Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1901 — A New Method of Canning. [ARTICLE]

A New Method of Canning.

The danger of poisoning from tinned meat fish and preserves— a danger which makes many people beware of using tinned foods—has been obviated, it is claimed, by a simple invention just patented by a man at East Aberdeenshire. The poison in these tinned foods is caused by the imperfect closing of the tins, which have hitherto usually been sealed with solder. The solder frequently falls to exclude air, and thus the food decays and sets up ptomaine poisoning. Poisoning from ptomaine is sometimes attributed to the use of lead. Lead has nothing to do with it, ptomaine being purely an animal or vegetable poison. The patentee has been experimenting for a long time past with a view to eliminate the use of solder and to find out a more perfect way of closing the tins used for all kinds of meat, fish and fruits. He has succeeded to the satisfaction of all the experts in devising a method by which, with the aid of a parchment inner covering, the tin be comes hermetically sealed. In view of the great number of deaths annually ascribed to ptomaine poisoning this invention should be a public boon. — London Mail.