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Great Strides from Sun-Dried Fruits to Airtight Cases. In early times the only methods of saving perishable pabulum for any con siderable length of time was by drying it in the sun or at a fire, or by smoking or salting it. The Indians “jerked” their venison. They dried the flesh of buffaloes, reduced it to powder, mixed it with meat and then baked it for keep ing. The Peruvians gave us the word “jerked” (in this meaning) from their word “chargui,” which signifies pre pared dried meat .The buccaneers de rived their name from a peculiar meth od of curing beef, which was termed “buchanning.”There was a regular trade between the native coast tribes of America and those of the interior in desiccated oysters, clams and other shellfish. Savages and barbarians of all countries have had similar customs, and some still maintain them. The gen eral fashion in our rural regions of dry ing apples, peaches and other fruits is familiar, as well as the smoking of bacon and hams, the pickling of meats and the salting and smoking of fish. A method of preserving vegetables that has long been extensively used in America is by boiling them a proper time and transferring them to cans or bottles and sealing immediately. But the method of sealing cooked pro visions in air-tight metallic cases, which is now so largely in vogue, is of comparatively recent invention. In 1810 Augustus de Heine took out a patent in Great Britain for preserving food in tin and other metal cases by simply exhausting the air by means of an air pump, but it was unsuccessful. It was followed by a number of other efforts by various persons, all of which were more or less failures, until Werthen ner’s patents, which were three in num ber, from 1839 to 1841. By his plan the provisions of whatever kind are put into metal cases and closely packed and the interstices filled in with water or other appropriate liquid, such as gravy in the case of fresh flood. The lids are then soldered on very securely. Two small perforations are made in each id and the cases set in a water bath in which murnate of lime is dissolved. Then heat is applied until the whole boils and the air is expelled through the small openings in the lids of the cases. When this is complete the small holes are quickly soldered up.—Self Culture.
Newspaper Details
Mount Pleasant Daily News
Mount Pleasant, Iowa, US
Wed, Mar 21, 1900
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Charlie H.
USA 20 Jul 2026
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