Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

Hey there and welcome to TechStuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. I'm an

executive producer with I-Heart Podcasts and How The Tech Are You? So long-time tech-stuff listeners know that I like to mix it up a bit on this show.

I have some episodes that focus on things like bleeding-edge technologies, you know, like quantum computing.

And then I do others that look back to

much less complicated and certainly less wibly wobbly

advancements in tech, and today we'll be talking about one of the examples in that second

category because I wanted to chat about can openers.

Now first off there's a good chance you've heard what is

arguably one of the most interesting facts about can openers, namely that it took nearly 50 years from the invention of the tin can to the

invention of the tin can opener which for me brings to mind this image of a very hungry person buried in a pile of can saying,

okay, now what?

But let's turn the clock back to the late 18th century and talk about what precipitated the

invention of the tin can in the first place.

It was war.

More specifically, it was the tail end of the French Revolutionary Wars, and those of course would

then transition into the Napoleonic Wars, so you know that way it was just convenient

to go from war to war and very often in the

descriptions of can-opiners and their history Napoleon Bonaparte gets thrown into

the story I do not know how accurate it is to say that Napoleon Bonaparte was instrumental in this. He may very well have been, but the timing is a little iffy. So the timing is typically set around 1795, so I'll get to why Napoleon may or may not have been involved in this particular part of the story

but the the basis of this problem was getting fresh or at least unspoiled food to soldiers who were out in the field.

One of the challenges that armies faced was that you know you got to feed all those folks who are fighting on your side or else they don't fight so good no more.

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