Yeates can opener
The first can opener, a knife with a curved blade that was stabbed into the lid.
The tin can was invented in the early 19th century, but was opened with a hammer and chisel. Robert Yeates, an instrument maker in London, designed a special knife for cutting open the lid.
The can opener became one of the first specialised kitchen tools. The modern opener with a cutting wheel came in the 1870s.
Materials: Wrought iron or steel
Manufacture: Designed by Robert Yeates in Britain in 1855, more than forty years after the tin can.
The curved blade with an angular point.
The handle of wood or iron.
The guard that limits how deep one stabs.