Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1892 — We Got the Idea from Pompeii. [ARTICLE]

We Got the Idea from Pompeii.

Few people are aware that wo are indebted to the people of old Pompeii, who were all smothered in the first century of the Christian era, for one of the most important indust' riesof our time, the canning business. Years ago, when the first excavations were mado in that buried city ; an American came upon several jars of figs. When they were opened the contents were to be as fresli aud palatable as when they were put up eighteen centuries before. Investigations instituted upon the snot proved that the fruit hod been put into jars in a highly heated state, and that aa apetature for the escape of steam had been left in the lid, which, wheu it had served its purpose, was sealed over with wax, Yankee ingenuity caught the idea at once aud the uox’t year cauniug factories were erectod all over the United States.