87. The Tin Can

French 1/2 quart self sealing jar

Can Opener late mid 1700's

My mother tells a story about having to go with my grandmother (her mother) to the old gym at Hogansville High School for Canning Day. This is when all the women would bring their can goods and help with canning. I watched my grandmother at a very young age do canning in her own kitchen. She had so many canned goods that anyone in the Walking Dead would be happy to find. When she died I believe we removed close to 150 Mason and Ball jars of canned goods which the contents was grown on her own land and canned for herself, family, and friends. Home canning is becoming a lost art. But a few hipsters are trying to preserve this art today. 

1700's can

Canning using metal cans made of tin and lead, found themselves used on a full scale during the American War for Independence. Glass jars were not ideal for war because they easily broke. Someone suggested using metal to make a can and then seal the can with lead. Lead could easily be opened in the field because of its malleability. The problem is that soldiers often didn't have a way to open these tin-lead cans. They figured out if the shot at the cans, they would open. This worked most of the time, but it also caused minor injury either to the soldier firing or the solider near by. In some cases, it was reported that the cans exploded while being shot. Soldiers also thought if they played the can near the fire, that it would open the can. It did but with an explosion. After the War of Independence the use of metal cans fell into obscurity and it wasn't until the Industrial Revolution that canning began to be used on a mass scale. 

During both the European and American Industrial revolution, canning saw a comeback. The cans were still made of tin, the seal made of lead but they were usually opened using a can opener. This was an easy problem to solve but there were other public safety issues. When canning became more commercial, and production rose and with most food items being about to be canned coupled with no regulation of canning the issues of, leaky lead seals which caused deceases, making people sick, let alone gave people lead poisoning was a growing concern. It wasn't unheard of to find severed body parts such as fingers and also find bugs or first stage development of infestations in canned meat. Trichinosis and other parasites were common to be found in the canning industry. By the late 1800’s most of these public safety issues has virtually gone away. It wasn't until Teddy Roosevelt that regulation of meat packing plants, and other food stuff industries that relieved diseased canned goods. 

late 1800's early 1900's canned goods

Beginning in the later 1800’s and early 1900’s the local general store began carrying commercially canned goods trying to bring the family into modern times. Women found boxed grits and crackers. They began to see canned meats and vegetables, as well as cake mixes, jams, and jellies. Most of these products were home industries. But even then, preserving food has been a forerunner of the human race, finding ways to preserve food for their families. in the late 1920’s and well through the 1930’s America, canning again was a main industry in the home. Families bartered for goods that could canned and stored. Most of the depression era families continued to can and passed the tradition on to baby boomers (like my mother). But it kind of stopped there. Dented cans could not be used due to the fact the contents would more than likely be contaminated with illness. Cans today are made of aluminum. There is no threat of disease unless something when horribly wrong. Today one can by dented cans and still live to tell about it. 

Can Opener

Today, the modern bohemian/hippie, “The Hipster”, have began to can everything. It just part of the renaissance of lost art. Canning is a art which takes patience, and a knowledge of how to can.  I have friends who can and do a wonderful job with it. I am glad they have time to invest in such a venture. 

88: Lite-Brite

This toy did nothing more than help one create a creepy clown face with different color translucent pegs. Nothing more or nothing less, but its simple construction and almost pothead concept was in a word brilliant. Like most objects that have a cult following, it inspired a subculture of Lite-Brite art.

The Lite-Brite is shaped like that the back of an old tube TV, with a removable light socket, a black grid of holes on the front held the white body by 2 screws. One placed a back sheet on construction paper over the grid and began pushing the paper with the pegs to make a picture while the light was on. The colors of the pegs were: red, blue, green, yellow, pink, purple, orange, and clear. The packaging of the Lite-Brite  featured a boy and a girl, working together on a sailboat, which was part of one of the deigns, but the preprogramed designs were somewhat limited, but not limited in ones imagination. Other icons over the years have sold their imagines to be used in add-on designs. those first add-on designs, were Mickey Mouse (Of course), Scooby-Doo, Flintstones, and a host of others. 

SIDEBAR: My brother and I had a Lite-Brite and the box had a creepy clown on the box (see images).

One draw back of the Lite-Brite was losing pegs, swallowing pegs, and getting them stuck in ears and nose. Why is this important? Its one of the last toys to have small parts that can be harmful for children. 

The Lite-Brite is produced by Hasbro and began marketing it in 1967. The Lite-Brite has not gone away but it exist in different forms today. LB comes in a LED version, a Cube version, and also as an app for tablets. One can find a used one in most yard sales, or theft shops, less the legs and the design book, which replacements can be found on-line. The Lite-Brite, like the etch-a-scotch, has created a subculture of LiteBrite artists. Please feel free to visit the Indianapolis Children's Museum for an large scale Lite-Brite interactive. Providence Children’s Museum also has a large scale Lite-Brite as well that is larger than the one in Indianapolis. But locating photographs of it seems impossible. 

