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Re:Cook Shortage Threatens to Sink U.S. Coast Guard Operations by eesmith on Wednesday November 02, 2022 @04:13PM (#33442305)
I learned it from the Connections episode "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry", at https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke/Connecti...

That segment starts at 16:57 (after development of the Swiss pike, changes in military tactics, mass mobilization in France, leading to the need to feed large mobile armies.)

This being Burke, it's not until 20:40 that it gets to setting up the competition and Appert.

At 24:10 is the transition to talking about tin cans. After discussing a machine to make paper, at 26:06 it leads into the chain of events that resulted in (at 27:49) that French book being translated into English, patented in England, and started (at 28:17) making preserved canned foods - because they were better at metal than bottles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_and_tin_cans says the idea was conceived by Philippe de Girard, who got the British merchant Peter Durand to patent the idea in 1810.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_opener adds "the first can openers were not patented until 1855 in England and 1858 in the United States."

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