#nicolas appert

“Although he [Napoleon] continued so far as possible the Revolutionary practice of having armies live off the land, he also did his best to develop an efficient commissariat. A famous part of his supply system was canned food, particularly meat, for the army. Nicholas Appert had started the food-canning industry in 1804, building a factory that employed fifty people. His method prescribed putting the food in glass jars, which were next carefully stoppered, and then cooked in boiling water for lengths of time varying with the type of food. The navy first used the canned food, with great success even on extended cruises. In 1810 the Minister of the Interior awarded Appert 12,000 francs on condition he make his process public.”

— Robert B. Holtman, The Napoleonic Revolution

The inventor of canning, Appert, deposited samples of his invention to the imperial government in 1809, specifically to the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry [Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale].

He published his findings in 1810, titled: Le livre de tous les ménages ou l'art de conserver pendant plusieurs années toutes les substances animales et végétales [English tr: The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances For Several Years]. It was “a work published by the order of the French Minister of the Interior, on the report of the Board of Arts and Manufactures”.

For his discovery, the government paid him 12,000 francs and gave him free lodgings and a workshop in the Hospice des Quinze-Vingts. Every prefecture in the French Empire was supplied with a copy of his book, and the prefects were assigned the responsibility of disseminating the information widely. Two more editions were created under the empire, and another in 1831.

His factories were ransacked and destroyed during the invasions of France in 1814 and again in 1815. He was able to rebuild and won several gold medals from the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry and eventually became a member of the Society.

Appert is quoted as saying “I sacrificed everything for humanity, all my life”.

Additional Sources:

English translation of Appert’s 1810 publication

Nicolas Appert inventeur et humaniste, Jean-Paul Barbier, 1994 (Fondation Napoléon)

Collection A. Carême: Le conservateur 1842 (archive.org)

Nicolas Appert (1749-1841) was a French brewer who worked first as a steward, and then (during the Napoléonic era) as a confectioner.  He was cheerful, bald, and had very thick black eyebrows.  His sweet shop was on the rue des Lombards in Paris, and although he knew how to preserve & candy many fruits in sugar, he wasn't happy with this method, feeling that there should be a more “natural” way of doing it.  None of the preservation methods were right.  Drying took away the food's texture; salt made it “acerbic” (sour/bitter); sugar covered up its true flavour.

Nicolas Appert (1841).

The French Revolutionary Wars lasted from 1792-1802 (a result of the French Revolution).  In 1795, France was at war with Britain, and they wanted a better way of feeding their troops.  Napoléon offered a prize of 12,000 francs to whoever could come up with a better method of food preservation.

Appert experimented with perserving fruits, vegetables, and meat stews in champagne bottles, which he heated in baths of hot water. The champagne bottles were replaced with wider-necked bottles, and he eventually felt confident enough to send a few botttles to the French Navy.  They were pleased – the French Navy Minister remarked that the beans and peas had “all the freshness and flavour of freshly-picked vegetables”.  The Courier de L'Europe said that “M. Appert has found a way to fix the seasons.”  He received the 12,000 franc prize.

Appert canning jar.

In 1810, Appert published a book explaining his method.  While he preserved exotic foods in his corked bottles (such as apricots, artichokes, asparagus, chestnuts, grape must, newly-laid eggs, redcurrants, truffles, young partridges, and the soup of julienned vegetables), the basic process could be used for pretty much anything, and still is today.

But Appert gave up the chance of patenting his invention by accepting the prize.  A few months after his book came out, Peter Durant (an English broker) rushed out a patent for a food preservation method that was very similar to Appert's.  It was bought by Bryan Donkin (an engineer) for £1,000.

In 1813, Donkin opened a factory called the “Preservatory” in Bermondsey, with his business partners Mr. Gamble and Mr. Hall.  The Preservatory produced foods preserved with Appert's methods, heating the containers in boiling watter for up to 6hrs.  They switched the glass bottles for tin-coated iron cans (tin cans) because glass was too fragile.

