Technology, Industry and Empire

Question 1

What is covered in this topic?

Answer 1

The way modern food cultures have been shaped by technologies

• Transportation over huge distances and preserved by refrigeration before spoiling
• Catalyst for changing in idea of freshness
• Social significance of freshness
• Food adulteration

Question 2

what determines freshness today?

Answer 2

Sell by date

• use them?
• misleading?

Question 3

What determines sell by dates?

Answer 3

How long they’ll look good

When it was picked or killed

How long it took to transport

By who’s standards?
- govt? supermarkets?

Question 4

What are some of the earliest british examples of preservable foods?

Answer 4

Hard Tack: biscuits for empire
- Enabled GB to extend control all over the world because could feed many people over long periods - Imperial technology

Bath Oliver: brands

• one of the first ‘brands’
• commoditisation of food
• Organisational developments in industrialisation  steam machinery mechanising certain processes, reducing labour costs, increasing output and improving quality
• tinned to keep fresh

Huntley & Palmer: industrialisation

• one of first factory made biscuits
• picture of factory on box associated with modernity and superiority
• By the time there is a biscuit factory means you have a mass market of people who understand brands

Question 5

What are some industrial forms of preservation?

Answer 5

1. Appert for Napoleon’s army
   - answered Napoleon’s call for a way of feeding armies in Europe
   - First canning factories etsb in UK in 1810s with glass bottles
2. William Underwood
   - Moves to US in 1817 and sets up a bottling and canning factory in Boston
   - meat, fish and milk
   - Always linked with military playing a part in American civil war
   - Can opener not invented until the move beyond the military and navy

Question 6

What does the early history of refrigeration involve?

Answer 6

Ice Houses

• appeared in ancient China and Roman times
• Examples of Russia and Scandinavian countries using ice to preserves food stufs
• Ice houses in most grand houses in UK

Question 7

How and why did an ice market emerge?

Answer 7

To preserve food and extend how long it was fresh

to have cooler drinks

Question 8

how did ice start as a commodity?

Answer 8

The Boston ice trade

Frederic Tudor - ‘Ice King of the World’

• having identified ice market in Boston - looked at shipping to the Caribbean for everyone to enjoy
• lead to an ultimate failure but Tudor did not give up and eventually established an ice trade in the US esp in the South

Question 9

Did ice become a part of the domestic household?

Answer 9

Yes

• Became a middle-class necessity by mid-19thC
• Demand exponentially increased 1843-1856

Question 10

How did ice progress to ‘on demand’?

Answer 10

Several inventions which made ice in machines

• Gorrie: ice machine in 1851
• Ferdinand Carré first absorption refrigeration invented
• compressor which moves heat from one place to another using a point

X - problem was that these machines were far too big
- have to store things en masse

Question 11

Does ice conquer Europe? 2. what did renner say?

Answer 11

Traditional european preservation techniques (esp. in south) was changing the forms of food e.g. milk –> cheese

2. • Moreover, freshness in EU was never far
     e. g. Paris vs New York, malls vs rooms over shops - Renner

• French very suspicious of cold storage because put the control in the hand of the merchants rather than the consumers because ‘freshness’ was controlled by them
• couldn’t guarantee it was fresh
• ‘frigoriphobie’ - Decugis
• hoarding to manipulate market

Question 12

Which authors are looked at in this topic?

Answer 12

Freidberg
Cowan 
Anderson
Renner
Decugis
Donalson
Sinclair
Nye 
Rees

Goody
Bitting
Wright
Blackman

Question 13

How was the fridge domesticated? (Cowan)

Answer 13

Cowan looks at the battle between gas and electric fridge

• Essentially won by the companies with the most money despite a louder and less effective machine
• GE had a vested interest in people using more electricity
• Shows quality of engineering is not necessarily the deciding factor

Question 14

How did technology affect meat packing?

Answer 14

Mechanisation

• Factorisation of getting meat ready for sale
• meat on hooks which are on a belt
• people doing different jobs
• stunning very systematic
• A science to production –> always increasing efficiency

Question 15

How did technology affect the retail side?

Answer 15

A move from the grocer to chain stores

Advertising: filling the gap between producer and consumer

Question 16

What was adulteration and some examples?

Answer 16

Addition of other substances to increase the quantity or quality of the foodstuff

Frederick Accum performed a chemical analysis - found things like sweets may have had copper in them to give them a shine

Adulteration increased distrust between retailer and consumer
- Another example is bakers adding to bread to make it go further

Question 17

What is the jungle?

Answer 17

Book by Sinclair about a the meat packing industry in Chicago

• questions conditions of immigrant workers
• Sinclair concerned with exploitation of people-
• crit capitalism
• describes what we actually end up eating - sanitation
• people more interested

Question 18

Why is the fridge fundamental?

