Mantises were considered to have supernatural powers by early civilizations, including Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, and Assyria. A cultural trope popular in cartoons imagines the female mantis as a femme fatale. Mantises are among the insects most commonly kept as pets.
In 1803 his preserved foods (which came to include vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy and fish) were sent out for sea trials with the French navy. By 1804, his factory had begun to experiment with meat packed in tin cans, which he soldered shut and then observed for months for signs of swelling.
The tin can method of food preservation was particularly useful before refrigeration, although steel cans are still used for food packaging today. The McGraw Hill Recycling Handbook says that in 2001, 90 per cent of metal food containers were made of tin-coated steel.