Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 36, number 1, autumn, 1952

              Operator Stands beside a Pea Filling Machine
The writer, who long has been associated with the canning industry of Wiscon¬ sin, narrates its remarkable progress through the years, beginning with tedi¬ ous hand-operations and concluding with the newest streamlined mechanism currently in use. ChockfuU of fresh de¬ tail, one also learns of the industry's re¬ lation to the economy of the State.
Wisconsin's Canning Industry, Past and Present
by Fred Stare
While most Wisconsin people doubtless know, in a vague sort of way, that we have a vege¬ table canning industry of considerable im¬ portance, very few, unless they are in close contact with the industry in an area in which a cannery exists, know much about an in¬ dustry that is really important in the economy of our State.
Up until the Civil War there were no com¬ mercial canning operations west of the At¬ lantic coastal states, excepting one very small operator named Duckwall, near Cincinnati, and another, Gilbert Van Camp at Indian¬ apolis, whose operations, like those in New England, New York, and the area surround¬ ing Baltimore, were very similar to Grand¬ mother's canning in her kitchen but on a somewhat larger scale.
Practically everything was done by hand and, if any of you have ever shelled a mess of peas, or husked and cut the kernels of corn off a dozen cobs, you have some idea of what the pioneers in the industry were up against, even in my own boyhood.
The art of canning had its origin in France during the reign of Napoleon, when the five- man Board of Governors in 1795 offered a prize of 12,000 francs to be paid to the per¬ son who would discover a sure way of pre¬ serving food in order to better feed the army.
It was not until 1809 that an obscure con¬ fectioner, Nicolas Appert (pronounced Ap'- pear) was declared the winner, and awarded the prize. He had indeed been successful in discovering or evolving a process of pre¬ serving food by the application of heat and placing the food in wide mouthed glass or earthenware containers, sealed with cork and wax.
Little did he think, though, that he had accomplished something that would cause his name to go down in history as one of the great   benefactors   of   mankind.
In the Encyclopedia Britannica will be found these words: "The greatest of all in¬ ventions in history is food canning, which reduced man's dependence on the annual and local harvest."
In 1810 an Englishman, one Peter Durand, patented the idea of an improved container for foods, made of tin coated metal, similar to canisters, a metal container fifled with broken fragments of metal, or bullets, used in warfare, and discharged from the small cannon of that period, a predecessor of present-day schrapnel.
From this word canister, through abbre¬ viation, came the present day words: cans, canning, cannery, and canner.
About 1819, having served an apprentice¬ ship with the house of Mackey & Company in
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