Answer 18

It takes away expectation that something is only picked and brought straight to
- It redefines freshness

Question 19

What does Freidberg discuss in her article?

Answer 19

It’s an anthropological examination of freshness

- Specifically the history of preservation by refrigeration

Question 20

Why was refrigeration needed? (Freidberg)

2. What were its implications?

Answer 20

Meant you could eat seasonable, perishable foods from wherever they wanted - rational

In practice refrigeration undermined not just farmers and merchants local markets BUT also traditional understandings of how food quality related to time, season and place
- Threw into question the known physics of freshness

Question 21

What did Donaldson notice from the activities of Tudor? (Freidberg)

Answer 21

Because ice was kept in sawdust, wood shaving or marsh hay –> prices for these once useless materials shot up
- Price of ice halved from 1820s - 1830s

Question 22

What was home delivery of ice? some negatuves?(Freidberg)

Answer 22

Ice was delivered to peoples homes

It was used for cold deserts and drinks

Used in ice box’s to keep meat, veg, dairy and fish good
X - poor circulation –> mould

Question 23

What were some stats on USA demand of ice? (Freidberg)

Answer 23

New York:
1843 - 12k tonnes
1847 - 65k tonnes
1856 - 100k tonnes

Question 24

What drove a find for alternatives which eventually led to refrigeration? (Freidberg)

Answer 24

Ice famines

- these were due to short winters or poor harvests

Question 25

What were long term affects of demand outstripping supply

Freidberg

Answer 25

Gorrie - machine to create ice 1849
- too big (small garage)

Carré - Fr, fast freezing machine to rely on absorption of ammonia

• smaller and simpler
• 1868 New Orleans chilling food

Ice plants in South increase:
- By 1889 Texas - 53

Question 26

What did Anderson point out? Stats? (Anderson)

Answer 26

Fear of frozen waste in natural ice –> search for alternatives

with ice gluts in 1890 + production booms
ice from luxury to economy
- Appeals to women to save food and drink
- Warn of problems of small fridges e.g. mould/poor circulation

boom in ice box sales
1879 - $1.8m
1919 - $26m

Question 27

How does Freidberg describe the impact of WW1 on food practices? Similar to seminar? a reaction? (Freidberg)

Answer 27

WW1: US food administration makes preservation patriotic
- Post war enthusiasm for ‘protective’ diet

• High demand of red meat –> refrigerated steam boats and cold storage
• Lead to demystification in likes of France
• USA campaign pushed perishable foods e.g. veg , milk, fish, veg
  o 12m families – ½ USA pop took pledge of one meatless day and one wheatless day a week
• Crusades against food waste and extravagance
• cook books encouraged + given out with recipes to use these foods
  o E.g. backyard gardening and direct from farm purchase
  o Propaganda on how to optimally store food
• Clear message that fresh food and refrigeration belonged in every American household

X Backlash from poor working class/immigrants
• Middle and upper rallied –> consumed more fresh and less red meat than before

Vitamin science – McCollum – value of veg
-Discoveries came at right time for producers of these foods and also for ice and refrigeration industries – ice and refrigeration companies pointed out that protective foodstuffs had to be protected.

o Essentialness of fruit and veg lead to essentialness of fridges
o Beginning to see refrigeration equalled to idea of freshness
- Advances in production and distribution made perishable foods affordable and attractive
o E.g. iceberg lettuce both slimming and simple to prepare
o End of 1920s more fresh fruit, greens and dairy than previous generation + less red meat and grain
o Canned goods also lept in 1920s

1920s refrigeration serves as ‘protection
- Californian Sunkist oranges

Question 28

Why were ice boxes phased out? (Freidberg)

Answer 28

20thC ones were worse because made cheaply to increase profit margins

o Poorly made 
o Cold air leaked
o Didn’t circulate well 
o Off tastes and smells 
o Got wet 
o Less ice delivered than paid for even when the ice man showed 

By 1910s the icebox was an appliance behind its time

Question 29

What were the 3 main challenges for the machine? Scholars? (Freidberg)

Answer 29

Size + noise
- 2-500 tonnes

Cost
- First mechanical fridges in 1920s cost more than $450 + $50 electricity – Nye

Safety and Ease of use

• Constant supervision and frequent maintenance
• Reports of explosions and home fridge repairs every 3 months – Rees

Question 30

How did GE compete to make electrical fridges the norm? (Freidberg)

Answer 30

Had a deep vested interest to make fridges electric instead of gas

Threw plenty of money and skill

Motor Top in 1927

• Majority of home owners had electricity by now
• 1m ad campaign
• A good refrigerator will cut bills in half, save on food bills because less spoilage and waste

Question 31

What was the rhetoric between fridges and ice competitors? (Freidberg)

