What none of this accounts for is that people rarely knew with certainty what they were eating, as food labeling has been required by law only since 1990 (!). Chalk was added to milk, dirt to tea and sand to sugar, to get more money out of less product. The first true relief at scale came with the invention of the can opener as we know it today: in 1925. Some even came with instructions to open them with hammer and chisel, and soldiers, well, they just shot the cans open with their rifles! However his seals weren’t really airtight, so the food could still be contaminated.īryan Donkin improved upon his concept, even launching the first commercial iron tin cannery, but wrought iron cans were heavy and almost impossible to open. A confectioner from Paris, Nicolas Appert, was the first to try and can foods, sealing them in containers made of glass with a wax seal. This process didn’t even start until the late 1700s. I have to admit though, that in my mind, somewhere around the 1600s, making sure you ate 2-3 times a day “must have become fairly easy.”Įasy access to food is predicated on one thing: making it preservable. Hunting, gathering, learning what’s edible and what’s not through trial and error. You know the neanderthals had a tough time filling their stomachs. If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.ĭownload PDF Lesson 1: Shoot the cans! The struggle for food lasted longer than you think. There are two very different reasons why there’s a salt and a pepper shaker on every kitchen table.Īre you in for a different kind of house tour? Forget MTV Cribs, this is the real deal!.Rodents and rings made sleep much less regenerative 100 years ago.Fighting harder for longer: food didn’t come easily until very recently.Bill takes you on a tour of his house, telling a story in each room about how it grew into the purpose we know and use it for today. A Short History Of Nearly Everything revealed a few mind-blowing facts about the universe and showed me even more reasons to be grateful than I already knew were out there.Īt Home is a historic sketch of “private life” – you know, what happens behind those precious four walls we all call home. Whatever the topic, he manages to make it come to life for the reader, as if he or she was the one doing all the exploring. Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account*:īill Bryson is the megastar of curious, inquisitive, entertaining writing.

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