Tin Cans

Nicholas Appert, a Frenchman, discovered the means of cooking food in a glass jar sealed with a stopper in 1809. A vacuum was created that preserved the contents until the jar was opened.
The original fragile and heavy glass containers presented challenges for transportation, and glass jars were largely replaced in commercial canneries with cylindrical tin or wrought-iron canisters (later shortened to ‘cans’). Peter Durand is the British merchant who is widely credited with receiving the first patent for the idea of preserving food using tin cans in 1810. The British Navy and polar explorers were some of the first to use these new cans.
Cans were cheaper and quicker to make, and much less fragile than glass jars. Can openers were not invented for another thirty years.
The principle of canning not only revolutionised food production, enabling a wide range of products to be available all year round, but it was also cheaper, providing a healthier and more varied diet. Canned food remains popular today, and in the UK over five billion cans are consumed each year.