• A. The freezer
  • B. The refrigerator
  • C. The tin can
  • D. Vacuum packaging

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This is a 19th-century invention that seals food airtight. The military was the first to use it.

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The correct answer is C. The tin can.

Peter Durand, a Dutchman working in England, patented the tin can in 1810. Okay, the Frenchman Nicolas Appert had already preserved food in glass jars earlier, but Durand came up with something smarter: metal cans. They were lighter and didn’t break. Perfect for ships and the military. What makes it truly remarkable? Food could suddenly stay good for months, even years. That changed everything - from sea voyages to what ordinary people could eat at home. Oh, and here’s where it gets funny: the can opener wasn’t invented until 48 years later. Yes, you read that right. Until then, people simply had to break open their cans with a hammer and chisel!

📚 More background information

The story actually begins with Napoleon. He had announced a competition: who can devise a way to preserve food longer for my troops? Nicolas Appert won in 1809 with glass jars. Clever, but Peter Durand immediately saw the problem: glass is heavy, breaks easily, and on a rocking ship? Forget it.

His metal cans were a much better solution. Though the first ones weren’t cheap - one can cost as much as a worker’s daily wage. Only when machines arrived that could mass-produce cans did it become affordable.

And then things really took off. The tin can changed the world, without exaggeration. Suddenly you could eat pineapple in the Netherlands, trade perishable products around the entire world, and undertake polar expeditions without starving. Without cans? Many famous voyages of discovery simply wouldn’t have been possible.

But that story about the can opener remains the strangest. Ezra Warner only invented it in 1858. Before that, you’d get instructions like “cut around the top with a knife” or - and this is actually true - “use a bayonet if necessary”. The British Navy had a standard chisel on board well into the 19th century, purely for opening cans. Imagine being hungry and having to hack away at your food first.

The Netherlands actually did well in the canning industry. Especially the Zaan region was early in preserving vegetables, fruit and fish. Some of those brands still exist today. Pretty impressive when you consider how it all started: with expensive handmade cans that you had to crack open like some kind of metal coconut.