Is it in a 'tin' or in a 'can'?

[Workingman]

I got to reading an article about tins and cans that left things as clear as mud... then I got to the comments section. Wow!

Most of us British seemed to be of the opinion that drinks came in cans - pop, beer, but foods came in tins - beans, salmon etc.

No, no, no chirruped the Yanks. Cans are round and tins are oblong / square and it does not matter what is in them.

"Correct" said the Canadians, well almost, but we get paint in tins and they are round.

"Nonsense!" screamed the Aussie, "I have 24 tinnies in the chiller with beer in them and I don't give a XXXX what you lot call them."

So, it's decided, nobody actually knows.

[Kaz]

It's a tin can - obviously

[JanB]

It's a tin can - obviously

[TheOstrich]

In the late 1940's, the Southern Railway chief mechanical engineer O. V. Bulleid devised and produced a fleet of passenger locomotives to work out of Waterloo and Victoria stations on fast and semi-fast trains. The design was fairly revolutionary - Bulleid was an innovator - and the locomotives were streamlined.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR_West_C ... (530149724).jpg

These were quickly nicknamed "Spam Cans". Certainly not tins. So the Yank was incorrect!

[JanB]

[Workingman]

These were quickly nicknamed "Spam Cans". Certainly not tins. So the Yank was incorrect!