"History's first pressure cooker [1682] bombed--literally and figuratively. Not only did the majority of Londoners not take favorably to the idea of steamed pike and pigeon [bland even by English standards!] but those who purchased a [steam] digester and attempted recipes often ended up with the evening's meal on the wall....Several serious accidents were reported. Except for scientific applications (as autoclaves) pressure vessels were forgotten for a hundred and fifty years. It was the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte who was responsible for the pressure cooker's reemergence.

"In 1810, Napoleon, proclaiming that 'an army moves on its stomach' was desperate to find a means of supplying preserved food to his troops. The government offered a handsome prize for a solution to the problem. Employing a modification of Papin's pressure cooker, French chef Nicholas Appert developed the first practical method for cooking, sterilizing, and bottling foods. For his preservation technique, Appert won the prize of twelve thousand francs, and his methods reawakened interest in pressure cooking."

From the Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things by Charles Panati.