The Tin Can

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...

It's no secret that I like to peruse the classified listings of various rocketry and Facebook pages.  Sometimes I even find a bargain.  But it's even more likely that I'll find something to amuse me.

Such was the case last week, when I got back from a trip across the country that had no internet nor computer access.  I felt like I should do a brief survey of my favorite sites, and yes, the usual listings that had caught my eye were still there.  I skipped them.

But then I saw one that listed "Rocket Supplies" and featured 4 photos.  The first one caught my eye, as it had exactly three individual motors laid out, and in the background was a tin can. 


No, not a soup can, but a tin, in the shape of a rectangle. It had a red lid with white printing on it that read "Relic".  I assumed that it was a brand name of some product that I was unfamiliar with at the time.

I turned to a co-worker who is less than a third of my age, and asked if he recognized the brand name. He said he's heard it, but can't place it, and begged off.   I still didn't get it.

I did a little google search for Relic men's brand and came up with dozens of images of metal tins of various sizes, but then a few popped up that appeared to be just right.

It was a metal tin that had housed a man's leather wallet when purchased.

Can you think of anything less practical than a metal tin that must be disposed of after employing the product?

And it reminded me that my mother used to keep dozens of spools of thread inside a cookie tin for several decades.  It didn't occur to me WHY someone might do this but it did keep them all together.

Recently, my wife has told me that she's not interested in the thread that has been stored down in Florida during the pandemic, in part, due to the volume of spools, but also because of the thread weakening in the heat and if exposed to light.  This had never occurred to me before. Thread weakens?!

So, if you wanted to appeal to men who had lived through the Great Depression, when everything was saved and recycled, you might just include a metal tin.  Maybe it was an appeal to memory. Or maybe it  preserved the leather.  Perhaps you were supposed to store your cash in it when not in your wallet.  Or maybe it was that it could be reused for something....handkerchiefs, shoe laces, buttons, or such.

But today, we're storing our rocket motors in tins.

Some choose to store them in Ammo cans.  Some in plastic tackle boxes. Some in metal tool kits or tackle boxes.  And some in pretzel, nut or cookie tins. 

 (Now, I understand the fear that some have in a tin or metal can giving off a spark and starting a conflagration... but I think with just a few low power motors, this is a relatively low risk...especially if you were to line the tin box with something like a sponge or perhaps a thick cloth or cardboard.  Any insulating material that might cushion the motors from rolling around, etc. )

Then I looked a bit more closely at the photos, and noticed that in one photo, the red lid was clearly labeled   "E9s" "ENGINES" "D12", but in another, all the black sharpie marker notations had been scribbled out...blacked out by a thick tip felt marker.  This puzzled me, as I couldn't figure out why they might do this.  The photo showed two C6-5 motors and one D12-5 motor separately.  So I responded.


I asked the seller what the deal was, and what the tin was from.  She responded that she really didn't know what the tin was from, but that she had blacked out the label to reduce any confusion on just what was included. (Didn't want to imply that the tin was full of E9's.)  I told her that it had sparked my curiosity, but that I wasn't likely to drive three hours northward just to pick up 3 motors and a tin can, but I thanked her for clarifying and wished her luck. 

So after this distraction, I began thinking about all the various sources for tin cans and metal tins. I can think of many from past decades that have been replaced by modern day plastics or cardboard.  How many can you think of?

Nuts, cookies, crackers, cigars, candies, wallets, just to name of few.  What have I missed? Were did you last see a metal tin from?  And how was it employed?  What did your family use it for?

The Thrifty Rocketeer wants to know.

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