Beverage Can History - Self Opening Can

January 24^th will mark the 78^th birthday of the beer can so I thought I would shine a little light on one aspect of the can: the self opening top. What we take for granted today was not always so easy. Before the early 1960's, all beer and pop cans had to be opened by piercing two small holes in the top with a can opener. This could always present a problem to anybody caught in a place without an opener. People would then come up with all kinds of ways to get at the much desired contents inside. Screw drivers, hatchets, pocket knives, or anything sharp would be used to open the can. This often resulted in a rather unpleasant beer or pop shower as the contents would erupt out of the improperly opened can.

For one man on a picnic in 1959, this was not acceptable. His name was Ermal Fraze. After a day of opening beer cans on the sharp end of a car bumper (he left the opener at home) Mr. Fraze theorized that there had to be a better way. Since Ermal owned the Reliable Tool and Manufacturing Co. in Dayton Ohio, he found some time to work on the project. Others had tried to develop a pull tab can without success but Ermal was unfazed. Fraze concentrated on using a rivet connected to a lever at the center of the top of the can. This was attached to a strip of pre-scored aluminum. The lever would detach the pre-scored area and then it could be pulled away for a nice clean opening. Early versions were lawsuits waiting to happen, as the edges were very sharp and the tabs often broke before the tab pulled completely off. Many people finally gave up and punched the can opener holes into the tab top area instead.

Fraze sold his patented idea to Alcoa in the early Sixties. By 1963, the tab top was ready to market and the first beer in a pull tab can was Iron City Beer by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company, an innovator in new packaging ideas. By 1965, 75% of all breweries were using a pull tab version and the punch top can was nearly obsolete by the end of the decade. The pull tab itself began to disappear in the mid 1970's with the introduction of the non-detachable sta-tabs we know today. Fraze's company continued to innovate and prospered by supplying can end machinery to thousands of companies worldwide. Revenues reached $500 million dollars annually. Fraze died in 1989 at the age of 76 and his company was sold to the management. It continues to operate to this day. So the next time you pop open a can of beer or pop, hoist a toast to Ermal Fraze for making your life a little easier.