The FMCRotary Pressure Sterilizer

Introduced in 1920

An International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark

Designated by

American Society of Mechanical Engineers — May 17, 1982

An International Historic Mechanical Engineering LandmarkTHE FMC ROTARY PRESSURE STERILIZER

Designated by American Society of Mechanical EngineersAt FMC Central Engineering Laboratories, Santa Clara, California — May 17, 1982

PROGRAM

WelcomePeter Weber, General ManagerCentral Engineering LaboratoriesFMC Corporation

The FMC Rotary Pressure SterilizerRichard L. HoutzerProduct Manager, Sterilization EquipmentFMC Food Processing Machinery Division

Introduction of GuestsWilliam J. Adams, Jr., ChairmanRegion IX History and Heritage CommitteeASME

Presentation of PlaqueDr. Robert B. Gaither, PresidentAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers

ASME Landmark ProgramProfessor R. S. HartenbergNational History and Heritage CommitteeASME

Acceptance for FMC CorporationW. A. Wolff, Vice-President, Western Region,FMC Corporation

Historical PerspectiveR. Michael Hunt, P.E., ChairmanSanta Clara Valley SectionHistory and Heritage Committee, ASME

ClosingPeter Weber

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers wishes to thank everyone who cooperated in the designation of theFMC Rotary Pressure Sterilizer as an International Historic Engineering Landmark. Special thanks are extended toFMC Corporation for their kind assistance in production of this brochure.

The Rotary Pressure SterilizerInvention of the Continuous

Rotary Pressure Sterilizer, in 1920,which brought automation and uni-formity of product to the cooking ofcanned goods, and vast savings inlabor and fuel to the canning indus-try, solved a problem that had baf-fled engineers for years.

The problem was this: How tointroduce a continuous stream offilled, sealed cans into a pressurizedchamber full of steam; heat thecontents uniformly and cook thecans for a prescribed length of time;then retrieve and cool them underpressure in the same continuousstream.

There was yet another aspect tothe problem. The standard methodof cooking, or sterilizing, cannedproducts was in a closed retort.Cans were placed by hand intomesh baskets and stacked in aretort which was then locked downand filled with steam. The productwas cooked and cooled, and thebaskets were fished out of theretort. In addition to high laborrequirements — up to 15 men —and start-stop batch operation, theretort system required long timesfor the heat to penetrate to thecenter of the immobile cans.Hence, some agitation of the cans

to shorten the penetration time wasdesirable.

The solution was supplied by theAnderson-Barngrover Company ofSan Jose and Albert R. Thompson,its chief engineer, who devised andpatented not only the basic ma-chines but a whole string of im-provements and refinements in suc-ceeding years.

In 1928 Anderson-BarngroverManufacturing Company, which hadgrown from a modest plant on WestJulian Street to a sprawling complexoccupying both sides of the street,merged with a neighbor a few doorsaway, the John Bean Spray PumpCompany. Shortly thereafter thenew firm acquired Sprague SellsCorporation in Hoopeston, Illinois toform Food Machinery Corporationwith the John Bean organization asthe sponsoring company. By 1972,the company had become a diversi-fied enterprise, and the name waschanged to FMC Corporation.

The answer to the problem ofcontinuous sterilization of cannedgoods was a series of threedevices, each building on the last.The first was introduced in 1913.

A continuous cooking processThis was the Anderson-Barngrover

Continuous Variable DischargeCooker and Cooler. Despite the longand ponderous name, it solved atleast part of the problem, that of acontinuous cooking process, andwas an immediate success in thecanning industry.

The machine consisted of a longrectangular steam heated cookingtank with a series of slide gatesspaced at regular intervals alongone side, and a discharge conveyorrunning beneath the gates and lead-ing to a second, smaller, coolingtank. Incoming cans were admittedat the end and propelled throughthe tank by a reel and spiral ar-rangement. The reel was made upof channels around its circumfer-ence wide enough to hold a line ofcans on their sides and running thelength of the tank. It turned inside aclose-fitting fixed T-section spiralwhose flights were spaced a canlength apart to form a track whichheld the cans in their channels andslowly pushed them forward as thereel turned.

A great feature of the cooker wasthe slide gates, its “variable dis-charge”. Cans could be releasedfrom the cooker at any of theseopenings and conveyed to thecooler section. Purpose of the vari-

CUTAWAY VIEW of a modern Rotary Pressure Sterilizer system, shell. As the reel turns, the cans ride against the spiral track andshowing rotating pocket valve, upper right, which feeds cans are moved forward in their channels. A transfer pocket valve atinto the reel inside the pressure shell; the reel filled with cans, the end of the cooking tank moves the cans into the pressurizedand the continuous spiral track attached to the inside of the cooling shell at left.

