Series

The fabulous story... of the tin can

The creation of the tin can will considerably change the course of history.

© Fly / RFI

Text by: Anne Bernas Follow

6 mins

The tin can is far from being an ordinary invention.

How has this metal cylinder of our daily life, an object that has become planetary, contributed to "upsetting" our time so much?

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Until the end of the 18th century, it was impossible to keep certain foods for more than a few days if you wanted to find the taste in them and, above all, not to get sick from mold.

Thus, since the Neolithic, populations have sought methods to preserve food products: drying, smoking, salting for meat and fish, fermentation for cheese. 

When in 1795, a Parisian confectioner revolutionized conservation.

Nicolas Appert finds the miracle recipe for preserving food for several years without changing its texture or taste: he puts food in a jar, seals it tightly and heats it in a bain-marie.

Canning was born, and it was a revolution because, at the time, the word “microbe” did not exist and no one knew that heat eliminated them – since it was Pasteur, seventy years later , who will make this discovery. 

Nicolas Appert did not file the patent for his invention (the title of "benefactor of humanity" was then awarded to him for his discovery) which was recovered by the Briton Peter Durand in 1810. This merchant filed a patent on the technique and replaced the jars by an iron cylinder, less fragile, covered with a thin layer of tin.

The first tin as we know it today was created in 1813 in England.

In France, we have to wait until 1824 when, in Nantes, the first can of sardines appears.

The can quickly conquered the West, then the world.

In the United States, in 1865, more than 30 million of them were produced each year.

Today, more than 80 billion of them are produced each year in the four corners of the globe… and the famous tin can has been transported into space for around twenty years. 

Reproduction dated June 24, 2003 in Quiberon, of a photo dated 1967 representing a production line at the Belle-Iloise cannery.

AFP - MARCEL MOCHET

Without preserves, no wars? 

The creation of the tin can will considerably change the course of history.

The foodstuffs are no longer perishable and the preserve can remain at room temperature for between three and five years.

Thanks to this invention, long expeditions can be made without fear of famine or disease.

Travelers, discoverers and settlers are seduced;

the tin can even became the basis of the diet of Europeans in the colonies, an emblem, in their eyes, of civilization. 

The same goes for military expeditions.

Soldiers can complete long missions while feeding, without fear of starving to death or being poisoned by rotting food.

Because in the 18th century, the British navy lost more men from scurvy – a severe lack of vitamin C – than during combat.

Now, by consuming cans, soldiers can eat not only meat and fish, but also and especially fruit and vegetables.  

's soldiers

under the First Empire, during the American Civil War, during the First and Second World Wars, among the Franco-British troops who threatened China and looted the Summer Palace in 1860. Holding positions, moving forward, the question therefore arises: without a tin can, would the wars of the last two centuries have taken place in the same way? 

Old tin cans from Doug Rhoades' collection (May 11, 2005).

AP - MICHAEL V. MARTINA

A sign of social class, then of globalization 

It is necessary to wait about a century before the tin can seduce the whole planet.

First of all, because in its infancy, it was considered a luxury product.

In France, for example, a

in the 1850s was equivalent to six hours of work for a worker.

Moreover, this metal cylinder does not give some people confidence, because the consumer cannot see the product inside the box, and unpleasant surprises can appear, such as putrefying food, even explosions of lids... 

However, the tin can resists and spreads, manufacturing techniques are mechanized.

The era is the industrialization of the post-war period.

Local dishes from different parts of the world incorporate canned ingredients into their specialties, such as

, a traditional Jamaican dish made from

American canned

Cheddar, pudding, boxed sausages adorn the tables of the British in India at the expense of local foods.

Canning is becoming fashionable, and it saves the housewife time.

Mass consumption is at work.

The muscular Popeye promotes it by swallowing cans of spinach.

The tin can is even glorified by Andy Warhol in a serigraph titled 

 : 32 cans.

The story goes that, when he was a child, Andy Warhol regularly consumed soups and collected empty cans.

His mother made flowers out of metal boxes, especially Campbell's boxes. 

Andy Warhol's "Campbell's Soup Cans" at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

AFP - TIMOTHY A. CLARY

With ever-increasing production, tin cans are now increasingly recycled or used empty for other uses;

but it is nonetheless responsible for environmental damage.

The tin that constitutes it was originally mainly produced in Malaysia and its disproportionate extraction caused numerous floods and mudslides there.

Hence the name of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, which means "muddy estuary". 

More than two centuries after its creation, and even if frozen products appeared, the can still has the wind in its sails.

A generally inexpensive product, it still fills the sheds of food collection centres;

at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers around the world were also flocking to cans.

Today, in the age of survivalism, tin cans are now piling up in the underground shelters of all those who fear the coming apocalypse.

► To read also: The fabulous story... 

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