Forever project

My Brother's and mind Lite-Brite box

The Lady and The Unicorn Tapestry 15th Century

The Lady and The Unicorn Tapestry (Lite-Brite)

89. The Wringer Washer

The Wringer

The cliche, “You look like you have been put through the wringer” came about because of this most awesome invention; The Wringer Washer by Maytag. Maytag was not the only company that made the wringer washer, but its the one who made the first ones. This post is not about Maytag, but the invention. 

Maytag, 1907

My grandmother used a wringer well into the 1980’s until my aunt and mother bought her a proper washer. I love that old wringer washer. It mesmerized me as a child because I instinctively knew how dangerous it was. The wringer part of the machine, I believed, was the most terrifying of the whole contraption. 

The Wringer of the 1900’s was not the first machines to help with washing clothes and fabrics. Humans have been trying to figure out how to make washing day a bit less mundane and relieve the backbreaking work of using a wash tub, hot water, soap, a paddle, and a wash board. Washing took most of the day, and needed to be started early to make sure the clothes got on the line in time to be dried. The last part of that statement will come along later with a dryer, but these first machines tried. 

Maytag, 1911

The first used hand cranks to agitate the water with the previous mentioned material less the wash board. It still required a lot physical labor. In 1907, Maytag had a wonderful machine which was also hand powered which cut down the washing process down but not totally efficient. The wringer itself was not added until 1909 along with a outsource for power to drive the agitator. A few years later, they were fully electric and washday became a welcomed day. the 1911 models (model 41 and 42) came with a reversible wringer which meant that once an article of clothing was run through one way, then the process could be reversed the other day, wringing out more water. The wringer itself swag over the tub so that the water would go back in the tub and not all over the floor. Because not everyone had electricity in the home, all the models until the 1930’s came in a hand powered model as well. They made the switch from cypress wood tubs to metal proclaim washing tubs in the middle in the 1930’s and solidified the shape of the wringer washer. 

Maytag, 1940, Model 41 and 42

1909, The Hired Girl Model

The later models came with hoses for easy filling of hot water, and a drain hose. All using a pump underneath the outside casing. The agitator had a lever, which dropped the motor to stop the action of the agitator and to switch the motor power to the wringers. The wringer was turned on by disengaging the agitator, turning off the safety switch on top of the wringer and then switching the motor to the wringers. Once one was ready to begin the wringing process, one would left the lever, hit the switch, and begin wringing.

The Wringer is such a marvel. It was a welcomed addition to any home though it could be dangerous. This machine led to the modern washing machine, which replaced the wringer in the 1950’s. But for my grandmother, who used her Maytag Wringer Washer from 1940 to 1986, is a testament to this modern invention. 

LINKS:

For more pictures and information from the Maytag history group visit here 

For a look at one of these machines at work check out this guys youtube video

Here is a 1948 Kenmore

90. The Zipper

This next invention is every important to mankind. It freed men and women (mostly women) from laces, and multiple buttons. The zipper has given a new release on how dressing (and undressing) is performed in the morning, evening, and night. It also allows to keep things in rather than out. 

The zipper can be found on shoes, shirts, pants, jackets, camping tents, couches, and chairs. They main job is to keep fabrics and plastics close with dignity and keeping clothes on taut. Before the zipper, men, women, and children relied on laces, and cords to keep clothing closed. Not only were laces and cords used, buckles and buttons were used on clothing as fasteners. One important contribution from buttons is the name “coppers”, which is slag for policeman. The reason police are still called “coppers” is because of the copper buttons found on English Bobby's wore on their uniforms. 

Howe's design, 1851

The zipper, developed by Elias Howe (the inventor of the sowing machine) in 1851, which he called The Automatic Clothing Closure. it revolutionized the clothing industry giving tailors and hairdressers another option for fastening clothing and other textile items which benefited from the new fastener. Howes deign was much different from the the modern zipper, the concept was the same: being able to close clothes without effort. His design was composed of small clasps that came together with a small string that gave the fabric a gathered look. He didn't develop it any further than this simple design. 

Judson's Design, 1893

40 years later the inventor, Whitcomb L. Judson developed a clasp and hook that was used for shoes. 

Judson's design, 1893

It wasn't until Gideon Sundback developed a hook and oval with interlocking teeth in 1913, that protruded from type that was made of a heavy fabric given it strength to be easily sown into fabric.  It wasn't until 1917, that he developed the eye hook concept with small metal teeth. His last design is what we know today.  

Sundback design, 1917

Sundback design, 1913

The zipper can be made of a heavy plastic or of metal. The concept of the zipper is so simple, its a wonder that it had not been developed before 1851. Each side of the zipper is composed of a metal teeth with interlocks by a simple dimple and tooth that is closed and open by a key that forces both sides together. 

The dangers of the zipper is getting “the boys” zipped up in it for men, and women getting hair caught. An embarrassing aspect of the zipper is standing in front of a crowded room with your zipper down. 

The zipper is on the list at number 90.