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Technology in Australia 1788-1988Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
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Table of Contents

Chapter 2

I Technology Transported; 1788-1840

II Technology Established; 1840-1940
i Meat Preserving: Heat Processing Introduced
ii Horticultural Products: Heat, Sugar and Solar Drying
iii Refrigeration and the Export of Meat
iv Milling and Baking
v Dairy Products
vi Beverages
vii Sugar: Supplying an Ingredient

III The Coming Of Science

IV From Science To Technology: The Post-war Years

V Products And Processes

VI Conclusion

VII Acknowledgements

References

Index
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Meat Preserving: Heat Processing Introduced (continued)

In effect, however, Heine was too late. In the 1890s two German immigrants to the United States, Ams and Brenzinger, perfected a method of mechanically closing food cans and lining the lids with a sealing compound which did away with the need for soldering them. It was followed early in the new century by the concept and fabrication of what is now known as the open top or sanitary can, the basis of the modern canning industry; but only in the 1980s has solder been done away with altogether as welding has at last replaced the soldered side seam. The open top can was not used universally in America until the early 1920s and the old cans and methods lingered on in Australia until the late thirties.[34]

At first the sanitary cans were processed in boiling water baths, i.e., at 100oC (212°F) or in brine baths at higher temperatures, as had been done since Stefan Goldner introduced them in 1841. At these higher temperatures, however, the lighter tinplate tended to explode but the steam pressure in a retort prevented this and it was not long before retorting became general. The steam pressure vessel, or retort, is often said to have been introduced by the American, A. K. Shriver, in 1874. In fact, William Hogarth of Aberdeen had been using 'high pressure steam' since 1837 [35] and when, in the wake of the Royal Navy preserved meats scandal, the Admiralty set up its own cannery in 1856 at Deptford, it too used retorts.[36] This method of heating came to Australia from Britain and was used in 1867 by the Ballarat Meat Preserving Company[37] and in 1870 by the Hogarth Australian Meat Preserving Company at Oakey in Queensland .[38] An 1898 photograph of the equipment in use at the rabbit cannery at Compton, near Mount Gambier in South Australia, shows modern retorts with pressure gauges and safety valves.[39]

Prescott and Underwood[40] at the turn of the century effectively laid the foundations of the bacteriological control of heat processing but for most canners retorting remained a question of establishing the length of time required at this retort temperature for that product in a can of such and such a size. It was not long, however, before the application of Prescott and Underwood's work led to the design of 'in can' thermometers and the measurement of rates of heat penetration for different products and hence to the establishment of specific heating times for specific products in specific can sizes at specific steam pressures, i.e., specific temperatures.

At first retorts were operated manually and the canner was effectively in the hands of the retort operator, whose devotion or otherwise to duty determined the efficiency of the process and the safety of the products. This was so in Australia for almost the entire industry until the Second World War. Nevertheless, the century 1840-1940, which opened with the beginning of Australian canning, ended with an industry which for decades had been producing canned meats, fruit products, and some vegetables, with safety if not in the most modern way.

A modern Australian canning industry dates from about 1942. It was 'called into being almost inadvertently like so much during the war, but built on a foundation of sound technology provided by the DFP* and American experts'.[41] This is very largely true because so many of the canners were 'meat and jam men' who knew little of other canned products, notably vegetables and the specialty products required by the U.S. armed forces. There were exceptions, however, for Edgells had been canning vegetables since 1926.

* CSIR Division of Food Preservation and Transport.


Organisations in Australian Science at Work - Ballarat Meat Preserving Company; CSIRO; Hogarth Australian Meat Preserving Company, Oakey

People in Bright Sparcs - Heine, John

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© 1988 Print Edition pages 86 - 87, Online Edition 2000
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/084.html