When was food canning invented

Overlapping with those developments, by the time of the U. Civil War glass food preservation jars with metal clamps and replaceable rubber rings had been invented. These jars are still available today, although they are more commonly used now for storing dry goods than for canning.

In , John Mason invented a glass container with a screw-on thread molded into its top and a lid with a rubber seal. Wire-clamped jars such as Lightning and Atlas jars were in use from the late 19th century until , and still, turn up in yard sales and thrift shops.

In the late s, William Charles Ball and his brothers got into the food preservation jar business and began buying up smaller companies. They quickly became leaders in the industry. Alexander Kerr invented the easy-to-fill wide-mouth canning jar in an innovation that the Ball brothers quickly duplicated.

Later, in , Kerr developed the idea of a metal lid with a permanently attached gasket that a man named Julius Landsberger had invented. Kerr came up with a metal disk with a similar gasket, held in place by a threaded metal ring. The modern 2-piece canning lid was born. Canning technology continues to develop. Brands such as Quattro Stagioni use single piece canning lids that work similarly to the older 2-piece canning lid design.

Actively scan device characteristics for identification. The first can arrives in America in , as Thomas Kensett and Ezra Daggert sell their patented cans filled with oysters, fruits, meats and vegetables to New Yorkers. Milk was hard to keep fresh and was costly to source in urban areas, such as New York. When Civil War breaks out, the demand for canned food and milk increases exponentially.

The one caveat to canned food at the time remained how to open it. Early cans were often reinforced with stronger metals, and a hammer and chisel or knife were the only ways to open them.

As can consumption increased, so did the science and methodology behind safer canning. In , a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT tried to solve the problem of smelly canned clams that swelled with gas released by bacterial metabolism. Home canning was slower to take off than tin. These guidelines outlined the safest method for home canning, known as fractional sterilization , a multi-day process where jars are boiled three times for an hour each.

Tin can production increases to feed soldiers through World War I and World War II — home canning also sees a large increase during this time. Canning reaches its peak during WWII, as food rations for both the front line and home front are cut. Two centuries ago, the first cans were designed to sustain world powers in their quests around the globe. In boomtown America, the can was key to big business and broader frontiers.

The industry employs more than 28 thousand employees with plants in 33 states, Puerto Rico and American Samoa. The can has moved as fast as consumer demand has grown; always adapting, innovating and satisfying while preserving the qualities that provide its inherent value—protection and strength.