THE FIRST continuous automatic cooker, introduced in 1913, operated at atmospheric pressure and relatively low temperature. Squaretanks held a reel and spiral.

able discharge was to provide amechanical means of regulating thecooking time to accomodate varioustypes of canned products. Thecooker reel was designed to run ata fixed speed (powered by a beltand pulley from an overhead jackshaft) and, since it operated atatmospheric pressure, cookingtemperature was more or less fixedat the boiling point of water, whichleft time-in-the-cooker as the onlypractical variable.

The sterilizer had achieved atleast part of the ultimate goal. Itwas a continuous, automatic cookerwhich could receive filled, sealedcans from mechanized lines andprocess them without manual hand-ling. Al Thompson applied for apatent in 1913, and received it in1917.

The machines, with a number ofvariations, including cylindricaltanks with variable inlets, remainedin the company’s line of canneryequipment for nearly 30 years, andmany are still in use.

A critic reportsThe atmospheric cooker, how-

ever, didn’t do the whole job, asDaniel G. Trench of the SpragueCanning Machinery Company,Hoopeston, Illinois, pointed out in atreatise on corn machinery writtenfor a Souvenir History of the Can-ning Industry, published by theCanning Trade Magazine for the1914 National Canners Convention

in Baltimore:

“In the very early days of theindustry the final sterilization (ofcanned food) was accomplished bymeans of a long cook in water bath.Later the process was shortened bythe use of high termperature cal-cium (chloride) bath. Next came theclosed retort or pressure processwhich is now mainly used. Duringrecent years, persistent efforts havebeen made to perfect an apparatusthat will operate automatically andfurnish a continuous sterilizingsystem (notably the agitatingmachine) which have encounteredmany mechanical difficulties andhave further tended to show that

there is a distinct limit to the agita-tion that can be given corn duringprocessing and yet avoid granulationof the starches, etc., in the can.

“A continuous, automatic, high-pressure sterilization for corn stillremains one of the unsatisfieddemands of the (canning) trade.”

But it was on the way.

The first pressure machineIn 1915 Anderson-Barngrover and

Al Thompson unveiled their firstrotary pressure machine. It was amassive cylinder about 20 feet longand 5 feet in diameter, made ofriveted boiler plate. On the front ofthe tank, at each end, were twoheavy sliding valve assemblies re-sembling the breech of a giant boltaction rifle which acted as steamlocks to admit cans at one end anddischarge them at the other. A reel-and-spiral (the spiral attached to theinside of the tank) propelled thecans through the pressurized steamchamber.

The machine worked and a num-ber were sold, but it was slow(about 50 cans per minute) andcumbersome. Anderson-Barngroverengineers went back to theirdrawing boards.

In place of the sliding valves,Thompson designed an ingeniousrotary pocket valve, something likea revolving door on its side, toreceive incoming cans and transfer

ALBERT R. THOMPSON them to the channels of the reel.

IN 1915, this pressure vessel was intro-duced. It’s sliding valves were too slow,and it was re-designed.

The same valve was used on thedischarge end, here assisted by arotating star mounted beneath theend of the reel and synchronized sothat a star point pushed up throughan opening in each channel to liftthe can out of the reel and into apocket of the discharge valve.

Final version introducedThe third A-B cooker was intro-

duced in 1920, and this one wasthe real thing. The precisely syn-chronized steam-tight pocket valveplopped cans accurately into thereel channels in perfect timing andthe corresponding discharge valveat the other end, with its helperstar, retrieved them with equaldexterity.

The cooker shell was joineddirectly to a pressure cooler shell atthe discharge end. It was the samediameter as the cooker and slightlyshorter, also made of boiler plate,and employed the same mechanicalhandling system. Cans went directlyfrom the cooker to the cooler. Thecooler was partially filled with waterand air under pressure to preventswelling or bursting of cans as theycooled.

The long awaited automatic pres-sure cooking process was substan-tially complete. The Anderson-Barngrover system was continuous

cooked cans of food under pressureat high temperatures for short times

CANNERY equipment heads for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Fair in San Francisco.

COOKER LINE at the Anderson-Barngrover plant about 1915. Photo was made on a glassplate negative.

. . . it was completely automatic ... i t

...and immediately cooled them,under pressure... it provided nearperfect uniformity, each can washandled exactly like all the others.And it was fast — up to 400 cansper minute.

