In 1809, French Nicola abate won 12 thousand francs on the grounds that he found a way to keep the cooked food for a long time: put the boiled fruit, vegetables and meat in the bottle and put the bottle in hot boiling water for a period of time to wipe out the bacteria. Abt's methods were subsequently improved, and people used tin cans and other cans to preserve food.

The way to preserve food is found, and new troubles arise again: it is hard to open. In 1824, the jar of roast beef carried by the British explorer William Park was carried by the Arctic expedition, and a canned hint was attached: "chisels and hammers are knocked around the top of the jar."

In 1858, Ezra warner of Connecticut got a patent for a can opener. The can opener is designed with a combination of two blades, one pressing against the top of the can and the other slitting along the edge of the top. Later, people continued to improve their openers. In twentieth Century, more and more cans began to use the top of the pull - type tank. In the late twentieth Century, the pull - pull ring and the button type internal pressure can have appeared in the late twentieth Century.

We use various kinds of daily appliances and articles every day. It seems that the utensils and things should have been present, such as the canned food, which should be opened easily with the opener, and the pulling ring can also appear to be natural. For example, people in Europe and America used to use knives and forks, and Chinese seem to be born with chopsticks. Is that true?

Henry Pochowski, a professor of civil engineering and history at the Duke University, is a famous popular science writer who has long been devoted to introducing the knowledge of engineering design and cultural research to the public. In his book "the history of the evolution of daily appliances", Henry Pochowski thoroughly combed the invention and evolution of common instruments and articles. From the invention of tableware, we step up to the kettle, hammer, pin, bridge, and car. It points out that the evolution of the instruments can be well extracted from the evolution of the technology. Rules can help people deepen their understanding of the relationship between invention, innovation, design and technology.

Why do knives and forks and chopsticks evolve in shape? The explanation in the history of the utensils' evolution is that "shortcomings are the mother of improvement". Utensils are constantly changing to adapt to the shortcomings that are constantly discovered, which means that even the most common small items in life and work are not perfect, or we will constantly adjust to the definition of perfection. Because of this, the invention and improvement of appliances have never stopped, especially since the industrial age, the rate of innovation of appliances has been accelerated.

The book, "the history of the evolution of daily use", points out that only the understanding of the defects of the utensils and the continuous attempt to solve the problem can promote the evolution of the appliance. In the book, some innovative and improved cases, such as pin, clip, pressure tape, glass paper, convenience sticker, stapler and zipper, are given. It is pointed out that the defects of the appliance are the motive force for the change.

However, it is important to emphasize that the innovation of utensils does not mean that "the latest" will be better than "new", and that "best" must be more popular than "good". In 1970s, for example, McDonald's had designed a hamburger box made of polystyrene, which was more warm than the original paper box and paper bag, once thought to be a revolutionary invention. But in just a few years, people realized that polystyrene plastic lunch boxes were more polluting than cardboard boxes and paper bags, so the former was quickly withdrawn from McDonald's restaurants.