The Charlecote library is full of surprises and finding this entry in the catalogue was one of them and yet this book changed forever the way we all feed ourselves. Appert discovered how to bottle food substances which led in turn to the process of canning.
Glass bottles were easily broken so other containers were sought. Iron cans were tried but the acid in many foods caused it to corrode which gave the food a bad flavour or even poisoned it. That problem was solved in 1810 by a British inventor (of French origin) , Peter Durand, by lining the iron with tin and so the modern process of canning was developed. However, it was 45 years before the can opener was invented by Robert Yeates so troops had to resort to opening cans with their bayonets or by hitting them with rocks to split them! Chapter Headings
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Napoleon
said that an army marches on its stomach. No matter how well trained
or how brave the troops they needed to be properly fed if they were
to win battles. Food was only plentiful in season and soon perished
if it had to be transported over long distances. Food could be preserved
by drying, smoking or salting but the results were not always tasty
and, through lack of fresh vegetables, troops developed a skin and gum
disease called scurvy which could prove fatal. It particularly affected
those undergoing lengthy maritime voyages. Scurvy is due to a deficiency
in Vitamin C necessary in the synthesis of collagen. Herbal remedies
had been known since antiquity but it was the naval surgeon James Lind
who experimentally proved in 1753 that it could be treated with citrus
fruit although it was several decades before the Royal Navy acted on
this.
In
1795 Appert had been asked by a dairyman how he might keep his milk
fresh and Appert conceived the idea of bottling it and then heating
the 
bottles
in boiling water for a short time. The dairyman found he could keep
his milk fresh for the two days that was required to transport it to
market in Rouen. What Appert had discovered was a process that would
be rediscovered by Louis Pasteur which is known as pasteurization. Appert
then spent 15 years preserving meat, fruit and vegetables and found
the process was just as successful as with milk. He carried out his
process in thick, wide-mouthed glass jars, sealing them with cork and
sealing wax and the bottle wrapped in canvas to protect it during immersion.
He determined how long to keep the contents immersed in the boiling
water so that the contents were thoroughly cooked. As a publicity stunt
he once preserved an entire sheep! Appert was awarded the Napoleon prize
in 1810 and millions of bottles of food were prepared for Napoleon’s
army.