HISTORY OF CANMAKING

30 THE CANMAKER © 2010 Sayers Publishing Group ● JANUARY

It is known, and certainly widely in thecanmaking industry, that an English-man Peter Durand registered a patent

in 1810 for preserving meat and vegeta-bles in such a way that anyone who want-ed to use metal for canned products wouldhave to buy it from him to exploit the pro-cess.

Durand’s patent marks the first eventthat led to the creation of the global can-making and canning industries, both ofwhich were vital to the mass production ofpreserved foods, which is why this year iscelebrated as the 200th anniversary of thefood can.

Less widely known is that Durand wasin fact an agent acting for one of a numberof entrepreneurs who at the beginning ofthe 19th century had been working to finda solution to a need for keeping a range offoods safe for human consumption afterlengthy periods during transportation.

It is generally thought that France’sfuture Emperor Napoleon Bonapartevoiced a need for feeding his armies inwinter, which would givehim a strategicadvantage and issaid in 1795 to haveoffered a 12,000Franc prize to anyonewho could solve theproblem.

This account ofthe prize is fiction,says Norman Cowell,former senior lecturer in thedepartment of Food Scienceand Technology at ReadingUniversity, who has carriedout extensive research intothe origins of tinplate foodpackaging. There was cer-tainly a need by the Frenchmilitary which was tri-alling preserved vegetables.The key to the cross-channellink was that because theFrench had been in con-flict with England since1803 as part of theNapoleonic wars, securing

the necessary patent in Londonrequired the collaboration of aBritish national.

French confectioner NicholasAppert had been developing thesterilisation of vegetables in corkedChampagne bottles since 1804 at hisfactory in Massy, south of Paris.Around 1809, he was given thegrant after presenting his products tothe French scientific establishment.Subsequently, the French Navy success-fully tried out a variety of preserved foodsusing his techniques.

The story of how Peter Durand came tofile his patent in August 1810, threemonths after reviews of Appert’s first edi-tion of ‘L’Art de Conserver, pendantplusiers Années, toutes les Substances Ani-males et Végétales’ were appearing inParis, suggests that he was less the inven-tor of the food can and more an agent foranother Frenchman, Phillipe de Girard,who had been working on the use of tin-plate cans for preserving food in the yearleading up to early 1811 when he demon-strated them in London.

The history of tinplate being used for avariety of applications wasby then already severalhundred years old. Themanufacture of tinplate, orthe whitening of iron, start-ed in the 14th century inBavaria and Saxony. It pre-vented iron’s corrosion andenabled the soldered fabri-cation of intricate articlessuch as pots, lanterns, deco-rative boxes, plates anddrinking vessels that weremore robust than pewter,which is soft because it ismostly tin. By the end of the18th century the tinplate

industry had expandedso much that South

Wales alone was hometo several dozen manu-

facturers. It shouldn’t come as a

surprise that food was original-

ly packed in tinplate containers withoutsterilisation, and often with nasty results.Indeed, there are references to the Dutchnavy using foods packed in fat withintinned iron canisters well before the end ofthe 18th century. Gordon Robertson, in hisrecent book ‘Food Packaging, Principlesand Practice’, says that records show thatbetween 1772 and 1777 the Dutch govern-ment supplied its navy with roast beef inthis way. It is also recorded that ‘Hollan-ders’ packed cooked salmon with saltedbutter or olive oil in tinned iron boxesmore than ten years before the Durandpatent.

Peter Durand was born in London in1766 and was baptised as Pierre. His par-ents Jean and Marie were Huguenotsfrom Protestant stock who had emigratedfrom France. Cowell’s research revealedthat Durand was married twice andworked as a broker from offices atCraven Street, Hoxton, in north Londonfor four years until 1807.

The 1810 patent for ‘Preserving animal

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the firstpatent being granted for a technique for preservingfoods in metal cans. But who really developed theprocess? John Nutting investigates in the first part of a history of canmaking

The French connection

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and vegetable food’, which allowed for avariety of packaging options including ironand tinplate, wasn’t the only one Durandregistered, the second patent in 1811 beingfor an oil lamp, said to also have beeninvented by Girard seven years earlier.Durand, being a British citizen, wouldhave been in a more secure position totake out a valid patent under the laws ofthe time than Girard, who would havebeen regarded as a visiting enemy alien.

Durand’s whereabouts in the threeyears between 1807 and 1810 areunrecorded, says Cowell, but with hisFrench connections he was very likely incontact with Girard.

In January 1811 Girard was in Londonand met the President of the Royal SocietySir Joseph Banks in whose presence anumber of ‘pots’ were opened and exam-ined. These must have been produced dur-

ing 1810. On Girard’s letter introducinghimself, Banks wrote: “The victuals wereas good as before in all but two which hadnot been soldered tight. These were verybad.” Royal Society Fellow Sir CharlesBlagden was also present at the openingof the ‘pots’ and his diary agrees on theoutcome with Banks, adding thatGirard’s patent was to be taken out inthe name of Durand.

