Check out tin cans' close call with extinction during the Victorian era.

Food canning emerged in the early 1700s as a means of feeding warring seamen who were rapidly dying of malnutrition due to their diet of salted fish and stale crackers.

While many early toils and experiments laid the groundwork, in the early 1800s Bryan Donkin, purchased a patent for a tin preservation method from a fellow Englishman.

It took two years of refining the process, but in 1813, his first tin cans rolled off of the line.

His next great victory occurred when the Royal family gave him their blessing to supply it to the British Admiralty.

By the 1850s it seemed as if the craze was about to take hold in the public sphere.

Unfortunately, right when the can was on the brink of world popularity, the supplier to the British Admiralty was found to have used rancid meat along with often-unidentifiable parts at his Romanian factory for several years despite complaints over the quality of his products. The news spread quickly and the stigma of the incident endured for decades.

After years of pr, emerging urban populations looking for options and convenience gave the tin can another try and eventually helped catapult them back into vogue.