I learned it from the Connections episode "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry", at https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke/Connections/Season+1/Connections+S0

I learned it from the Connections episode "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry", at https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke/Connections/Season+1/Connections+S01E08+-+Eat%2C+Drink+and+Be+Merry.mp4 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 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 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."