Answer 31

Ice competitors threw words like natural and easier around

Fridge companies Said ice boxes fluctuated in temp –> bad for food

Fridges also compelled other items not necessarily needing refrigeration e.g. cold drinks and fruit slices

Refrigeration cookery as new cool cuisine
- Saving money but also TIME

Question 32

What was the situation by 1930? 1940? Stat? quote? (Freidberg)

Answer 32

By 1930 fridges took over from iceboxes

• Discovery of Freon, a non-toxic, non-flammable refrigerant eased consumers fears
• Also lead to smaller, lighter and cheaper machines
• By 1940 price of fridge was $154, ownership exceeding 50% of American households

Quote: Labour saving status symbols

Question 33

What is long term impact of refrigeration? drawbacks?(Freidberg)

Answer 33

Modern method of food handling – to handle food without cold is unthinkable

Civilisation dependent upon refrigeration

Wipes out seasons and distances
X - could buy strawberry’s in Jan but they weren’t necessarily good or cheap
X - things were called ‘fresh’ when actually frozen or canned
X - Called fresh when not by modern standards e.g. fish thought to last over a many weeks in the fridge at a temperature now considered too high

Question 34

What was biggest change from refrigeration? (Freidberg)

Answer 34

Biggest change in minds of consumers – as cold chain linked their kitchens with distant producers, the idea of the durable perishable no longer seemed as paradoxical as it once had

Consumers stopped expecting fresh food to be just-picked or just-caught – instead kept in a fridge

Question 35

Which 4 factors does Goody argue facilitated the complete change in western diet? (Goody)

Answer 35

Preservation

Mechanisation

Retailing

Transport

Question 36

What was used before refrigeration? (Goody)

Answer 36

Preservation of meat and veg by drying, pickling, salting and in some regions by the use of ice was characteristic of the domestic economy in early Europe

• Navies and armies always needed considerable quantities of preserved food
• Sugar used to preserve fruits in jam form
• ->

Imports of sugar rapidly increased in the 18thC – supplies of sugar-cane sugar were cut off from continental Eu during the Napoleonic wars –>

the fundamental invention embodied in the canning process + use of beet as a source of sugar

Question 37

Stat on quantity of preserved biscuits sold? (Goody)

Answer 37

Maufactured brands, Carrs, Huntley and Palmers, later Peek Freans sold 6m lbs of products in 1859

Question 38

who were biscuits targeted at? (Goody)

Answer 38

Target was travelling people e.g. soldiers, traders and colonials overseas only later to domestic market

Question 39

What sort of products were canned in the UK? (Goody)

Answer 39

Beef, patridge, apples, eggs, milk, spinach, fruits and herbs

Question 40

How did Bitting regard canning?

Answer 40

No single discovery has contributed more to modern food manufacture and to the general welfare of mankind - Bitting

Question 41

What did William Underwood can? change?

Answer 41

Used bottles

Quinces, currants and cranberries mainly at beginning but also pickles, ketchups, sauces, jellies and jams
- Those didn’t reach England until 1830 and were v expensive

1835 Underwood started exporting bottle tomatoes to EU (little known and considered poisonous in US)

By civil war glass –> tin

Question 42

What example in France shows industrial level of canning? (Goody)

Answer 42

In France, by 1880 50m tins of sardines packed a year on west coast of Fr

3m exported to UK – Industrial food had begun

Question 43

What is an example of one of the most important English caned goods at beginning of 20thC? Stat? (Goody)

Answer 43

Condensed milk a major product of canning industry

Became a major item of diet in UK, and in 1924 over 200m lbs was imported

BIGGER THAN total imports of tinned fruit and the combined imports of beef and fish

Question 44

What example does Bitting use to exemplify freezing? what was its impact?

Answer 44

By beginning of 19thC every salmon fishery in Scotland was provided with an ice-house, fish packed in long boxes with pounded ice and dispatched to London market – Bitting

• In England see fresh fish in inland markets in England, leading to a decline in popularity of salted and picked herrings
• Lead to reduction in price of fresh fish

Question 45

Why did people move from canning to refrigeration? how was this solved? (Goody)

Answer 45

Canning process generally meant a big reduction in quality and very different to fresh taste

Solved by improvement in regrigeration

• 1880 when a ship sailed from Melbourne to London
• Frozen meat from USA from 1872

This lead to diminution in amounts of canned and salted meat being imported from those countries, just as the use of natural ice in Britian had earlier led to a decrease in the amount of salted and pickled fish

Question 46

How did cooking respond to technological change? (Goody)

Answer 46

By L19thC catering trades had adapted to refrigeration

E.g. Lyons tea-shops could serves cucumber sandwiches all year around

Domestic servitude decreased:
in 1851 905k women in Uk were employed as domestic servants, plus 128k servant girls on farms; by the 1961 census, there were no more than 103k resident domestic servants in England and Wales

1851 905k women
1961 128k

Question 47

What other developments surrounding food in 19thC happened but had little do do with preservation but rather branding, packaging, advertising and marketing?

