A Hazard of Early Tinned Food

We have all heard many stories of the dangers faced by our ancestors coming to Australia on the early sailing ships, but this week I came across another danger faced by Francis Scammell, a bounty immigrant travelling to Port Phillip in 1841- contaminated tinned food! How could this happen? It got me researching the history of the tin can, something we take for granted today, with all of us having cans of food in our pantry.

The humble tin can is just over 200 years old and the idea of preserving food was encouraged by the French Government, in 1795, by offering a 12,000 franc prize to anyone who could preserve food to feed its far flung military. A French chef, Nicolas Appert experimented for many years, firstly with champagne bottles, something he had, sealed with cheese and lime , then wide necked glass containers which were too fragile and finally tin cans of meat which he soldered closed after heating. He watched the cans for months and those that didn't swell he deemed fit for consumption! After glowing reports about his canned food he was awarded the prize in 1809 on the condition he published his method, which he did the following year.

This tin can process was bought to England by another Frenchman, who used an agent to patent the idea, which was then sold onto Bryan Donkin who set up a business, Donkin, Hall & Gamble in Bermondsey. After successfully feeding his canned beef to nobles, who gave him glowing reports, his business took off.

An Early Tin Can

Early cans were made of tin-plated iron and very heavy. The process was labour intensive with cans made by hand. Food was heated in sealed cans for 6 hours, then opened slightly and re-soldered closed with lead solder. Preserving food in these cans was an expensive business. The main market was the British Army and the Royal Navy. By the 1820s, several expeditions to the Arctic had used canned food as well. Early cans weighed between 4 and 20lbs and as no can opener had been invented, a bayonet, hammer and chisel or a rock was advised to be used to open them!  By 1821, more manufacturers entered the field and Donkin dissolved his partnership.

As the early process of canning food was a hit and miss affair with no real understanding of the process, there were many cases of contaminated food. Louis Pasteur's development of pasteurization wasn't until 1864.

Francis Scammell left Bristol on 26 August 1841 aboard the Ward Chipman(sometimes also called Ward Chapman) and arrived at Port Phillip in mid December 1841. A shipping speculator, J P Hinton had purchased the ship and fitted it out for the voyage. He decided to use tin food, provided by John Gillon & Co, instead of the usual food loaded. The seals on the tin food were defective and much was spoilt. Even before rounding the Cape of Good Hope many of the passengers were ill and eight passengers were employed to help tend the large number of sick. By the time the ship reached Melbourne 19 children had died of food poisoning from defective cans. This was just another obstacle faced by those coming to Australia in the early days.

Numurkah 1884 - A Thriving Town

Numurkah in north east Victoria was proclaimed a town on 8 February 1875. Jeremiah McAuliffe, my great, great grandfather selected land at Katunga on the outskirts of Numurkah in January 1878. Alfred Leahy, the district's government surveyor surveyed both Jeremiah's selection and the township of Numurkah. The first sale of allotments in the town took place on 11 January 1878 and Alfred Leahy was among the first purchasers, securing five allotments at four pound each. The main street of Numurkah, Melville Street, was proclaimed a street in 1882.

Melville Street Numurkah  c1900-1910

(State Library of Victoria)

I had the basic facts about the town but I wanted to get a feel of what the area was like when Jeremiah was there and what better way than to read the local newspaper of the time. Unfortunately only a limited number of Numurkah newspapers are on Trove, so last week I made a trip to the State Library of Victoria to browse through the earliest newspaper I could find there on microfilm. I love reading the newspaper everyday, so it was far from a chore to spend the afternoon browsing through nine months worth of The Numurkah Guardian & Wunghu Observer from March to December 1884. This newspaper was the second printed in Numurkah and came out weekly, it contained advertisements, news, upcoming events and meetings, as well as a supplement containing short stories.

The same as today there were reports of road accidents and fatalities, but these involved horses, buggies and carts. An unfortunate, Mr Hanson had his leg amputated after it got caught in the wheel of the dray he was driving, when he attempted to control his bolting horse. The local state school teacher, Miss Barkley also suffered minor injuries to her knee and was severely shaken, when her horse bolted, knocked into a tree and she fell to the ground. Even the local doctor wasn't exempt from an accident:-

3 July 1884

This snippet also gives added insight into the weather at the time and the difficulties of travelling around on dirt tracks. Obviously the unpredictability of rainfall was a problem for this agricultural area as this piece shows:-

Much like today, controlling burning off was another topic of discussion. A well attended meeting of representatives from the agricultural societies of the north east region met in Murchison on 26 April to "to consider the best means to adopt for obtaining an alteration of the law relating to the use of fire or failing that, to urge the strict enforcement of the law as at present in force." This meeting had occurred because the whole district had suffered severely from fires in the previous summer. Suggestions made included not allowing burning off before the 1 March, increasing the cleared area around farms and banning farm labourers smoking in the fields. After much discussion several resolutions relating to times and notifications of burning and clearing around farms were agreed upon and were to be sent to all societies before appointing delegates to lobby the government. It came as a surprise then, when later in the year on 27 November, I found an article that the Numurkah Fire Brigade had just realized their hope of having an Engine, with the purchase of one from Benalla Brigade for 80 pound.

As expected in a new town, many new groups were formed. A popular meeting place was Gifford's Hotel, where on 21 April a meeting was held for those interested in the formation of the Numurkah Football Club with the encouragement "no more healthy or manly game can be indulged in by the young bloods of Numurkah." On 4 June, the Numurkah Rifle Club was formed with about 20 members enrolling and "it was decided to obtain a supply of Enfield rifles on loan from the government, each member to buy his own cartridges." Later in year shows a report of the Numurkah Brass Band, that had recently formed also met at Gifford's Hotel. One meeting, not held at the Hotel, was the first meeting of the The Blue Ribbon Army held at the Bible Christian Church where a good attendance was expected to hear what was to be said in favour of teetotalism! The Mutual Improvement Society debated on the subject of Bobbie Burns, the Scottish poet, the Numurkah Racing club discussed fencing in of the racecourse, the Mechanic Institute met to plan extensions to the recently built building and the annual meeting of the Agricultural and Pastoral Association was held 5 July. This Association only a few years old was ranked fourth in the State and was considered an important part of the rural community and still is today, as shown by this photo of the entrance gate taken last year.

Another reason for Numurkah's expansion was the coming of the railway in 1881. There were many articles throughout 1884 about the importance of the railway as it was where all the north-east wheat harvests were bought to be transported. However, there was much lobbying for the railway to be extended and finally on 2 October this was reported in the paper:-

Many were apprehensive that it might lead to a decline in business for Numurkah if the new Railway Bill was passed as fewer people would need to come there now. Some also wondered why improvements had been made to the station, as they might not have been necessary.

Reading the local paper certainly gives you an insight into what was happening and the concerns and interests of the inhabitants at the time. To finish on a lighter note this advertisement caught my eye and gives an insight into decorating tastes:-