Wiles Junior Cooker

[Ron King]

Looking at the collection of steamer pots I have it was as follows.
Food grade flat tin coated steel plate, exactly the same stuff as used in food cans.
Edges were rolled over plated wire.
The bottom seams were then heated and tinned in the corners to seal the bottoms of the pots.
They were not dipped.
The lids were done the same.
During the war Australia imported our tin plate steel from the USA as we did not have the ability to make it at that time even though we had a great increase in our canning industry at the time.
The laws have change now and modern food machinery now uses stainless steel, but I do remember being at a bread making factory and a older doe mixing machine bowl was beening retinned in the 1990s.
When the tin wears off though to the steel it had to be retinned straight away to pass food processing inspections.
The people who carried out the work operated from a boot of car and used tin in thin sticks and a LPG burner...........all very simple really.
I am not certain if any sort of flux was used.