One industry that developed that improved diets nationwide was the meat packing industry. One man, Gustavus Franklin Swift, founder of Swift and Company, promoted the use of the refrigerated rail car to ship meat. In his biography in an Encyclopaedia Britannica article, “Gustavus Franklin Swift, American Businessman”, it is stated that he was originally a butcher. Livestock was usually shipped first from Chicago and slaughtered upon arrival, but Swift thought finding a way to keep meat fresh during shipping would be profitable. The first shipment of meat in a refrigerated car left for the East in 1877. It was designed by an engineer he hired. His company was formed by 1885. The capital of Swift & Company increased from $300,000 to $25,000,000 in eighteen years, according to the biography; his predictions of profit were undeniably correct. It is hard to imagine that there was a time where it would be more common to see a shipment of cows on a train that it would be to see a car full of chilled hamburger patties. There are ten grocery stores within ten miles of this exact spot that probably have meat slaughtered in every corner of the country. The companies that provide it are so incredibly commonplace, and are now safe and trusted by the public. However, they would not be in existence if it were not for people like Swift.
Gustavus F. Swift
An article from PBS titled "Made in Chicago: The Refrigerated Rail Car" looks at Swift's accomplishments and the history of the meat packing industry briefly. It notes that the engineer Swift turned to was named Andrew Chase. His designs for a refrigerated car had air passing over ice in bins at the top of the car. This worked because, as the article explains, heat rises, and so the cool air sank down and the warmer air rose to exit out of the ventilators. Swift could then ship all over the United States. The meat business was revolutionized, was well as the average American diet. People did not have to worry about the meat being spoiled because of this scientific method of keeping it chilled. People can get the nutrients they need, even if they came from far away. If they want, they do not even have to have seen their food alive.
Gustavus Swift's Refrigerated Rail Car
As a result of these developing industries, most Americans could reap the benefits of refrigeration. To this day, even most less wealthy people have fridges. This trend started at the turn of the century, according to "Safe Ice" by Hugh S. Cumming, which was found through JSTOR. This information was actually from Public Helath Reports, in which sanitation and health risks of the developing ice industry were later examined, but it gave an excellent introduction into how the ice industry was developed. The demand for ice had many causes, according to the source. Urban populations and general well-being were both increasing. This prosperous urban population demanded more food from rural areas. Transportation was greatly improved, as mentioned before, so trade and commerce increased, and more wealth could be spread. A natural ice industry developed in the New England and northern waters. Natural ice was cut and packed in the winter and then distributed by train across the country. The growing accessibility can obviously be connected to the success of refrigerated railroad cars. Without each other, neither could have thrived.
As the demand for transporting food longer distances increased, so did the demand for ice in places that were not ideal for delivering ice. This prompted the development of artificial ice. Carre invented an ice machine in the 1860s, but it was not commercially successful until the 1880s, Cumming explained. At this point, perishables were able to be transported almost anywhere. Cities grew to depend on the long-distance shipping of perishable food and people could easily have access to food from distant places. This industry led to ice becoming common and easily accessible. Within this time period, as stated by Cumming, "methods have been perfected until nearly every hamlet in our great country has its ice supply and none but the poorest and most isolated of our people are deprived of its blessings." Americans from all statuses could have improved diets because of developments in industry.
Finally, the tin can industry was vastly expanded. Tin cans were not invented in the Gilded Age and have been around for much longer. In fact, tinplate, sheets of steel with thin coatings of tin, existed as early as the Middle Ages, according to “An Introduction to the Tin Can” by Jane Busch from Historical Archaeology, which was found through JSTOR. This introduction went into much detail about the history of the development of cans. They were used during western expansion of the United States and the Civil War. However, around the turn of the century, canning methods were improved exponentially, and technology advanced so that they could be mass produced. Scientific studies of bacteria in cans of food caused cooking methods to be developed in the 1890s. It was a long process, but eventually, because of these developments, the tin cans came about that are used today. They are much safer and more sanitary than any food packaging methods of the past, and can be shipped to spread hearty sustenance over hundreds of miles. As a result of tin cans, ice, and refrigerated rail cars, the average person can have a cheap, clean, safe can of chicken soup without decapitating a local chicken.
Can production was mechanized in 1876 with the "Howe Floater", following the trend of industrialization. This system involved the sealing of the ends of cans by rolling them in solder, an alloy, as Busch went on to explain. This method was improved with the "Little Joker" in 1880. A semi-automatic machine was invented that soldered side seams of cans in 1883 by the Norton Brothers. The entirety of can-making could be done with a machine. 2500 cans were made per hour, where a decade ago, only about 60 could be made, and in the early 1800s, less than half a dozen could be made an hour. Obviously, when more food can be process, more food can be distributed. More food equates to more well-fed people.
With a hole-and-cap can, according to Busch, the edges of a piece of tinplate were overlapped and soldered together, and then two round disks were soldered to the body of the can. The top would have a hole in it, and food was put in through the hole before a cap was soldered on.
Hole-and-Cap Can
Folded-End Seam of Hole-and-Cap Can (found next to Busch's explanation)
Switching to the sanitary can was revolutionary, as "An Introduction to the Tin Can" made clear. Can ends were attached by crimping edges together, and a rubber gasket would make an airtight seal. Charles Ams replaced the rubber gasket with a compound of rubber and gum in 1896. The Ams Machine Company introduced a machine that applied it automatically to cans in 1897. It also crimped the ends to the can's body in a double seam instead of a single seam, a method that was perfected in the twentieth century. These cans were only soldered on the outside to eliminate sharp edges. Busch noted that this was more sanitary and healthy and could hold more food. Enamel developments that lined cans also improved the safety of cans and made sanitary cans more like today's cans. The only difference is that more recent cans have been developed to use less metal. Busch's article explained that the public had accepted sanitary cans overall by the 1920s.
Locked, Double End Seam of the Sanitary Can
Modern Sanitary CanThese changes in the way people prepared and purchased food led to better diets and healthier Americans, according to the textbook, American History. In the first twenty years of the 1900s, life expectancy increased by six years, as said in Chapter 18, which explained the effects of industrialization and urbanization. It was absolutely correct. Industrialization set off a long chain of events, as explained in this essay. Without industrialization, there could not have been these many areas of development in the food industry. Without these developments, Americans' diets would have remained as simplistic as they were in the early 1800s. Thanks to industrialization in the 1800s, people can easily acquire healthy, safely food in the 2000s.
List of Sources
JSTOR- “An Introduction to the Tin Can” by Jane Busch, Historical Archaeology, 1981, Volume 15, Number 1
University of West Georgia, “Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Economic Trends”, History Class Notes 2014
PBS, American Experience, “Made in Chicago: The Refrigerated Rail Car”, 1999-2003
State of California, Cal Fire, Archaeology Program, “Cans”, 2012
Forgotten Nevada, “Cans”, 2015
JSTOR- “Safe Ice” by Hugh S. Cumming, Public Health Reports, August 7, 1914, Volume 29, Number 32
Encyclopaedia Britannica- “Gustavus Franklin Swift, American Businessman”, 2015
