My Grandma always called the thin metal foil you put over leftovers tin foil. And there were always leftovers from a meal with Grandma. She cooked in an amount like she was feeding an army mess hall, which is funny because Grandpa was a cook in World War II. But my geeky adolescent brain always corrected her, “But Grandma, it’s not tin foil – its ALUMINUM foil.” She’d flash her loving Grandma eyes that also said, “It doesn’t matter it’s still tin foil to me !”
Aluminum foil came about because a Swiss industrialist named Robert Victor Neher wanted an alternative to tin foil. Tin was rare and expensive, while aluminum was actually cheaper (it didn’t trade on the commodities stock market) and easier to source, and it didn’t impart that ‘tinny’ flavor to food it encased. Aluminum had different properties than tin foil, so Neher had to send technicians to his foil customers to modify their tin foil packing machines so they could still use them for the new aluminum. Neher patented the continuous aluminum rolling process in 1910 and opened a plant in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, on beautiful Lake Konstanz, about an hour directly east of where my Grandma’s Brosey family originated. His customers used foil to pack Swiss chocolates, boxed cheeses, tobacco, and for the Maggi company, which used the new foils to wrap their ready made soup stock cubes.
Well there’s good reason Grandma called it tin foil. Up until 1947 in America, it WAS tin foil, just like the tin made for the cans that contained soups, tuna, and in Cincinnati, even goetta. In 1919 Richard Samuel Reynolds formed the United States Foil Company, which focused on tin and lead foils. They broke into the tin industry in 1926. By World War II, they were the country’s largest producer of aluminum, supplying aluminum parts for the war effort. After the war, when large quantities of aluminum were not needed, they Reynolds Corp saw an opportunity to pivot and started making aluminum foil in 1947. They created Reynold’s Wrap, a household aluminum foil. The lightweight inexpensive aluminum foil became an instant success and became a kitchen staple that has stood the test of time. It also makes a great alien detector helmet, or a medieval knight’s helmet.
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