Canning, has trailed along many a road from Napoleon's quest for a solution, to the Civil War. Those bayonet sickle type objects must have saved many a soldier from starvation. William W. Lyman's improved patent for a can opener came along in 1870 just in case someone wants to know. Meat in cans. Hormel, you must have heard of Spam.
Most people have.
It's been around a while too. Spam made it's debut commercially in 1937. In the race for canned coffee, James Sanborn and Caleb Chase produced the first commercially available ground coffee in sealed cans in 1878. As for home canning, well that really hit the shelves, when John Landis Mason came up with a practical glass jar and lid, now called the mason jar. But, Home Canning methods have sure changed since then.