81
Over the Top
Vaughan Novelty Manufacturing of Chicago,
Illinois was founded in 1910 as the Crown Throat
& Opener Company. At the time they produced a
number of pocket type cap lifters.
They offered a wide range of products including a
combination button hook, bottle opener, screw
driver and cigar cutter; the
“
Dairy
”
lifter; a can
opener with bottle opener and corkscrew; the
“
Dainty
”
corkscrew; an
“
Over the Top
”
opener; the
“
Perfection
”
opener, the
“
Never Chip
”
wall mount
plus several key style and figural openers. But
none of these products has found as much success
as the
“
Nifty.
”
On April 15, 1924 Harry Vaughan patented a bottle opener with a much larger
surface for advertising and can snap the cap off a bottle in the blink of an eye.
This Vaughan invention is a lever-like bar which has a hook to engage the bottle
cap. The opener is placed over the bottle cap with the hook under one edge of the
cap. Pressing the handle down removes the cap. Vaughan was granted United
States Patent Number 1,490,149.
Vaughan marketed the product under the name
“
Over the Top.
”
The opener
could also be made with a corkscrew affixed to the underside of the lever.
