Can better materials be used to replace glass bottles for canning? The British canner Durant thought of this problem. One day, when he was drinking tea, he saw a tea can, and he couldn't help but feel moved. At that time, the tea used by the British was shipped from distant China. At first, the tea was packed in wooden boxes or bamboo tubes. Later, the Chinese also used tin cans to pack the tea, so that the tea would not be susceptible to moisture and odor. At the beginning of the 19th century, after people invented tinplate, which was coated with a layer of tin on the iron sheet, they switched to tinplate to pack tea. It was light, airtight, not easy to be damaged, and easy to transport.
Can tinplate be used instead of glass bottles to seal food? Thinking of this, Durante jumped up and ran to the factory to try it out. He put the food into tinplate cans, heated them at high temperatures, and used solder to weld the mouth of the cans while it was hot. This is how the world's first tin can was made.
In 1823, Durant applied for an invention patent in the UK and opened the world's first tinplate can factory. However, because this kind of can is produced entirely by hand, the cost is very high. It was not until the invention of a machine specifically for pressing cans in 1847 that the cost of canned food came down.
After tin cans became popular for 100 years, American Leinolz thought of trying other materials to make cans. In 1947, the world's first aluminum can was born in the hands of Leinolz. It was made of aluminum foil as thin as paper and was very light. Later, people developed it into cans. Today we can see it on the shelves of almost any food supermarket.