Apropos to nut’n, were the can and the can opener invented simultaneously? I figure someone didn’t invent the can opener first and then said, “Hey, we’ve got this great opener, now let’s invent something it can open.” If that didn’t happen, and they were not both made at the same time, that means that, after the first man successful sealed food inside a can, he stood a long while just staring at it wondering, “Now how the hell do I get it out of there? Now this seems like such a dumb idea, because I’m hungry.” I know that if someone had taken my food, sealed it inside a can, and didn’t have a way of getting it out, I’d be pretty pissed.
I suspect that canned food was invented to take advantage of that odd, hook-like attachment on Swiss army knives. I think this attachment was previously used for gutting enemy soldiers but once the Swiss squared off against the French there was no need for it. It would have whithered slowly like the human appendix but fortunately someone invented canned food and beer.
Now that’s a really good question…
Which came first: the toilet or the toilet plunger?
the can came first otherwise the can opener would have had no purpose other than perhaps as a nice table decoration or yard furnishing.
you see kids, back in the old west, the settlers built their houses out of mud.
(no they didnt, dad, they used sod)
and when they ran out of sod, they used…mud.
Neither.
Food was first stored in Bottles. I believe that it was an Englishman that conceived of the process of heating and then storing food. The French army under Napoleon used the process to store food in bottles to ease re-suppling as Nappy tried to conquer Europe.
Imagine trying to feed an army when your only methods of food preservation were salting and drying.
I actually know the answer to this. Seriously. The can was invented before the can opener… almost FIVE DECADES before.
You can read all about it here.
Spoons to the rescue!
Well, I guess that answers that question, though I liked Ken’s version too.
The old cans were opened with a little key device if you needed to remove the entire lid. Otherwise, you’d just punch a large hole in one side and a small one on the opposite.
Oh, you wanted the RIGHT answer. Well, if I had only known….
BTW, please, please, please don’t tell Andrea Harris I put an unnecessary “h” in wither. She’s really touchy about whacko wacko stuff like that.