Everyday we read about animals and plants becoming extinct. Unfortunately, it is impossible to bring back a living organism that has become extinct. While human beings are trying to take precautions against extinction, increasing population and advancing technology are treathening various species. Today, not only living things become extinct.  Lots of machinery and equipment prouced by years of study of technicians, which are perfect for the technology of that day fade away or are disposed of.  How will we tell the slide rules and Facit calculators that we used in university to the youth of today without a sample in our hands? Would it not be better if we show a sample and explain how it works? 

Today, we are curious about the statues made by people that lived hundreds of years ago and also the tools they used. We dig and clean tons of soil to find something. We demonstrate our findings in museums. It is possible that, the machines made 50 or 100 years ago may also attract people in future, and will be objects for which, people will travel hundreds of kilometers to see.

Cities that were established hundreds of years ago remained under the soil and were saved from the destruction that will be made by humans within many years. Today, many people do not know the value of the old. The perfect tools and machines, which served people for years, are disposed of to the warehouse of a junk yard and then are melted and destroyed as soon as they are replaced with the machines of new technology.

I spent my years making tin cans. It is sad that the important people who leaded the tin packaging sector in Turkey and established a strong base for this industry despite of the dearth, are forgotten and the machinery and equipment they used to produce cans are destroyed. I am afraid the remaining few tools and machinery will be destroyed soon. For this reason, I decided to establish a museum and write a book about the history of tin packaging industry in Turkey.

I hope, by the establishment of this museum and the contributions of my colleagues to the museum from now on, we will have the opportunity to demonstrate the machinery and equipment that witnessed the history of tin packaging sector and honour everybody that had served this sector and played a role in history of this sector.

I would like to thank to Selim Beceren who played an important role in the initiation of this project which started as a book idea and then converted into a museum, to Amaç Öner who supported the museum idea and worked hard to realize it, to Öntaş staff who worked in all stages from placement to cleaning, to Aydın Ural, Ahmet Palamutçu, Ali Şenhan, Nebibe and  Nejat Akçalı, Murat Feza and Hüseyin Elbüken who provided various can samples for the collection, to all my colleagues and friends who shared their machinery, pictures and knowledge, to Architect Meltem Kalya and her crew who rearranged the exhibition hall, to all employees of Etycat Advertisement Design Solutions who created the corporate identity of the museum and the website. I would like to thank once again to everyone who provided opinions, ideas and support from all over the Turkey and also from other countries, and to all who did not leave me alone for the gathering of the collection which will exhibit on the museum.

Best Regards;
A.Ercan ÖNER