Sometimes, we as consumers don’t necessarily have access to everything quality and well-made. Throughout history, the military has provided a fine example of an institution that reserves the right to some superior products for themselves. The dependence of a person’s life on a functioning buckle or zipper or the endurance of a material under extreme conditions, draws an attention to detail that consumers often don’t get the luxury to experience. Industry is another good example.
Industrial purchasers have big wallets and tend to get less caught up in unnecessary innovation or flashy design. The right material is put where it’s best served. With important purchases costs are secondary and form follows function.
Without the Necessary Care, Leather Cracks Over Time
This bag from Pro Can Corp. was made for Du Pont.
I wonder what they transported inside? Whatever it was, they certainly wanted to keep it safe. Its content was protected by thick canvas and secured by a leather strip that runs through durable metal buckets, which can be secured with a pad lock.
Metal Ring for Pad Lock
The bottom is made out of a unusual thick rubber/PVC. Maybe to protect from chemical spills?
Can Pro Corp., Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin
9 Comments
Great post (where did you find that bag?) and wonderful site. You’re nailing it.
Thanks for your kind words! I found this bag at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena. It’s by far the biggest flea market in the LA area and takes place every 2nd Sunday of the month. Here more info: http://www.rgcshows.com/
Sebastian
Love the Rose Bowl flea market!
The Rosebowl is overpriced. Go to Long Beach for much better deals.
How big is it? Your photos are lovely, but I’m having trouble getting the scale.
Also, what’s the point of a padlock if you can just use your mother-of-pearl gentleman’s knife to cut open the bag?
Kris – The bag is about 2′ 6” x 1′ 10”. I recently found a canvas utility bag that is even more extraordinary than this one. Will write about it soon! Sebastian
Heavy canvas bags like this were most often used by companies for transporting valuable papers, cash receipts, bank deposits, bonds and other securities etc. via messener or armored car service, to and from company offices, banks, etc.
A large company like duPont might receive tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue per day, and this in the era when payments were made by mailing in a paper check, hence the need to transport the checks, cash, whatever to a bank for deposit, or between various company locations. Also, not too long ago, many industrial concerns paid their hourly workers in cash – one received a small “pay envelope” – with the gross pay and deductions written (by hand!) on the outside on a little printed ledger. The “payroll”. secured in bags like this, would be transferred to the various plants and offices by armored car to be distributed to each employee on payday.
In college in the 70s, I worked part-time as a teller in the Fifth Avenue office of the Bank of New York. One of our customers was the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and every day we would receive their cash/check deposits in canvas bags like this one(marked “Metropolitan Museum”), often as much as $50k after weekends or when a large exhibit was opening.
In addition to a lock, the bags would typically (and, more importantly) be sealed with a lead wire seal, which, if broken would show evidence of tampering (a “chain of custody” feature). It’s true one could simply cut it open, but the lock/lead-wire seal mechanism was more of a way to detect tampering (and possible fraud or employee or messenger theft) – if “regular” thieves took the bags, well then no amount of padlocking was going to protect the contents anyway!
I enjoy reading your blog – keep up the good work!
My company, The Mount Washington Auto Road, has this exact bag.
It has been used for many many years as our bank deposit bag. We are located in the northern White Mountains of New Hampshire far from any services. After all these years (established 1861) a daily trip is still made into town for banking and post. This bag is part of our company heritage along with antique vehicles, farm equipment, race trophies and many company ledgers. I found your website by searching for Can Pro Corp in order to see if they might still be in business and able to make minor repairs to our bag. I did not find a website for them.
I think you guys are hitting a nerve with these writings: in our age of consumerism and disposable products it’s dead on. Keep at it!