Crown Cap

The crown cork (also known as a crown seal, crown cap or just a cap), the first form of bottle cap, was invented by William Painter in 1892 in Baltimore. The company making it was originally called the Bottle Seal Company, but it changed its name with the almost immediate success of the crown cork to the ''Crown Cork and Seal Company''. It still informally goes by that name, but is officially Crown Holdings.

Overview

A Dutch patent application from 1892

This style of closure is still in widespread use.

Prior to the invention of the external crown cork bottle stopper, soda bottles had ordinary internal cork bottle stoppers and often had rounded bottoms so they could not be stored standing upright. Corks have a tendency to dry out and shrink, allowing the gas pressure in the bottle to cause the cork to "pop", so bottles were stored on their side to prevent the corks from drying out. After the invention of the crown cork bottle stopper, this problem was eliminated, and soda bottles could be stored standing upright.

Crown corks are collected by people around the world who admire the variety of designs and relative ease of storage. Collectors tend to prefer the term "crown cap" over "cork".

The Budweiser brand of beer has, on more than one occasion, used an inverted crown cap to mimic a crown shape in their advertisements – specifically in conjunction with its "King of Beers" tagline.

See also

* Bottle opener
* Flip-top

References

External links

Live Counter of produced crown corks
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The Crowncap Collectors Society International

Bottle Cap Index

Davide's Crown Caps Homepage

Collection of Alex and Gemma

American inventions
Food packaging
Bottles

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