Against this background in 1876 his first bottle of ketchup was released by Henry Heinz. I must say, his company was at the forefront in many ways. The life and death of the workers were insured at the expense of the employer, the factory had a cafeteria, a medical station, a dental office, a swimming pool, a gym, and a roof garden. The rooms were kept perfectly clean.
At a time when many of the workers did not have plumbing at home, Heinz provided them with clean uniforms, free laundries, and even manicure specialists, because the food industry employees had to keep their nails in perfect order. The factory that your museum hosted 30,000 visitors a year: Heinz had nothing to hide.
Of course, Heinz was not a philanthropist who wanted to give people happiness and health. But he believed that a successful business is an honest business. Having made his first money on horseradish, he decided to sell it not in brown dishes, which were usual for that time, but in transparent banks, so that the buyer could see what he was doing before he left the money.
Heinz's employees fought for a long time over a suitable recipe, and it was only in 1904 that G-F Mason found a way to get rid of traditional preservatives. Before that, Heinz had acted in the same way as his competitors (see above), not even scraping with coal tar. Soon the company produced 5 million bottles of ketchup without preservatives per year.
One day Heinz saw an advertisement, which stated that a company produces "21 types of shoes". Then the entrepreneur took his favorite number "five" and combined it with the "seven", which was most liked by his wife. That's all. At that time, the company was already producing more than 60 different products.
Although "57 varieties" is just a joke, the small label with this inscription, wrapped around the neck, performs an important function.
Everyone who uses ketchup should know that it is a non-Newtonian liquid in front of him. After filtration of tomato puree ketchup turns out very liquid, watery even. Therefore, manufacturers add a small amount of xanthan gum. It not only thickens the liquid but also gives it the property of pseudoelasticity. In other words, how quickly the ketchup flows (i.e. how much it can be reduced in viscosity) depends on the pressure applied to it.
If you let the ketchup flow out of the bottle at a speed of 45 m/h. The only way to speed it up is to apply force to it. Many chefs and eaters who are not familiar with physics, hit the bottom of the bottle and do it in irritation sometimes too much. The mistake is that the ketchup closest to the point of impact absorbs most of the applied force. This fraction of the fluid does flow freely, but the contents of the bottle, which is closer to the neck, retains its viscosity and turns into a kind of cork that does not allow you to fertilize the hotdog with ketchup.
The solution is to cause a liquefaction effect at the top of the bottle, not at the bottom. Knock your fingers on the "57 varieties" label and you will be able to create the ideal conditions to reduce viscosity. Voila! Nenyanton ketchup has become a free-flowing liquid.
Of course, these days ketchup is mostly sold in plastic bottles with flexible walls and can be simply squeezed out. Of course, Heinz's competitors have long since figured out how to make quality ketchup, and no longer shy away from transparent packaging. The expression "tomato ketchup" became pleonasm. And only a crazy charlatan will declare ketchup a panacea for all troubles.
Nevertheless, it is Henry Heinz and his employees we owe to and transparent design, and a clear example of non-Newtonian physics.
This is the story of ordinary tomato ketchup. Ketchup was invented by the Chinese, improved by the Europeans, and brought to a modern look by the Americans.