Appert's 1809 sealed jars let food travel; Durand's tin can made it portable.

Before canning, long-distance food meant dried fruit and spices; anything fresh spoiled on the way. The Napoleonic-era French government offered 12,000 francs for a way to feed its army.

Nicolas Appert, a Parisian confectioner, found that food packed in glass, sealed and heated in boiling water stayed good; in 1809 he demonstrated the method to the Agricultural Society and won the prize.

Glass broke in transit, so in 1810 the Englishman Peter Durand patented the tin can, which conducted heat better, was lighter and survived the road. Donkin and Hall bought the patent, built a factory and by 1813 were sending cans to the Royal Navy for trial.

Canned food gave explorers, soldiers and sailors a portable meal and, as the method spread, created a preserved-foods trade, the earliest version of making a perishable shippable without cold.

Seal food and heat it, and the box becomes a portable pantry

Heating in a sealed container destroys and keeps out the spoiling organisms

A durable can survives the jolts that shattered glass

Shelf-stable food lets a cargo be freighted without refrigeration

When spoilage is the real container, a hermetic heated seal turns a perishable into a shelf-stable unit that rides any transport.

Donkin and Hall supplied the British navy, canned food fuelled the American Civil War and then global trade, and tin (later steel) canning became a year-round food supply chain.