PreviousNext
Page 79
Previous/Next Page
Technology in Australia 1788-1988Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
----------
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
Search
Help

Contact us

Meat Preserving: Heat Processing Introduced (continued)

The cannery went into production in the middle of 1848 and the raw material was meat from the Hunter Valley cattle. The cans were sent out from England 'knocked down', that is. the bottoms and tops were already stamped out and the sides flat. On site, the cans were formed, filled and processed according to the Goldner technology used by Ritchie and McCall. The major problem was the supply of skilled tinsmiths. Some were available in New South Wales, but others were brought out from England and the critical nature of this manpower shortage was one of the reasons for the relatively short life of the Dangar enterprise.

The Dangar's used no incubator room. They were aware of the need but, shipping most of their production to England, they used the voyage, and, therefore, the weeks at tropical temperatures, as a test period. They accepted such losses as occurred on the journey, some 3-5 per cent, as a normal business hazard. The remainder was, of course, quite sound.

Some of the products were sold in Sydney. Most of them, however, were exported to England, where by this time Richard Dangar was established as the marketing arm of the company. He gave evidence to the committee which enquired into supplies of preserved meat to the Royal Navy and detailed the methods used at Newcastle, when the quality of the Dangar products was scrutinized. They stood the test and were well received. In fact, Richard Dangar was asked to tender for an Admiralty order of 1,000,000 Ibs., but at that time the Newcastle factory was unable to cope with such quantities.

Dangar products were awarded medals in London and in Paris and were judged most favourably by the Lancet Analytical Sanitary Commission which in 1852, in the wake of the navy scandal, critically examined the canned products then available.

Why then did the Newcastle factory last only seven years? The economics of the operation, which were favourable in the beginning were set out in the evidence given by Richard Dangar to the Committee of Enquiry into the naval problems. Meat was cheap initially but the Australian incubus of drought played a part in forcing up cattle prices in the early 1850s. Then the discovery of gold caused prices to rise even further, but the greatest cost was tin plate which had to be imported from Britain, made up into cans at local wage rates, and shipped back to Britain as finished filled cans. It was a problem which Australia faced for another hundred years; it was not until after the Second World War that Australia made its own tin plate.

What was even more difficult to deal with was that skilled men left for the gold diggings; it was a common problem in all the Australian colonies at that time. In addition, the Dangars began just as the Royal Navy problems appeared and the reputation of canned foods suffered. Not only that, the Committee recommended that the Navy manufacture its own canned products and, when this was done, the output from other manufacturers became available to the market, merchant shipping, which the Dangars had been supplying. So the Newcastle cannery closed in 1855 and the first short period of Australian canning came to an end. It was successful technically and, on the whole, commercially. It failed to endure because both in Australia and in England it encountered circumstances which no one could have foreseen or controlled.

All three of these pioneering ventures used the same technology. All processed at atmospheric pressures in baths above the boiling point of water before finishing off the heating after the cans had been sealed. Elliott knew it could be done and worked out the details for himself. He was an innovator. The others paid, presumably, to be taught in London, but the technology was the same in each case (and remained essentially unchanged for the rest of the century).


Organisations in Australian Science at Work - Dangar, Gedye and Malloch; Lancet Analytical Sanitary Commission

People in Bright Sparcs - Dangar, Henry; Elliott, Sizar

Previous Page Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Next Page


© 1988 Print Edition pages 79 - 80, Online Edition 2000
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/079.html