War-food preservation

Food preservation Reference material for this section Science Goes to War by Ernest Volkman
Food, such as bread, can quickly spoil in the presence of mould, as pictured on the right, bacteria and a range of other micro-organisms. Modern food preservation involves scientific techniques designed to prevent the growth of micro-organisms responsible for decomposing organic matter.
Modern food preservation has had its origins on the battle fields of Europe.
In 1800 Napoleon Bonaparte set up the Society for the Encouragement of French Industry. It was staffed by the best scientific and technical minds in France. Its mandate was to seek any invention or industrial process that would aid the French military. At the time, Napoleon offered a reward of 12,000 francs for any process that may prove useful.
To the society's dismay the reward attracted every idiot in France. Astrologers, spiritualists and psychics unveiled miracle weapons and useless inventions that were reported to be able to make French soldiers fly. In amongst all these crackpots was a wine bottler, a small man by the name of Nicholas Appert. He confidently faced the panel, reached into his satchel and pulled out two champagne bottles. Placing the bottles on the table he remarked "This gentlemen will make the army of France the greatest army in all the world". The panel members were unconvinced. Appert continued and pointed to the vegetables floating inside the bottles. "These vegetables," he said, "were sealed inside approximately three weeks ago, and as you can perceive, gentlemen, they are today just as green and fresh as the day I personally put them there." Most of the society members remained unimpressed, except for one who was a military engineer who jotted down some notes and quickly went to see Napoleon. Napoleon immediately saw the great impact of such a process on a mobile army and without any hesitation awarded Appert the prize.
With this process, Napoleon's army was able to move quickly, covering thousands of kilometres, without the need to forage for food or wait for slow moving supply lines to catch up. The British were left wondering how Napoleon's army could move so fast, until the secret was revealed with the capture of French soldiers with their bottles of preserved food.
The British army's Ordinance Department issued an urgent plea to the scientific community to invent an improved version of preserving food. A London merchant by the name of Peter Durand came up with the idea of immersing fresh food in water, boiling it at high temperature to kill micro-organisms that may spoil the food and then sealing it in an airtight metal container made of tin. This was an improvement on the French method of preserving food in bottles as the battlefield is no place for fragile containers made of glass.
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