Brookston Beer Bulletin

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Historic Beer Birthday: William Painter

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Today is the birthday of William Painter (November 20, 1838-July 15, 1906). He was born in Ireland, and in 1858 came to the U.S. “in search of better opportunities,” and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. He trained as a mechanical engineer and initially got a job “as a foreman at the Murrill & Keizer’s machine shop.” His biggest claim to fame is that he “invented the crown cork bottle cap and bottle opener. He worked with manufacturers to develop a universal neck for all glass bottles and started Crown Cork and Seal in 1892 to manufacture caps that could be used to seal the universal necks.”

William Painter and his father, Dr. Edward Painter : sketches and reminiscences

Over the course of his life, “Painter patented 85 inventions, including the common bottle cap, the bottle opener, a machine for crowning bottles, a paper-folding machine, a safety ejection seat for passenger trains, and a machine for detecting counterfeit currency. He was inducted to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006.”

The bottle cap was arguably his most important invention. “The crown cork was patented by William Painter on February 2, 1892 (U.S. Patent 468,258). It had 24 teeth and a cork seal with a paper backing to prevent contact between the contents and the metal cap. The current version has 21 teeth. To open these bottles, a bottle opener is generally used.

The height of the crown cap was reduced and specified in the German standard DIN 6099 in the 1960s. This also defined the “twist-off” crown cap, now used in the United States, Canada, and Australia. This cap is pressed around screw threads instead of a flange, and can be removed by twisting the cap by hand, eliminating the need for an opener.”

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He also patented several other innovations for the brewing industry, such as the Bottle Seal Or Stopper, from 1894, the Bottle Stopper, in 1885, a Closure For Sealing Bottles, in 1899, and a Capped-Bottle Opener, from 1894, to name just a few.

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And here’s Painter’s obituary from the Brewers Journal in 1906:

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Patent No. 3147874A: Seal For Crown Closures

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Today in 1964, US Patent 3147874 A was issued, an invention of Donald D. Hundt and Edward W. Merrill, for their “Seal For Crown Closures.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:

This invention relates to seals for crown, screw, lug and similar caps or closures. It is more particularly concerned with a composite seal utilizing a molded rubber ring sealing element, to replace the cork and composition cork seals now used for caps.

A seal for crown closures needs to be impervious to prevent gas leakage, resilient to maintain a good seal for several months, mechanically strong enough to be adapted to existing bottling equipment and must present a surface to pack side that is sufficiently soft or deformable to conform to minor imperfections on the lip of the bottle or can. The seal should not impart odor or taste to the contents of the bottle and should be capable of withstanding relatively high temperatures after capping without failure.

The seal of this invention comprises a resilient molded elastomer ring carried on a gas impervious for -stable disc, with the ring in use being between the cap and disc, and generally positioned over or registering with the lip of the container. The elastomeric or rubber ring is not capable of undergoing any appreciable cold or plastic iiow and imparts the necessary compressive force or spring action to the seal.

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Patent No. 3260395A: Bottle Cap

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Today in 1966, US Patent 3260395 A was issued, an invention of Nicholas D. Ellis, assigned to Anheuser Busch, for his “Bottle Cap.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to an improved bottle cap which can be removed from a bottle by hand without the aid of a bottle opener. This bottle cap may be applied to bottles, such as beer or soda bottles, in the conventional manner with existing high speed automatic capping equipment. Further, this bottle cap may be removed if desired by conventional bottle openers which are in use today.

Bottle caps which require no separate opener, or so called self-opening bottle caps, are generally old and are of different design. Some of these bottle caps have a tongue which extends downwardly from the depending skirt and others have constructions which make them difficult to handle in a hopper and to use on the high speed automatic bottling equipment which exists in many bottling shops or plants today. Others of these self-opening bottle caps have a tongue struck from the metal cap itself which is pulled completely free of the cap when opening, with the result that the remaining portions of the bottle cap are propelled like a rocket and cause property damage or cause personal injury. This frequently happens when the bottle cap is removed rapidly so that the tongue portion remains in the lingers of the person opening the bottle, but the remainder of the bottle cap is free to y upwardly or away from the bottle. Still others cannot be opened in the conventional manner with bottle openers if desired. And others result in the cutting of the fingers with sharp metal edges When opening.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a self-opening bottle cap which can be used in existing bottle cap handling apparatus and bottle cap machines for application to bottles, said bottle cap comprising an outer shell, an inner disc, and a seal adapted to seal the bottle cap to the bottle and to prevent the outer shell and inner disc from separating either before or after the bottle cap is removed. Another object is to provide a self-opening bottle cap, a tongue having a rounded edge which protects the lingers against cutting and which is not pulled off in its entirety, so that the removed bottle cap remains in the hands of the person opening the bottle. This prevents the pressure in the bottle from propelling the cap or parts thereof at great speed. Another object is to provide fewer scores in the depending skirt of the bottle cap hereinbefore described, thereby reducing the possibility of splitting the score during the crowning operation so as to create a leaker. Another object is to provide these advantages in a bottle cap which can be removed by a conventional bottle opener if desired.

