Iain Stuart wrote:
 
> Mail*Link® SMTP               Metal straps
>
> In the course of excavating out a well last weekend a huge pile of metal
> straps were uncovered. These are thin metal about 2cm or 1/2 an inch wide and
> used for straping crates, boxes and straping machinery to pallets. They are
> now being replaced with plastic straps.
>
> Does any one out there either know 1) when they were introduced or 2) how I
> could find out when they were introduced.
>
> I was wondering whether there was a Society for Packaging History or some
> similar organisation (possibly in the UK), does anyone recall any such beast.
>
> yours
>
> Iain Stuart
> University of Sydney
> [log in to unmask]
 
Metal straps for packaging presumably go back at least to the mid 19th
century.Between ca.1860 and ca 1890, a small local ironworks, the Wheelock Iron
and Salt Companywas producing metal strap, primarily for export to the cotton
growing areas of the US. It was used for wrapping cotton bales, much of which was
then shipped back to Lancashire. The metal strap recovered from the bales was
then re-used for the manufacture of the crates for holding glass carboys, packed
in straw. These were used by the Merseyside chemical industry for the transport
of corrosive liquids. Harris and Company of Northwich were well known
manufacturers of these crates. The Wheelock Ironworks went out of business in the
1890's when the McKinley Tariff imposed restrictions on the shipment of iron to
the US.
George Twigg
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