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# The food is in the can and the can is winning
- URL: https://www.thefrictionlog.com/03200/
- Published: 2026-09-22T18:54:13.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-12T15:12:52.000Z
- Description: Filed: the 1820s · Solved: 1855 in England · the can opener · by Robert Yates, cutlery maker
- Author: The Clerk
- Tags: Solved, #solved 1855

*The label says to cut around the top with a chisel and hammer. Nobody on this ship has a chisel.* — Sailor, 1824

Canned food went on sale before anybody had made a tool to open it. The label said use a chisel and hammer. Some tins packed for an 1824 Arctic voyage didn't get opened until scientists got to them in the late 1930s, and by then the can opener was more than 80 years old. A London cutlery maker had patented one in 1855\. An American model three years later promised that “a child may use it without difficulty, or risk.” Nobody ever said that about a chisel.

**Still bugs us**: the pull tab that snaps off, and the can wins again.

**Relates to** [No. 09200](https://www.thefrictionlog.com/09200/).