From Taphole to Sap Spout, Canada’s Maple Sugar Industry

Improving on methods used by native Canadians, Hiram A. Lawrence received a patent for his Sap Spout, preventing loss of the precious sweet sap.

Illustration of First Nations making maple syrup in the north. Canadian Illustrated News, Vol. XXVII, No. 19, May 12, 1883.

Long before Europeans landed on the wilderness shores of eastern Canada, North American natives made use of the hardwood maple forests to provide sweet treats and sugary sustenance. With a rough knife or tomahawk, the natives made a cut into the tree bark. A small piece of wood, perhaps a hollow reed, was inserted into the tap-hole as a spout and a container fashioned out of bark collected the clear maple sap. The collected fluid was poured into clay pots and boiled to maple syrup.

Maple Sap Boiled in Iron Cauldrons

The method was ineffective, with the precious sweet sap leaking from around the spout and missing the container. French settlers arriving in Lower Canada were also interested in maple syrup and devised new methods of collection. The colonists used small axes to make notches in the maple trees and “around 1890, the wooden pails or tubs suspended to the tree by a nail made their appearance limiting the losses,” said the Maple Syrup site, Erable. The settlers then boiled the clear, sweet sap into appetizing golden brown syrup in iron cauldrons.

Several inventors (at that time mainly from Quebec) brought innovative designs to the patent office. Hiram Addison Lawrence, living in East Farnham, of Quebec’s Eastern Townships received Patent No. 6208 for his “Sap Spout” in 1876. Lawrence’s patent application stated that new spout designs were required since the common spouts were “in many points very defective in their working and even absolutely injurious to the tree,” noted “Made in Canada: Patents of Invention and the Story of Canadian Innovation” at Library and Archives Canada.

Hiram Lawrence’s Efficient “Maple Sap Spout”

His spout design was more efficient, Lawrence claimed. “A hooked end of the spout was inserted into the hole until a flange at the base of the channel came into contact with the bark,” noted “Made in Canada.” “The weight of the pail on the spout’s channel caused the hook to dig in, while the flange prevented leakage.” Less damage to the tree prevented disease from attacking the injured bark, and there was less loss of sap. Sap buckets also underwent redesign, the metal formed into an oval shape with a narrow base. Later, lids were added to the buckets to keep out precipitation, hungry bugs and debris.

Drawings for Patent No. 6208 issued to Hiram A. Lawrence in 1876 for his Maple Sap Spout invention. Innovation Storybook, Ingenium.

Collecting maple sap is a seasonal event in the “Maple Belt” of eastern Canada – the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario – and of the north-eastern United States. Sap stored by the hardwood maple tree over the winter begins to flow with the onset of spring. “The sap flow is stimulated in spring as the days become warmer and temperatures rise above 0° C during daylight, followed by below-freezing nights,” according to Leo H. Werner in the entry, “Maple Sugar Industry” in The Canadian Encyclopedia. The sap flows more freely during the day, slowing at night, an annual process that occurs over approximately six weeks.

Canada Leads in Maple Syrup Production

Maple syrup production continues today, with Canada holding 85% of the world’s maple syrup industry. The processes have improved and modernized over many decades, but the end product is virtually still the same as it was hundreds of years ago: delicious, thick syrup from the Canadian maple tree.

Sources:

“History,” Erable, Accessed March 12, 2011

“‘Sap Spout,’ Hiram A. Lawrence,” Made in Canada: Patents of Invention and the Story of Canadian Innovation, Library and Archives Canada, Accessed March 12, 2011

Werner, Leo H., “Maple Sugar Industry,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, Accessed March 12, 2011

Sap Spout drawings for Patent No. 6208 issued in 1876 to Hiram A. Lawrence. Innovation Storybook, Ingenium Canada. Accessed April 29, 2024.

This article first appeared on Suite101.com in March 2011. (C) Susanna McLeod