Nine months later in September1811, Durand writes in the ‘Repertoryof Arts, Manufactures and Agricul-ture’, a London-based journal relatingto patent matters, that he “receivedfrom a friend abroad, more than ayear ago, a communication of a dis-covery… I perceived that there wasa great deal to be done to render itperfect… I substituted tin casesinstead of glass jars or bottles.”

He added that his ‘cases’ ofmeat, soup and milk had beenopened and examined in the pres-ence of “a number of scientific gen-tlemen both of the Royal Societyand of the Royal Institution” andfound to be perfectly preserved

after “several months” and that twocases had been opened six months

after manufacture including “fourmonths on board one of His Majesty’s

ships”.This is almost certainly a translation

from Girard’s French, as indicated by theambiguous title ‘Statement by the Paten-tee’, says Cowell.

Cowell is sure that the records showthat Girard was heat-preserving food intinned canisters in the latter months of1810 and therefore “relegate Durand tothe status of his British agent”.

This is confirmed by a subsequent con-versation between Sir Charles Blagdenand Nicholas Appert, who says thatalthough Durand sold the patent for£1,000 to Bryan Donkin and John Hall,who were planning to set up their‘preservatory’ for canned foods in SouthLondon, this was on behalf of Girard.Durand presumably received a broker’sfee for taking out the patent and selling it.

Born in Northumberland, BryanDonkin was apprenticed in 1798 to JohnHall who 13 years earlier had set up theDartford Iron Works, east of London inKent. After working on paper mouldsDonkin started construction of a prototypepaper-making machine, production ofwhich started in 1803.

A clever and inventive engineer whowas involved in a variety of activities,Donkin is regarded as the father of themodern paper industry. He applied him-self equally enthusiastically to the manu-facture of tin canisters supported by Hall,

and later by a third partner,John Gamble.

With the finalisation of Durand’spatent transfer in 1813, manufacturecould start at Donkin, Hall & Gamble’sPreservatory in Blue Anchor Road (nowSouthwark Park Road), Bermondsey, inwhat was undoubtedly the world’s firstfactory for making food cans. (It isarguable whether the earlier fabrication ofso-called ‘tin canisters’ for non-food itemscould be called canmaking).

By 1818, customers for the cannedfoods included the navy and army; andwith the British Admiralty using them thenews would have quickly spread aroundthe world.

This would have probably frustratedNicholas Appert who after the abdicationof Napoleon in 1814 arrived in Londonwhere he was given a testimonial letterfrom Sir Joseph Banks. Records at theRoyal Society indicate that Appert thoughtthat Girard had sold the patent for aderisory sum to Donkin, Hall & Gamble,which was now reaping the benefits.

Girard too would have reason to beangry. When Appert came to London,Girard had been suffering from businessproblems and was in a debtor’s prison inParis. His demise is apparently unknown,but Appert, in not moving fast enoughfrom glass bottle to tinplate cans, alsofailed to profit from his idea, dying with astate pension in 1841.

Donkin, Hall & Gamble’s preservatoryat Blue Anchor Road continued to oper-ate, after two name changes to J Gamble& Co, until 1830 when it was transferredto Cork in southern Ireland to be subse-quently run by Gamble’s son. BryanDonkin went on to other successful man-ufacturing activities such as printingmachines, his company manufacturingindustrial valves continuing with hisname until the 21st century. He died in1855.

There will always be some uncertaintyabout who should be regarded as the orig-inator of canned food. While Phillipe deGirard has the strongest claim, there is nodoubt that Peter Durand filed the firstpatent that covered the idea, even thoughhe was acting for Girard. Durand died in1822 aged 55 in London and was buried inSt Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch.References:Cowell, N. D. Who introduced the Tin Can? A New Candidate. Food Technology, December1995. Institute of Food Technologists, Chicago, IL.Cowell, N. D. More Light on the Dawn of Can-ning. Food Technology, May 2007. Institute ofFood Technologists, Chicago, IL.Robertson, G. L. Food Packaging, Principlesand Practice, 2nd ed. Taylor and Francis, 2006.ISBN 0-8493-3775-5.

see you in Las Vegas, 27-29 April 2010. www.spgevents.com

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0 YEARS OF TH

E FOOD CAN • 200200200HISTORY OF CANMAKING

Sir JosephBanks, President

of the Royal Society, wasshown samples of foods in tinned

canisters in London by Frenchman Phillipede Girard in January 1811. Left: Could

Peter Durand, who filed the 1810 patenton behalf of Girard, have looked like this?

Illustrations: Paul Simmons

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