A Short History of the Tin Container

The tin container is more than two hundred years old. It began as a way to feed sailors and soldiers, and became one of the most familiar kinds of packaging in the world.

A problem of keeping food

In the early 1800s, armies and navies needed food that would last for months at sea and on the march. In France, Nicolas Appert showed that food sealed in a container and heated would keep for a long time. He used glass bottles, which were heavy and broke easily.

1810: the tin canister

In 1810, Peter Durand was granted a British patent for preserving food in containers that included tin-coated iron. Within a few years, Bryan Donkin and John Hall had set up a works in London that supplied canned food to the Royal Navy. Those early cans were made by hand, were very heavy, and had to be opened with a hammer and chisel. A dedicated can opener only appeared decades later.

From food to everything else

Through the 1800s, machines took over cutting, forming and seaming, and tins became cheap enough for everyday goods. Printing directly on tinplate made decorated tins possible. Tea, biscuits, tobacco, cocoa and medicines were sold in colourful tins that people kept and reused, and many of those tins are collected today.

Tins in India

In India, tins became the standard pack for edible oil, ghee, sweets, spices and paints. The large square oil tin and the reused biscuit tin are part of kitchens across the country. Deccan began making tins by hand in a 100 square-foot workshop in 1998. Today our factory in Daman makes more than 200,000 tins a day.

Still the same idea

Materials and machines have changed, but the idea behind the tin has not: a strong, sealed metal container that protects what is inside and lasts. Browse today’s tin containers.