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Who Invented the Crown Cap Lifter?
The Crown Cork
On February 6, 1894 William Painter received a patent for a
“
Capped Bottle
Opener.
”
Two years earlier Painter had received three patents for a
“
Bottle
Sealing Device.
”
Prior to his 1892 invention, over 1500 types of bottle stoppers
had been patented. Between 1882 and 1890 alone there were three hundred and
thirty-seven stopper patents. The trade press was writing
“
it is pretty hard to get
up anything in the stopper line which is not already covered.
”
Painter accepted the trade press challenge with
“
The only way to do a thing is to do it.
”
Painter
had over eighty patents to his credit in his
lifetime including improvements on a shoe
blacking box, a lamp, and numerous pump and
valve patents. He began his work on the
“
crown cap
”
in 1889 and in the end his success
was certainly a lasting one. The crown cap
became a mainstay in the bottling industry for
generations to come. His design prevailed over
the hundreds of other bottle closures and his
crown cap is known and used worldwide.
