bottles. Francois was awarded the prize in 1809, He had invented the basic method still used in canning foods.
Appert went on by trial and error to preserve other foods. A book of his recipes was published for household use, But he never learned why food stayed fresh when cooked and sealed in containers. Louis Pasteur gave the first clues 50 years later. We now know that food decay is caused by tiny germs. Some are present on all food. Others float in the air, Appert’s cooking killed most of the germs already present. His sealed containers kept new ones from setting up housekeeping in the food.
Naturally other countries wanted to know more about saving food from waste. Other foods were added to the Appert’s list and his methods were improved. Peter Durand of London invented the first practical tin cans.
The lid was set on with a hole in the middle. The hole was later sealed with solder, In 1856, Gail Borden of America added condensed milk to the growing list of canned goods.
At that time, the cans were cooked in boiling water. In 1816 Isaac Soloman of Baltimore added calcium chloride to the water and speeded up cooking time by hours. This whole plan was outmoded 13 years later. A. K. Shriver, also of Baltimore, showed how the cooking could be done better and faster in vats of steam.
It was the scientists who perfected the quality of canned goods, They worked out exact temperatures and cooking time. They showed how to keep the vitamins and full goodness inside the cans. This work started in 1895 when two scientists at M. I. T. showed why a batch of canned corn had gone bad, Then the U. S. Department of Agriculture encouraged further research through other universities.
A new tin can was invented. The lid crimped on whole, in one operation. canneries started close to fields and orchards to get the freshest food,
They were built near the sea to meet the fresh catch from the fishing boats. Canning skills and know‑how were gathered bit by bit. They are still being added too to make those neat, work‑saving cans of food in the pantry even more perfect.