Paper Cans

Is the tin can doomed? American Can Co. last week got ready to produce a so-called fiber ersatz for the metal cans of which this company has hitherto been No. 1 U.S. manufacturer.

Customers, who have already begun to buy paint and motor oil in paper containers, will not be surprised to learn that the fiber can is also essentially a paper can. Some fiber cans still have metal tops and bottoms.

The new cans save tin and iron for war uses. They can be made by the same machinery that makes tin cans, are cheaper than glass containers, which cost more than tin cans. But fiber cans are suitable chiefly for dry products like drugs, spices, powders. Since they cannot be used for processed foods which must be hermetically sealed, canmakers believe that after the war fiber cans will no more replace tin cans than zippers have replaced buttons.

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