10 Everyday Inventions That Exist Thanks To War

Napoleon's career of non-stop, map-redrawing warfare was made possible, in part, by his realisation that soldiers have to eat. Armies were growing far beyond the point where they could forage off the land to stay alive and campaigning in the winter, when there was no food growing at all, was impossible.

Boney needed a way to stockpile food without it spoiling so he could make going to war a year-round activity. He offered a reward of 12,000 francs to whoever could solve the conundrum, and was answered by a confectioner who showed that keeping food in an airtight container would do the job.

Napoleon never made canning economic enough to make it widespread in his armies before the Napoelonic Wars ended. The Brits stole the idea instead and the subsequent developments included making the canning process quicker and cheaper, and realising that using poisonous lead solder might not be the best idea.

Skip forward a century or two and anyone can indulge in that weirdly mushy ravioli, all because Napoleon Bonaparte wanted to take over the world.