Moreover, the rotary action pro-vided gentle agitation. During thebottom third of the reel’s rotationthe cans fell away from theirchannels and rolled on their rimsalong the bottom of the tank, held inposition by the spiral and the edgesof the channel. This caused thelittle bubble of headspace in eachcan to move through the product,stirring it up and promoting moreeven heating within, which furthershortened the cooking time.

When it was finally introduced,the long-awaited continuous pres-sure sterilizer more than lived up toexpectations.

• It reduced cook room laborfrom as much as 15 to 1.

• It reduced steam consump-tion by 50 %.

• It produced a uniform pro-duct throughout the can run.Variations were virtuallyeliminated.

• Finally, it produced a betterquality product, turning outcanned goods with bettercolor, flavor, and texture.

The first major market of the newsterilizer was the evaporated milkindustry. Milk is one of the mostdifficult products to can. It must be

WILL C. ANDERSON

carefully heated and cooked underagitation to avoid discoloration,changes in taste, and other injuriesto the product. The new A-B con-tinuous sterilizers were tested forpreparing canned milk, and whilethey were successful, theyproduced a product different fromthe more viscous milk the publichad grown to accept.

To match the traditional milkproduct Thompson developed a pre-heater shell with successive cham-bers which heated the cans instages prior to pressure sterilization;and a cooler shell which did thesame thing in reverse. In addition,the company devised a means ofeliminating leakers - a simplearrangement of two convex discswith space for the cans to passbetween them. Normal cans,

coming from the pre-heater withends slightly distended wouldengage the rotating discs and belifted to the runway, while leakers,with flat ends, would pass throughand drop out of the system.Detectors were placed between thepre-heater and the cooker and atthe end of the cooler in reverse,where normal cans with flat endswould pass through, while leakerswhose ends remained distendedwere kicked out.

The special milk lines wereleased to the evaporated milkcanners and, by 1928, Anderson-Barngrover noted in their catalogthat these machines were placed invirtually every major milk state.

Use of the rotary sterilizer forgeneral canning grew steadily but ata slower pace, and although the1928 catalog was studded with test-imonials on its performance incooking various types of products, itdid not achieve dominance in theindustry until the 1950’s by whichtime the company was known asFMC.

Forty years earlier, the FMC“parent” company was founded inSan Jose on another food proces-sing invention. In 1888 WillAnderson patented a “Prune Dip-per”, a hand-operated arrangementof hinged baskets and levers to dipfreshly harvested prunes in a hotcaustic solution to prevent fermen-tation when the prunes were spread

ANDERSON-BARNGROVER plant in San Jose about 1920. Cars are parked by hitching posts.

A Company founded on inventions

Adapted for evaporated milk

out to dry in the sun.

He built the first ones by hand ina rented wood lot, and the businesswas known as W. C. Anderson,Horticulture Supplies. In 1897, theAnderson Prune Dipper Companywas formed, and moved into its ownquarters. In 1901 Anderson hired abrilliant, self-taught, young engineer,Albert R. (for Riley) Thompson, 21,to help with the design of equip-ment which ranged from orchardcultivators to warehouse wheel-barrows.

The company became embroiled ina patent dispute with a rival prunedipper manufacturer, the Barn-grover-Hull Company, and in 1902they settled the argument bymerging to form Anderson-Barn-grover. Two years later they builttheir first cannery equipment, asyruper which filled 12 cans simul-taneously. It was operated by a foottreadle, and fill height was eyeballedby the operator.

In 1910, the company built a newfactory at 333 West Julian Street inSan Jose, which was to be its head-quarters for the next 70 years. Ayear later the John Bean SprayPump Company moved in a fewdoors down the street. They werethe two largest manufacturingcompanies in San Jose. They weremerged to form the basis of FoodMachinery Corporation in 1928, and,ultimately FMC Corporation. WillAnderson became chairman of theboard, and Al Thompson chiefengineer.

Production expands overseasAfter World War II, there was a

rush to install the “new” automaticcooking systems and in the decadesto follow they spread around theworld. Manufacture of the cookerswas begun at an FMC plant inEurope in 1954, and in Australiaand South Africa shortly thereafter.

The company established a FoodResearch Laboratory in San Jose in1946 to help canners develop timeand temperature formulas toprocess a great variety of cannedproducts. Researchers calculate thatduring its 35 years, processestested by the laboratory have beenused to produce 5 trillion cans offood without danger to the public.

