"Rations of the Reich" Topic

"It was Napoleon Bonaparte who purportedly said, "An army travels on its stomach."

Toward the goal of feeding his particular army's stomach more efficiently, in 1795 the French general came up with an interesting solution to the problem. He sponsored a contest with a cash prize offered to the first successful demonstration of a means to safely preserve food and thus make it portable. It took 14 years for the prize to find a recipient; in 1809, Nicolas Appert, a French chef, invented a food canning process using glass jars…."
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Amicalement
Armand

It's the 76-year gap between the invention of the can and the invention of the can opener which haunts me. (I checked, by the way: the P-38 doesn't appear until 1942--132 year after canned food. That would be a long time even by C-rat standards.)

robert – I feel your pain. But it proves that the bayonet is a true multipurpose tool, once you've cleaned it a bit.

There's a certain similarity with cats. They become sabre tooth tigers (a cat with their own can openers) and then have to wait thousands of years for somebody invent the can. By which point they've died out… it's sad.

IIRC in the early days of canned food for use in the military, in the 19th Century. The Lead cans caused some long term users, e.g. RN, Lead poising. Not only causing illness but death.

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand

I found it interesting at the end of the article that Germans were raising cats for food at the end of the war.

Glad you enjoyed it my friend!.

Amicalement
Armand