View Full Version : What is a Tea Can?
johnnytheboy
25-09-2009, 20:41
http://www.homecookonline.co.uk/Products.aspx?category=40
anyone any ideas???
helixpteron
25-09-2009, 20:51
http://www.sites.si.edu/images/exhibits/Magic%20Web/images/Toucan-with-Cicada_jpg.jpg http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv29/helixpteron/happy0009.gif
Tea Canister..............it's what we keep tea in.
You are joking ?? No ?
I think the American's call our mugs, cans, though. Well, the straight sided ones.
cheers,
Toddy
p.s. We call them caddies too, but that was originally the box that held the canisters.
johnnytheboy
25-09-2009, 21:02
Hi Toddy,
No the thing in the link, its like a jug or something with a enamel cup on the top, i was wondering if its like a kettle and cup think, maybe what old timers had before flasks?
It doesnt have any pictures to explain what its like when it breaks down, i.e. is it just a kettle??
johnnytheboy
25-09-2009, 21:02
sorry the link doesnt work right its on page three at the very bottom
No idea :dunno: We used to carry cold tea in a bottle in Summertime .......flasks were expensive and kids didn't get them.
Might be, might be...........looks kind of useful for that. Suppose the cup is both lid and how to drink :cool:
Enamel ought to be okay on the fire, uncomfortably hot to drink from though at times.
Hmmmm.,
cheers,
Toddy
"Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can, come saddle my horses and call out my men " Bonnie Dundee.
I saw one of these being used in a WW2 propaganda film, by a firewatcher or air observer or roadmender or somesuch. I haven't been able to find any information on them though...
http://www.homecookonline.co.uk/uploadedimages%5Cproducts%5Cla rge_brew_can.jpg
dosnay look like its put in the fireable,
wot happened to you at achray johhny?, missed all the pike action ;)
ForgeCorvus
25-09-2009, 21:19
You can use a Tea-can to brew up,it has a bail-arm and a lid that doubles as a cup
Or you can carry cold tea in it (or any other liquid you might want to drink) and either use it as a flask or re-heat/warm the contence over a fire or on a stove top
The mug lid should have a dogleg groove in it that bayonets into the top of the can, mine did anyway....I'll have to see if I can find it as it was quite a good little pot really
Dammit, I must type faster
johnnytheboy
25-09-2009, 21:20
Oh no tell me more!!!! what did i miss
I was just back from Cuba and just couldn't get over the jet lag
i suppose if its American they are mad on their iced tea, my idea of tea is a nice warm brew with 2 and coo.
Even I saw the pike :D .....just.
That can thing looks like a burnt hand in the making, doesn't it ?
cheers,
Toddy
............. my idea of tea is a nice warm brew with 2 and coo.
:lmao: brilliant ! :D
Yup thats a tea can, back in the 50s and before miners especially took cold tea to drink at work, no doubt sugared to hell and back.
I vaguely remember seing a battered one at the Blaenavon Big Pit museum.
Now what I'd really like to find is a proper ACME snap tin!
ATB
Tom
johnnytheboy
25-09-2009, 21:40
I guess i know what a tea can is now, thanks folks, dont think i'll buy one as i see no use for cold tea
As used by train drivers, the tea wood be heated in them on the coals of the engine.
They will take the heat of any open fire no problem.
When my dad worked on the railways back in 60's I remember him taking his brew can
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk230/xlfive/feb06L_cab_bulkhead.jpg
I remember watching the fireman signning (rinsing) out the teapot from a spigot on the side of an engine in Glasgow Central when I was very little. My dad said they must like oily tea. It was definitely a tea pot. I saw the steaming tea leaves on the track later when I squinted over the bumpers.
We live and learn :cool: Funny old world.
cheers,
Toddy
Hi
i've worked at sheffield forgemasters foundry for thirty years and when i first started (at the tender age of 19!), everybody had one of these, we called them billy cans (dunno why tho'!)
the scruffy gits wouldn't wash them out, they were always completely black inside (imagine what tea wil do to your guts :eek:)
they said the flavour would dissapear if they were washed (i'd rather sup tasteless tea :yuck: )
john :)
BTW, tea, milk and sugar were all thrown in together then the water, it was then placed on top of a fire...
johnnytheboy
25-09-2009, 22:41
John when i was an apprentice, one of our old timers was the same with his cup, the cleaner took bleach to it one day, you would have thought world war three had started that day!!!!!!
they look handy ,i quite like enamel.
they look handy ,i quite like enamel.
used to burn your lips like mad though :o
john :D
ForgeCorvus
25-09-2009, 23:01
I like enamelware too
The mug doesn't get that hot (as I remember) coz you're heating from the bottom, you will need a rag to pour out though.
When I'm at events I always use an enamel mug and (recently) due to my costume I use a short (about 5 1/2 inches) piece of SS tubing as a straw