Canned food existed decades before can openers.

A sealed metal can feels like it should arrive with the tool that opens it. It did not. Britannica notes that Peter Durand patented tin-coated iron cans in 1810, and the National Park Service explains that canned food predated the can opener by about 40 years. Early cans were heavy, expensive, and often opened with knives, chisels, or brute force. The clean kitchen gadget came later, after the food-preservation idea was already in use. It is a tiny invention-order glitch that makes everyday packaging feel suddenly unfinished.

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