Which came first: the can or the can opener?

Tin cans were invented 43 years before the can opener.

In 1812 two Englishmen set up the world’s first food canning factory (based on an originally French invention), where they produced canned goods for the British army. However, the men receiving the canned goods had a spot of trouble getting at the food within, as a dedicated device to get at the food had not yet been invented, and the tins themselves were incredibly thick, heavy and robust.

For the record, cans were not made of tin, even though the English still call them “tins”. They were made from iron, lined with tin, and sealed with lead.

The soldiers had to break into the cans using whatever tools they happened to have available, commonly a hammer and chisel. As an extra reward they often received a hefty dose of lead poisoning because of crude manufacturing technology. (In fact, lead poisoning was one factor that doomed the legendary and macabre Franklin expedition of 1845 to find the Northwest Passage.)

It wasn’t until 1855 that a device for opening cans was invented. Robert Yeates devised the first primitive tin opener, with a claw shaped design to cut around the top of the can. (An American patent was awarded in 1858 for another design, when the first steel cans were manufactured.) As canned food became more widely used, more sophisticated can openers were invented, ultimately for the domestic kitchen.