Wright?

Answer 47

E.g. Heinz horseradish sauce in 1869

Wright - E.g. Worcester sauce, Lea and Perrins, shows rapid growth of prepared foods,
- the shift of focus from kitchen to factory, as well as the influence of overseas trade and overseas colonisation

Sold 636 bottles in 1842 and 10 years later 30,000 bottles

agencies in AUs and US – Wright, 1975

Question 48

What does the example of cereal show? (Goody)

Answer 48

Initially for veggies
- 1860s Dr John Kellogg produced granola, the first ready-cooked cereal food

• 1890s saw invention of most basic types of pre-cooked cereal – flaking, toasting, puffing and extrusion
  o shreaded wheat 1892
  o marketed ashealth foods for well people

after ww1 spread to GB
• ease of preparation – esp important for households whose members are all working outside the home
• General shift to lighter meals consistent with changing nature of ‘work’
• Rising incomes which made it possible for people to buy ‘health’ foods and so transform them into utility foods

Question 49

How did mechanisation effect the canning production? (Goody)

Answer 49

When first reached shops 1830, little impact on domestic consumption
o Man only fill 50/60 a day
o Heavy
o Open with hammer and chisel

Overcome in 2nd half of 19thC
o 1849 a machine for pressing out tops and bottoms
o 1876 Howe machine –> 1500 a day
o 1861 calcium chloride reduced boiling 5hrs –> 30mins

Manufacture of many processed and packaged foods did not require great advances in techniques of preservation but rather the adaption of simple machinery for producing standard goods on large scales

Question 50

Hobsbawn on rail? effects?

Answer 50

from 1830, over 6,000 miles of railway were constructed in Britain

Transport quicker and more efficiently

maintain freshness

better quantity and quality of food for more people

Question 51

How did cargo ships help?

Answer 51

Could move lots of goods from far away

combined with refrigeration a huge step in globalisation

Question 52

How did retailing change with technological change? (Goody)

Answer 52

Affecting cooking and food

food shops grew from growth of suburban london

Guild of grocers concentrated on non-perishable items of food arriving in increasing quantities from the Med, far east and new world

• Spices, dried fruit
• Later added tea, coffee, cocoa and sugar = luxury

Grocer dealing in dry imported goods who lead 2nd retailing revolution

• Shops organised in branches along national lines
• Started mid 19thC
• Boom last 20 years of 19th

Hobsbawn: grocery branches
1880 –> 1900
27 –> 3444
E.g. Lipton 1872 –> 1898 245 branches all over UK

Question 53

How crucial was advertising in developments? (Goody)

Answer 53

Large scale manufacture brought with it an increased gap between the producer and consumer so that some new way of communication was required
o E.g. Hovis bread
- Patent bread has been product leader in brown bread since 1890
- Problem to overcome the popular prejudice, in existence since roman times in favour of white bread
- Used royal patronage, awards and diplomas for quality and purity to beware of cheap imitations

Question 54

what was the affect of the change in retailing process? (Goody)

Answer 54

This whole process led to a considerable degree of homogenisation of food consumption and was dependent upon the effective increase in demand from the ‘working class’, which now had no direct access to foodstuffs, to primary production.

Because of this mass demand, mass importation and mass manufacture, grocery, formerly one of the minor food trades, became by far the most important

Question 55

How does Blackman place the retailing revolution?

Answer 55

Blackman would place it earlier in the century when processed foods and mass imports began to make an impact on the market as a result of changes in technology that were linked with the new demands of the industrial workers

Sugar and tea became essential items and in the 1860s grocers added processed foods like dried soups and baking powders – not so much preservation but national instead of local products

It was the technical revolution of mass-producing and semi-processing food stuffs in common use together with the increased volume of trade in tea and sugar that now brought the grocer into focus as ‘the most important food trader for regular family purchases – Blackman

Question 56

What did Mackenzie argue about refrigeration?

Answer 56

Small companies with innovative ideas rarely succeeded unless they were purchased by, or made cooperative agreements with, much larger companies that had greater financial flexibility and the resources necessary to broach the national consumer market

e. g. birdseye
e. g. 2 GE took frigidaire

Items like a reliable refrigerator, a central vacuum-cleaning system, a household incinerator, a fireless cooker and a waterless toiler certainly would have affected household expenditure behaviour

• We have compression rather than absorption refrigerators in USA not because one is technically better or even because consumers preferred one machine but because of very powerful and very aggressive and very resourceful companies

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