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[T644]The Old Doctor Who

by Arturo R, Art

Everyone who has ever been to a supermarket knows what a tin can is. It's that cylindrical metal thingy (sometimes cubicle) that is always wrapped in some nice label. There is almost always some form of delicious food in it. The tin can has been part of our lives as far as any of us living right now can remember.

So, how long has the tin can been around for anyway?

We need to go way back to the 19th century to answer that question. That is when a guy named Peter Durand was granted a patent for the tin can in the year 1810. There is an interesting story behind this involving the British and the French.

The French Directory dangled a 12,000 francs reward for anybody who could come up with a revolutionary means of preserving food. In came an unknown guy from Paris named Nicholas Appert. Appert spent 15 years researching before finally developing a vacuum-sealed glass container as the solution. His invention was put through the test and passed with flying colors. The French Directory were impressed and Napoleon himself presented Appert with the reward.

Of course, the British heard about it. Not satisfied with just mimicking the success of the French, the British wanted to go one step better. So they turned to tin instead of glass. Tin doesn't break as easily as glass and be just as easily sealed air tight. Thus was born the tin can.

Although he was granted the patent for the tin can, Durand himself did not go into mass production. The first tin can production was begun by two other Englishmen by the name of Bryan Donkin and John Hall. Donkin and Hall studied Durand's tin can patent and went ahead to setup a canning factory. By 1813, the pair were supplying food in tin cans to the British army.

When another Englishman by the name of Thomas Kensett migrated to America, he brought with him the tin can industry. He set up a small plant at the New York waterfront and began producing oysters, meats and vegetables in tin cans.

Today, modern machinery has accelerated the production of tin cans a hundred fold. Tin cans of various shapes and sizes can be mass produced with just the touch of a button.

Changing your sofa is something we do very rarely. Sofas can tell you a lot about you. You can fall into two categories, the couple with the sofa that dates back to before the children, or whose sofa post dates the moon landing. I totally understand the ancient sofa brigade, getting a new sofa is a big decision, and putting off big decisions is a very tempting human thing to do.

My sofa dates back to 1993 and has seen many family developments. This sofa was a very generous house warming present from my mum. For practical reasons we opted for a hardwearing, dark tartan covered, sofa bed, a piece of furniture Iï¿½d never have chosen for its aesthetic value. For ten months, until the first baby arrived, this sofa doubled up as our bed, until the practicalities of my being 8 months pregnant finally made it imperative we splashed out on a bed. For a very short time the sofa became just a sofa, but its reprieve was short lived. Soon it became the focus of the whole new baby business, feeding, changing, bumps and babes coffee mornings and finally, for sleeping on with babe in arms when it all got too much!

Its next reincarnation was Davidï¿½s first walking aid, sofa cruising. Soon the sofa became the centre for toddler games, the tartan pattern making perfect inbuilt train tracks. The sofa was standing up well to its additional roles. Grandma could still come and stay and sleep in peace and quiet in the front room, away from teething toddler.

Next it was the centre of mock battles. Then, predictably three years later, the cycle of baby feeding/ changing and so on in addition to the small boy games. Whilst still providing that much needed soft haven at the end of a full on day for its original owners.

As the children developed the old sofa provided a perch for small bottoms whilst the bedtime story was being read, allowing one child to sit with her legs over daddies shoulders whilst the other older sibling was given to believe he still had his dads full attention.

The old sofa now supports my teenage daughter whilst she watches endless reruns of bewitched. Gradually it has acquired additional, variously sourced, scatter cushions, which soften the sagging edifice. The sofas arms have become a sorry sight to see. The hardwearing tartan has gone from thread bare to unmistakable holes over the last couple of years.

Almost imperceptibly the old sofa has become redundant as a sofa bed. The grandmas have got older and the un-sprung mattress, coupled with a wooden slate base has become untenable as a place to get a good nightsï¿½ sleep. Now we are breading put you up beds that only my son or husband can transfer from attic to ground floor and so get left around in awkward places for annoyingly long periods of time.

This article is my old sofas obituary. My dear old sofa owes me nothing. It will remain in many of my most precious memories and feature in a large portion of my family photos for posterity.

But now I am going to take the plunge and make a design decision base on my taste now. Iï¿½m really looking forward to the next phase.

Goodbye old friend and thank you

Article Source : Marriage

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