# The humble food in a tinned can. How it all started.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-humble-food-in-a-tinned-can-how-it-all-started/656441>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 22, 2013, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-humble-food-in-a-tinned-can-how-it-all-started/656441 "2013-04-22T23:18:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-humble-food-in-a-tinned-can-how-it-all-started/656441/1 "2013-04-22T23:18:40Z")

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I had always wondered how and when tinned can food got started.

> **[The story of how the tin can nearly wasn't](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21689069)**
>
> Tin cans have, in 200 years, changed the way the world eats. But a Victorian cheap meat scandal nearly destroyed them.

> [@](#):
>
> Today, billions of cans are sold every year throughout the world
> 
> The first mass production of tin cans of food was in a south London factory by Bryan Donkin
> 
> Supplied to the Royal Navy in 1813, they changed warfare and, later, exploration and diets
> 
> But a food scandal in the 1850s rocked public confidence in this new invention

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**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-humble-food-in-a-tinned-can-how-it-all-started/656441/2 "2013-04-22T23:38:38Z")

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You, sir, have obviously never watched James Burke.

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**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-humble-food-in-a-tinned-can-how-it-all-started/656441/3 "2013-04-23T00:52:47Z")

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> [@silenus](#):
>
> You, sir, have obviously never watched James Burke.

The old connections videos are up on youtube if you want to see them.

[http://www.youtube.com/feed/UCHzwwF44sysgSyNaLSe5z5w](http://www.youtube.com/feed/UCHzwwF44sysgSyNaLSe5z5w)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yKvhPs7gZ8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yKvhPs7gZ8) the episode about canning among other things.

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-humble-food-in-a-tinned-can-how-it-all-started/656441/4 "2013-04-23T11:56:16Z")

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Interesting…the Franklin Arctic Expedition of 1845 was the first to carry canned food…however, the food was supplied by a crook named Stephen Goldner. There is good evidence that these cans were improperly sealed, and improperly cooked/sterilized…leading to death by botulism poisoning.  
I also recall that tinsmiths of the day used all kinds of nasty solders to seal the cans…tin/lead solder, with arsenic as a flux-there was enough lead and arsenic to make the foods pretty lethal!

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**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-humble-food-in-a-tinned-can-how-it-all-started/656441/5 "2013-04-23T13:10:17Z")

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> [@silenus](#):
>
> You, sir, have obviously never watched James Burke.

You stole my comment!