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The government of Napoleonic France offered 12,000 francs for a food preservation method, so that the French military would have non-perishable rations. What was this method? And when was the tool that is now used to open this object invented?
The answer is canning, and the can opener was patented in the 1850s.
French origins
During the first years of the Napoleonic Wars, the French government offered a hefty cash award of 12,000 francs to any inventor who could devise a cheap and effective method of preserving large amounts of food. The larger armies of the period required increased and regular supplies of quality food. Limited food availability was among the factors limiting military campaigns to the summer and autumn months. In 1809, Nicolas Appert, a French confectioner and brewer, observed that food cooked inside a jar did not spoil unless the seals leaked, and developed a method of sealing food in glass jars.[2] Appert was awarded the prize in 1810 by Count Montelivert, a French minister of the interior.[3] The reason for lack of spoilage was unknown at the time, since it would be another 50 years before Louis Pasteur demonstrated the role of microbes in food spoilage.
The French Army began experimenting with issuing canned foods to its soldiers, but the slow process of canning foods and the even slower development and transport stages prevented the army from shipping large amounts across the French Empire, and the war ended before the process was perfected. Unfortunately for Appert, the factory which he had built with his prize money was razed in 1814 by Allied soldiers when they entered France.
Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the canning process was gradually employed in other European countries and in the US.
It is German M109 with schalldämpfer. It is a sound dampening device use when testing munitions. It cuts the sound of firing way down, especially important as the German Artillery School is in a hilly area of extreme SW Germany and sound waves bounce around.
I saw this photo on the wall of Miesau Army Ammunition Depot (near Ramstein) a year ago when I was TDY there. One hallway had all kinds of photos of NATO weapons which fired rounds from there.
“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
Mark Twain
Okay, I am getting ready to head out on another battlefield tour and don't want to leave this hanging.
During George Rogers Clark's Illinois Campaign in 1778 he and his fore stopped at Corn Island at the Falls of The Ohio to await reinforcements. Once the force was ready it moved off on the Kaskaskia expedition and left behind the sick, camp followers and injured on the island. While there they planted a corn field (hence how the island got its name). After they wintered over, the settlers moved to the Southern bank of the river and established a settlement which became Louisville, KY. The Virginia General Assembly approved the town charter.
And with that, I'm out of here! (ignore the first 30 seconds of this video)
“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
Mark Twain
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