Historical challenge prizes

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3. Napoleon’s Preservation Prize

Year: 1795-1810
Promoter: Goverment of France
Prize: 12,000 Francs (Today's value $44,000)
Winner: Nicholas Appert

Napoleon launched a prize to improve the food preservation methods of that time, in order to keep soldiers fed and nourished.

Nicholas Appert won the challenge by designing a way to heat, boil and seal food in airtight champagne bottles.  He did not know why but food trapped in sealed containers did not spoil.

*image courtesy of Science Photo Library