161

Sommer

’

s Designs

John L. Sommer got a United States patent for his

bottle opener design on March 12, 1912. The cap

lifter was assigned Design Patent Number 42,305.

The 3 1/4

”

long bottle opener depicts a stag handle

corkscrew at the top and a foaming glass of beer at

the bottom.

The square hole is a

“

Prest-O-Lite

”

key*

Sommer also received a patent on the same day for

a bottle opener in the shape of a fancy Lady

‟

s boot

(Design Patent No. 42,306). Earlier patents by Sommer include

a cap lifter with sliding cigar opener in 1909 (No. 936,678), a cap lifter shaped like

a fish (D41,894), and a cap lifter shaped like an automobile (D41,895) The fish

and the automobile shapes were patented last year. The powder horn shape was

a 1914 design (D45,678)

Sommer

‟

s manufacturing company in Newark, New Jersey produced the

openers. They were sold to a number of firms with advertising on them.

Bob Roger provided these details on the Prestolite key:

“

Prestolite developed a

process for filling tanks with acetylene gas (the traditional way was to drip water

onto calcium carbide, which produces acetylene gas in real time). The small

Prestolite tanks were mounted on bicycles and the running boards of cars (or

under the seat), and a copper or brass tube ran to the acetylene lamp(s) on the

front.

To light the lamp, the valve on the tank was opened using the

„

key

‟

(it was a

square shank on the valve) by one person, and another person held a match at

the lamp, and warned

„

stand back!

‟

I don

‟

t have the start date for Prestolite (I

‟

m

thinking circa 1885), but they existed on the cars until circa 1915, then quickly

phased out. Sometimes the caplifters had two different sized square holes, so the

Prestolite system must have made two different sized tanks/valves. I would

suspect that bicycle tanks would be smaller than car tanks.

”