Bill Bryson’s novel called At Home: A short history of Private life is; well an actual account of history but at home!
It is a very interesting concept! Bill moves to every room of his house and tells the history of stuff in and around the room!
One of the things in history he tells about is the preservation of food!
Since most food items are perishable; there was a big need for inventions which could prolong the life of food items or at least store them for longer periods!
In fact many of the methods of preservation of food like pickling and drying are nothing but extending the life span of the food!
One of the inventions which solved this problem was the metal food can! Sealed after preparation and very robust!
But you would think that it made life easier! Well that was not the case! Till the time another invention was invented, the can was a big problem to open!
The invention that changed it all was the humble can opener!
Life before the can opener was tough since that meant people had to use crude, heavy-duty tools like hammers and chisels, knives, or axes to crack open thick iron food containers!
This was because the first and early cans were tough with Heavy construction! The first tin-plated iron and wrought-iron cans—patented by Peter Durand in 1810—were up to 3/16-inch thick and weighed more than the food inside them!
In fact the there was an official advice on how to open it! Manufacturers actually printed instructions right on the metal labels telling users to “cut round the top edge with a hammer and chisel.”
Now if you are an otologist in the early 20th century you might have one pair hanging around but even otherwise if you do have a hammer and chisel; it was not an easy task to open the fort knox which was the TIN CAN!
So people became creative!
Other Households MEN and workers relied on pocketknives, hatchets, or machetes!
Then we had the so called Military methods!
Soldiers on the battlefield used bayonets, marlinspikes, or even smashed the cans against rocks! The food got some extra iron and other HOT ingredients which was an added advantage!
Finally you have the Extreme measures (as if the ones stated till now were mild!) Some people resorted to shooting the cans open with pistols! I guess the bullets even COOKED as a the GEN Z would say!
So with all these dangers it was time for the can opener to come!
Though there were many crude version in 1870 came the first Rotary Design! William Lyman introduced a rotary-wheel opener where a central pin anchored into the lid and a sharp wheel rolled around the edge!
Then finally in 1925 came the Modern Standard! The Star Can Opener Company (with later contributions by Charles Arthur Bunker) added a second serrated feed wheel. This clamped the can rim securely and became the blueprint for almost all manual hand-crank openers used today!
Even the modern can opener is simply a modification of this design which was done more than a hudred years back!
Of course now many cans come with easy opening mechanism but still once in a while you do get some cans which needs to be opened! Just do not take out your gun for that!
One can is the pepsi can! Though I don’t drink any drink except maybe some ginger ale! Which reminds me of Indra Nooyi!
Shubh ratri…
