A can opener, or “tin opener” in British English, is a mechanical tool used for cutting open metal cans. Modern can openers use a sharp wheel-shaped rotating blade to pierce and cut through the thin metal, typically steel or tin, of one end of the can. Despite its seemingly obvious usefulness, the can opener was not invented until 1855, a full eighty-three years after the first recorded use of tin cans for food storage. Prior to this, people would use knives to open cans.
