The inventor of canning never knew why it worked.

1810 · 1864 · apart: 54 years

Appert simply heated sealed bottles; the explanation, that heat kills microbes, came from Pasteur only in the 1860s, half a century later.

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The event

• Appert invents canning1810 · Massy, near Paris. France offered 12,000 francs for a way to preserve food for its army and navy. In 1810 the confectioner Nicolas Appert won it by heating food in sealed bottles, without knowing why it kept.

19th century

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