Opening a can of worms

I have figured out why Time Travel was invented.

It was not invented in the minds of Great Authors

Time Travel was invented by desperate cooks and hungry people. 

Case in point? Canned Food. Food was canned by 1772 but the first can opener wasn't invented until 1855.

Food preserved in tin cans was in use by the Dutch Navy by 1772 and canned food was a recognized item by 1822 in the United States.

The first cans usually weighed more than the food they contained and the instructions on early cans read, "Cut round the top near the outer edge with a chisel and hammer."

In 1845, Captain Sir John Franklin departed England in search of the Northwest Passage, a hypothetical route through the Arctic between Great Britain and Asia. He left in two ships stocked with three years' worth of tinned food.

Unfortunately, the 8,000 tins were later found by Owen Beattie, a professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta, to have lead soldering that was "thick and sloppily done, and dripped like melted candle wax down the inside surface."

Franklin and his men all died, some due to lead and food poisoning.

The first U.S. can opener was patented in 1858 by Ezra Warner of Waterbury, Conn. It consisted of a sharp blade, which was pushed into the can and sawed around its edge. A guard kept the blade from penetrating too far into the can. The opener consisted of several parts which could be replaced, especially the blade.

This opener was adopted by the U.S. Army during the Civil War; however, its unprotected blade was too dangerous for domestic use. A clerk had to open each can after purchase.

The now-familiar sharp, rotating wheel, which runs around the can's rim cutting the lid, was invented in 1870 but was difficult to operate. A second, serrated wheel was added in 1925 to hold the cutting wheel in place.

Finally, electric can openers were introduced in the late 1950s and  recently a side-cutting model.

I shall now "can it" since I have told you more than you ever wanted to know about canned food and can openers.