FMC and its predecessors havebuilt about 1,550 Rotary PressureSterilizer systems, the vast majority

MODERN Rotary Pressure Sterilizer assembly line at remodeled San Jose location.Cookers were made here for 60 years.

of them still in operation. They areknown to be in use in 25 countries:USA, Canada, Mexico, Panama,Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Australia,New Zealand, Philippines, Malaysia,Thailand, Singapore, Japan, UnitedKingdom, France, Germany, Italy,USSR, Iran, Israel, Kenya, SouthAfrica, China and Holland. They areestimated to produce about 43billion cans a year.

Which is a far cry from the earlydays when canners often stackedtheir cans outside the building tocool in case some of themexploded.

“Canning” dates from 1810 whenNicholas Appert, a Parisian confec-tioner was awarded a 12,000-francprize, offered 15 years earlier bythe French revolutionary govern-ment to anyone who could developa means of preserving food incontainers. Appert had workedpatiently during those years cookingvarious foods in glass jars with corkstoppers. He called the processAppertizing.

Development of the rotarypressure sterilizer which broughtautomation to the industry was, inmany ways, the culmination of theArt of Appertizing begun more than170 years ago by Nicholas Appert.Recognition of this invention as aninternational engineering landmark

by the American Society of Mechan-ical Engineers is a welcome tributeto the pioneers who developed it.

Refinements came as technologyprogressed. Welding replaced rivets;the drive pulley gave way to electricmotor and gear reducer. In the1940’s ASME pressure tankstandards were adopted for theshells and working pressures rosefrom 20 to 33 psig and beyond. Butthe basic machine remainsunchanged over 62 years, an elo-quent testimony to the soundness ofits design and the efficiency of itsfunction.

The invention of canning hasbeen ranked by at least onescholar, Dr. E. E. Free, in 1937, asone of the seven most importantinventions of mankind, joining suchpre-historic discoveries as the func-tion of seeds and the control of fire(together with the invention ofpottery, writing, standards ofweights and measures, and thePasteur germ theory). In a world ofexploding population, half of whomare hungry, this assessmentappears more and more to becorrect.

And the title of “Benefactor ofMankind” conferred on NicholasAppert may well apply to the menwho carry on the industry hefounded.

The American Society of Mechanical EngineersHistoric Mechanical Engineering Landmark Program

A National History and Heritage Committee was formed in 1971 by the ASME Council to promote a generalawareness of our technological heritage. The committee gathers data on all works and artifacts with a mechanicalengineering connection which are historically significant to the profession.

The committee’s national, and international, landmark program is a demarcation of sites which are of nationalor international significance — people or events which have contributed to the general development of mankind.

The Society also cooperates with the Smithsonian Institution to provide contributions of historical material to theU.S. National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

The FMC Rotary Pressure Sterilizer is the 75th Landmark, and the ninth International Landmark to be designatedsince the program began in 1973, and the first honoring the food processing industry. The ASME citation:

INTERNATIONAL HISTORIC MECHANICAL ENGINEERING LANDMARKFMC CONTINUOUS ROTARY PRESSURE STERILIZER

1920

These machines represent an important contribution to the ageless problemof food preservation and human nutrition. About one-half of all the foodsterilized in cans in the world is processed in them.

Their development (1913-1920) was led by A. R. Thompson of the Anderson-Barngrover Company of San Jose, California. In 1928 this company becamepart of the Food Processing Machinery Division of the FMC Corporation.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS - 1982

American Society of MechanicalEngineers Officers

Dr. Robert B. Gaither, PresidentRichard K. Pefley, Vice-President,

Region IXWilliam J. Adams, Jr., Chairman,

History & Heritage Committee,Region IX

Dr. Burke E. Nelson, ExecutiveDirector

ASME National History &Heritage Committee

Prof. J. J. Ermenc, ChairmanDr.R. Carson Dalzell, SecretaryProf. R. S. HartenbergDr. J. Paul HartmanProf. Edwin T. Layton, Jr.Merritt Roe SmithRobert M. Vogel, Smithsonian

InstitutionCarron Garvin-Donohue, Staff

Liason

ASME Santa Clara Valley Section

Alice M. Agogino, P.E., ChairmanThomas A. Roberts, Jr., P.E., Vice-

ChairmanGeorge I. Skoda, P.E., SecretaryArmen L. Leonian, TreasurerR. Michael Hunt, P.E., History &

Heritage Chairman

FMC CorporationFood Processing Machinery Division2300 Industrial Ave., Madera, CA 93639 209 661-3200Peter Perkins, Group Vice-PresidentDaniel A. White, General ManagerStanley C. Wijts, Division Engineering ManagerHowell S. Creed, Engineering Manager, MaderaMilton L. Croal, Project Engineer, Madera

William A. Wolff, Regional Vice-PresidentPeter W. Weber, General Manager, Central Engineer-

ing Laboratories

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