Today in 1988, US Patent 4782969 A was issued, an invention of John C. Henning, for his “Twist-Off Bottle Cap.” Here’s the Abstract:
A tamper-proof closure is disclosed for use with a bottle having a neck, a lip with a downwardly and inwardly sloping peripheral wall and a plurality of outwardly extending ribs disposed at the juncture of the sloping wall and outer wall of the neck. The closure includes a top wall, a depending ribbed skirt and a plurality of rectangular tabs extending from the bottom edge of the skirt between each pair of ribs. The tabs are bent inwardly and upwardly and include a serrated edge for engagement with the ribs on the bottle. When the cap is applied, the tabs form compressive members holding the lid in sealed position against the bottle neck. The closure is removed by twisting, which causes the tabs to be shifted outwardly beyond the bottle ribs so that the cap can be lifted from the bottle. The closure cannot be reapplied since, during removal, the tabs have been bent outwardly to a point where they can no longer engage the bottle ribs.
