Canned Food Existed 48 Years Before the Can Opener

The quest to preserve food for long journeys and military campaigns was a major challenge of the 19th century. Responding to a call from Napoleon Bonaparte, inventor Nicolas Appert developed a method of sealing food in glass jars. However, it was British merchant Peter Durand who, in 1810, patented the more durable tin-plated iron can. These early cans were a technological marvel for their time, allowing provisions to be carried on naval voyages and military expeditions without spoiling. Their primary design consideration was durability, not convenience, leading to a significant and often brutal problem for the hungry people who depended on them.

Because these first cans were made of thick, heavy-gauge iron and sealed with lead solder, opening them was a serious undertaking. The cans could weigh more than the food they held, and the common instructions were simply to "cut round the top near the outer edge with a chisel and hammer." For nearly half a century, soldiers, sailors, and explorers relied on brute force. They used whatever tools were available—hammers, chisels, axes, and bayonets—to violently puncture and tear open the metal. It wasn't until 1858, when cans began to be made from thinner steel and were more widely available to the public, that Ezra Warner patented the first dedicated can opener, a sharp, sickle-like tool that finally made accessing preserved food a slightly less hazardous task.