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Patent No. 1100818A: Bottle Cap Remover

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Today in 1914, US Patent 1100818 A was issued, an invention of Robert O. Boardman, for his “Bottle Cap Remover.” There’s no Abstract, though it’s described this way in the application:

This invention relates to bottle closures. and .more particularly to a device for removing the cap closures from beer bottles, and the like. As is well-known. such cap closures are ordinarily removed by the use of an implement entirely separate and distinct from the cap. Such opening devices are liable to be lost and misplaced, and even, when at hand must be applied to the cap prior to manipulation to pry the cap from it has been proposed to provide, as a substitute for such opening devices, a cap having an integral tongue designed to be grasped by the fingers and pulled to remove the cap, or to provide a cap constructed in sections, arranged to be separated to such an extent as to permit of removal of the cap without the use of the ordinary opener. Such caps, however, present the disadvantage that a special machine is necessary for their manufacture and usually they are not so constructed as to permit of the use of the ordinary capping machine. Furthermore, they are expensive to manufacture and can usually only be manipulated by a person capable of exerting a strong grip.

In connection with the foregoing it is the object of the present invention to provide a bottle cap opener so constructed that it may be readily assembled with the ordinary bottle cap at the time of placing the latter upon the bottle to be sealed, and may be readily and quickly manipulated by anyone for the purpose of prying oil the cap.

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Patent No. 2348797A: Crown Cap Selecting Machine

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Today in 1944, US Patent 2348797 A was issued, an invention of Louis A. Fischer, assigned to the Schaefer Brewing Co., for his “Crown Cap Selecting Machine.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to crown cap selecting machines, and has for its object to provide means for inspecting the interior of such machines while the same are running, and also provide means for preventing the caps from clogging during the operation of the machine.

In the use of such cap selecting machines, it frequently happens that inspection of the interior of the same becomes necessary and also that certain caps which have become clogged be removed. Also certain foreign matters must be dislodged.

This requires a shutting down of the machine and a re-starting, this requiring several hours of non-use of the machine.

The invention consists of a door closed opening which permits the caps to be ejected from the machine, capable of being opened and closed during the operation of the machine, and the invention also consists in the means for preventing clogging of caps.

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Patent No. 8671802B2: Bottle Cap Opener

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Today in 2014, US Patent 8671802 B2 was issued, an invention of Chikamitsu Takagi, for his “Bottle Cap Opener.” Here’s the Abstract:

A movable outer cylindrical member and a movable inner cylindrical member are arranged vertically movably in a lower half of a cylindrical main body. By placing the movable inner cylindrical member on a bottle mouth and pushing down the cylindrical main body, a lower end of a hooking member is engaged with a lower end of the crown cap to pry the crown cap away. At the same time, the movable outer cylindrical member is moved up and a piston inside a cylinder arranged in an upper half of the cylindrical main body is moved up with the movable outer cylindrical member, so that the air in the cylinder is compressed, and a cover member is brought out in by the compressed air.

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Patent No. 4782969A: Twist-Off Bottle Cap

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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.

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Patent No. 528485A: Bottle Seal Or Stopper

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Today in 1894, US Patent 528485 A was issued, an invention of William Painter, assigned to the Crown Cork and Seal Company, for his “Bottle Seal or Stopper,” although he’s more famous for having invented to crown bottle cap. There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

I claim as my invention, a bottle seal, an extracting attachment which consists of the combination of a main loop or eye adapted to receive an extracting tool, and two additional loops or eyes.

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Patent No. 5458253A: Bottle Cap

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Today in 1995, US Patent 5458253 A was issued, an invention of Michael Shapcott, for his “Bottle Cap.” Here’s the Abstract:

A crown seal for sealing an opening of a bottle including a flange having between twenty-eight and thirty-two flutes around the circumference thereof. Each flute comprises depression having a generally triangular surface area between a pair of ridges. The additional flutes provide more points of contact with the bead are provided, ensuring a securement of increased strength between the crown and bottle.

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Patent No. 2451273A: Method Of Applying Bottle Caps

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Today in 1948, US Patent 2451273 A was issued, an invention of Elvin M. Bright, for his “Method of Applying Bottle Caps.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

This invention relates to improvements in a method for thermoplastically capping bottles.

It is an important object of the invention to provide a method and means of capping a bottle which, to a large extent, will make use of standard existing bottle capping equipment and will provide a cap which will not interfere with the handling, processing, merchandising, and use of the bottle and its contents in accordance with conventional procedure.

From the standpoint of the process involved, a very important objective is to soften a thickened margin of the bottle cap blank without softening the remainder thereof, and to mold such thickened margin around the cap-receiving bead of the bottle and immediately to harden it thereon. In this connection I propose to utilize infra-red rays or other radiant heat for softening the flange of the bottle cap blank while shielding and thermally insulating the top of the blank from such rays. Infra-red rays are preferred because of the ease with which they may be directed and controlled.

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