Today in 1967, US Patent 3346167 A was issued, an invention of Trueman L. Schmidt, assigned to the Olympia Brewing Company, for his “Insulated Reclosable Beer Carton.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
It is the main object of the present invention to provide an insulated carton for filled beer cans or similar containers, which carton has a handle, allowing it to be readily carried about, and which carton can be opened to remove one or more cans Without exposing all the cans, and which carton can thereafter readily and effectively be reclosed to retain the cool temperature of the remaining filled beer cans, to enable subsequent consumption thereof by the purchaser and his friends.
The insulated reclosable carton of the present invention is characterized by having a sleeve type outer carton member and a box type inner carton member slidably received by the outer carton member in snug relation thereto. The outer carton member has a handle by which it, together with the inner carton member, can be readily carried. The inner carton member is provided with one and preferably two hatch flaps in the side walls of the inner carton member, the hatch flaps being openable to provide an opening through which one or more can be removed from the carton. The hatch flaps are then readily flipped back to their closed positions and maintained in such closed position by the outer carton member when the inner carton member is again slid back into the outer carton member. The hatch flaps are located in staggered relation and near the end margins of their respective side wall panels so that the inner carton member does not have to be completely removed from the outer carton member in order to remove one or more cans, and, by staggering the hatch flaps, it is immaterial which Way the inner carton member is moved relative to the outer carton member because one of the hatch flaps will be exposed regardless of which way it is shifted. The inner carton member and outer carton member are so constructed that the inner carton member is releasably retained in its fully surrounded condition by the outer carton member to avoid accidental displacement of the inner carton member relative to the outer carton member.