But there were problems at the start.  In 1852, thousands of cans of meat for the British Navy were inspected and found to be disgusting, “their contents being masses of putrefecation”.  It was thought that “air has penetrated into the canister, or was not originally entirely exhausted,” but this was not the reason.  With Pasteur, it was found that there is a class of microbes that can live without air, and need to be killed through heating.  The original cans were about 1-2kg (today, they're about 125-800g), and the navy cans were about 5kg, but the length of heating time hadn't been increased for them.

By the 1870's, canned food quality had increased greatly, and it was being sold internationally.  A person in Britain could eat Fray Bentos corned beef from Uruguay; someone in China could eat tinned ham from Bermondsey.  One canning historian noted that an American family could now pick from “a kitchen garden where all good things grow”.

However, this wasn't quite true, because canning makes some foods taste a bit weird.  Spinach is sludgy and metallic.  Pineapple and peaches are fine, but raspberries turn to mush.

Cans are used more for drinks than food these days.  Globally, about 75 billion units of canned food are sold, as opposed to 320 billion units of canned drinks.

The Can Opener

The first can opener wasn't invented until 50yrs after Appert's invention.  Until the 1860's, cans came with the instruction “cut round the top near the outer edge with a chisel and hammer”.

The first can opener was invented by Robert Yeates (a British maker of surgical instruments & cutler) in 1855.  It was a claw-like lever attached to a wooden handle: you gouged the lever into the top of the can, and then forcefully cut around it, leaving a jagged edge. It was very difficult to use.

Yeates can opener.

Many strange designs followed.  The Warner (used during the American Civil War) had a sharp sickle on the end, which was rather dangerous. In 1868, cans with keys to roll a strip of the top metal off were produced: these worked well for sardine cans, but not for the normal cylindrical tins, because it only opened a part of the lid.  Electric openers appeared in the 1930's, but they just made the job more complicated.

A drawing from Ezra Warner’s patent.

Georgia peaches have become one of America’s most recognizable symbols, even though peaches are not actually native to Georgia. The fruit originally came from China and made its way to America through Europe. While Georgia proudly embraces its Peach State identity, from Atlanta’s Peachtree streets to peach-themed landmarks across the state, the truth behind that nickname is far more…

“An army marches on its stomach,” Napoleon is supposed to have said. But unfortunately for the armies of his time, the food available to the stomachs of those hungry soldiers was neither appetizing nor nutritious--consisting primarily of hard bread and salted meat. Napoleon wanted to better feed his army, so he offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could invent a better way to store and preserve food.

The chef Nicolas Appert rose to the challenge. After years of trial and error he eventually perfected a method of putting food in jars and then submerging the jars in boiling water to preserve the food and seal the jars. In other words, he invented canning.

Appert won the prize and the fame that came with it. The process he invented is essentially the same process we still use today.

Kaşif ve Gezgin

Piri Reis

Doğum tarihi bilinmemektedir. 155 i’te Kanuni tarufmdan boynu vurdurulmuştur. Denizcilik ve coğrafya alanındaki eserleriyle ünlüdür.

Piri Reis, gemiciliğe beşledikten eonre Akdenizli* İren ysmnı dolsstı. Yeninde vnlır tığı Kemel Rele, korsanlığı bırakıp devlet hlımetlne geçince Plrt Reis de onu İsledi II. Beyeıld devrindeki denli eeveylertnde Un yepmeye başladı, Yavuz Selim ve ksnunl Süleyman semenlerindeki denli savaşlarına da katıldı Pir silrft Barbaros’la çalıştı 1531 ‘do Mısır Donanmaeı Kumandanı oldu. 3t parça gtml ila Suvaya’tan kalkarak Kı zıldenls’l geçip Basra körfeslne açıldı Arabistan yarımadasındaki Aden kelesini aldı Fakat stratejik Önemi bulunen Hürmüş adasını, ede helkının verdiği kıymetli hediyeler yüzünden, zaptetmedi Portekiz donanmasıyla de eeveşmeyıp î gemi ve ganimet terle Mıeır’e dündü ve bu hettlerını heyetiyle ödedi Plrt Rele’ln. Akdeniz’in butun sahillerini anlatan Kitabı Bahrlyye adlı cogrelys kitabı ve değerli bir atlası vardır.

