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Younghusband
Author

Younghusband

Date

November 23rd, 2007

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Uncanny!

*(Groans noted)*

The canning process is a product of the Napoleonic wars. Malnutrition was rampant among the 18th century French armed forces. As Napoleon prepared for his Russian campaign, he searched for a new and better means of preserving food for his troops and offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could find one. Nicolas Appert, a Parisian candy maker, was awarded the prize in 1809.

Source: The Canning Process via 43f

Comments to this entry

zenpundit
November 23, 2007
5:49 pm
Napoleon had many negative qualities but he was very receptive to innovative thinking across the board. His education had emphasized mathematics and applied physics in order to be an officer of the artillery, which gave him tools for problem solving and quantification of data. Alan Schom's magisterial bio has a wealth of information on Napoleon's intellectual-psychological mindset

Perhaps today's future great military leaders are computer geeks.
Curzon
November 24, 2007
2:52 am
Fans of English "Bovril," a marmite-like spread made from beef, may also "thank another Napoleon,":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovril (the third one to be precise).