Nicolas Appert

Fransız ticaret adamı ve mucidi 1752’de Chülonssur-Mame’da (Fransa) doğdu, lMl’de Mnssy’de (Fransa) öldü.

Besin konserveleri sanayisinin öncüsüdür. Bugün bütün dünyada o keder gallfmie bulunan beeln konserveleri aanayll, 1790 yıllarınn doğru Paris’te şekercilik yapmakta olan Nicolas Apperte çok saylar borçludur. Zira Appert çok sıkı kepeli kaplara konarak hlt süre kaynatılan besin maddelerinin içindeki mayelerın sıcaklık etkisiyle yok edilebileceğini düşünmüştü mayaları alınmış bu yiyecekler, uzun süre bozulmadan yanabilecek dununda kalabilirdi. Hemen deneye girişen Appert hava almayacak şekilde sımsıkı kapanığı cam kavanozlara meyve, hattâ süt gibi besinleri koydu vs bunları su dolu hlr kabın içinde tutarak kaynattı vo umduğu sonucu aldı Aylar soma Appertin hamle dığı konservelerle uzun bir eslere çıkan gemiciler, kış ortasında, llkbahaı sebzelerini lezzetla yediklerini söylediler

Branly

Édouard Branly Fransız öğretmeni ve fizikçisi, 1844’te Amiens’de (Fransa) doğdu, 1940’ta Paris’te öldü.

Kaşif ve Gezgin

Piri Reis

Doğum tarihi bilinmemektedir. 155 i’te Kanuni tarufmdan boynu vurdurulmuştur. Denizcilik ve coğrafya alanındaki eserleriyle ünlüdür.

Piri Reis, gemiciliğe beşledikten eonre Akdenizli* İren ysmnı dolsstı. Yeninde vnlır tığı Kemel Rele, korsanlığı bırakıp devlet hlımetlne geçince Plrt Reis de onu İsledi II. Beyeıld devrindeki denli eeveylertnde Un yepmeye başladı, Yavuz Selim ve ksnunl Süleyman semenlerindeki denli savaşlarına da katıldı Pir silrft Barbaros’la çalıştı 1531 ‘do Mısır Donanmaeı Kumandanı oldu. 3t parça gtml ila Suvaya’tan kalkarak Kı zıldenls’l geçip Basra körfeslne açıldı Arabistan yarımadasındaki Aden kelesini aldı Fakat stratejik Önemi bulunen Hürmüş adasını, ede helkının verdiği kıymetli hediyeler yüzünden, zaptetmedi Portekiz donanmasıyla de eeveşmeyıp î gemi ve ganimet terle Mıeır’e dündü ve bu hettlerını heyetiyle ödedi Plrt Rele’ln. Akdeniz’in butun sahillerini anlatan Kitabı Bahrlyye adlı cogrelys kitabı ve değerli bir atlası vardır.

Nicolas Appert

Fransız ticaret adamı ve mucidi 1752’de Chülonssur-Mame’da (Fransa) doğdu, lMl’de Mnssy’de (Fransa) öldü.

Besin konserveleri sanayisinin öncüsüdür. Bugün bütün dünyada o keder gallfmie bulunan beeln konserveleri aanayll, 1790 yıllarınn doğru Paris’te şekercilik yapmakta olan Nicolas Apperte çok saylar borçludur. Zira Appert çok sıkı kepeli kaplara konarak hlt süre kaynatılan besin maddelerinin içindeki mayelerın sıcaklık etkisiyle yok edilebileceğini düşünmüştü mayaları alınmış bu yiyecekler, uzun süre bozulmadan yanabilecek dununda kalabilirdi. Hemen deneye girişen Appert hava almayacak şekilde sımsıkı kapanığı cam kavanozlara meyve, hattâ süt gibi besinleri koydu vs bunları su dolu hlr kabın içinde tutarak kaynattı vo umduğu sonucu aldı Aylar soma Appertin hamle dığı konservelerle uzun bir eslere çıkan gemiciler, kış ortasında, llkbahaı sebzelerini lezzetla yediklerini söylediler

Branly

Édouard Branly Fransız öğretmeni ve fizikçisi, 1844’te Amiens’de (Fransa) doğdu, 1940’ta Paris’te öldü.