You’ve seen these crown bottle caps, haven’t you? A type of bottle cap that has almost become indispensable and are found in bottles across the globe, the crown bottle cap, though small, played a big role in revolutionising the bottling industry. American inventor William Painter was the head behind these crowns.
William Painter
| Photo Credit:
Orrin Chalfant Painter, Photographed by H.L. Perkins, December 20, 1896 / Wikimedia Commons
Born in Triadelphia, Maryland in 1838, Painter was a tinkerer throughout his lifetime. By bringing together the ideation of an inventor with an engineer’s mindset, Painter was able to build a number of devices in his lifespan. These included a paper-folding machine, a device to detect currency that was counterfeit, and even a safety ejection seat for passenger trains, among others. None of these, however, were nearly as successful or popular as Painter wanted them to be. That came about in the final quarter of his lifetime, when he was in his 50s!
Sell in large quantities
Even though his inventions weren’t failures, it got him nowhere near the fortune that he thought could be his if he made his mark. Painter increasingly started believing that his best shot at this would be by inventing an object that would be disposable, while at the same time being something that sells in large quantities.
This was in the 1880s, a period of time when carbonated drinks were all the rage. The fizzy, effervescent quality of these beverages – owing to the carbon dioxide they contained – were sought after, but they were the issue as well. Making sure that the drinks retained the bubbly nature even as customers took them home proved to be particularly problematic.
Packaging problem
At its core, it was a problem of packaging. The stoppers – the object that fits into the top of the bottle – of the time were usually made of cork, metal, or porcelain, and were fitted as caps of the bottles that were largely made of glass. These caps didn’t afford sufficient protection to retain the carbon dioxide inside, meaning that the bubbly nature was quickly lost. Add to it the fact that when the drink came in contact with some of these materials, it changed the taste of the drink, or worse, made it toxic on occasions. In essence, these caps meant that the shelf life of these drinks were rather short.
Painter found a solution to this problem, thereby revolutionising the bottling industry. What’s more, it fitted into his idea of an object that would be disposed of, but at the same time be made in large quantities. Painter’s idea was a specific type of bottle caps, what he called the crown cork.
Resembles an inverted crown
Painter came up with a metal lid that had a corrugated end, resembling an inverted crown, giving the bottle cap its name. When pressed around the head of the bottle, it provided a near-perfect closure, which was way better than what was possible during that time. Painter also lined the metal lid with a thin cork disc (these discs are made using a plastic compound currently). He did this not only to improve the seal, but also to protect the drink from going toxic by coming in contact with the metal.
Painter obtained a patent (U.S. patent no. 468,258) for his “Bottle-sealing device” on February 2, 1892. These devices did their job of keeping the bottles leak proof, in addition to being objects that were cheap and designed for one-time use. Within a couple of years, Painter also patented a bottle cap lifter, what we now call as bottle openers.
Convinces everyone
Still searching for his fortune, Painter set up his own manufacturing business in Baltimore the same year, the Crown Cork and Seal Company. Having a product that works is one thing, but convincing everyone else that it does is quite another. At a time when there was no uniform bottle size and shape, the fact that the bottles had to be made in a specific way for the crown caps to work added further to his challenge.
He was up for the challenge. He not only convinced others in the business to switch to his requirements so that the crown cap could fit neatly around the bottle’s neck, but also went a step further. Envisioning the need for a means by which these caps could be efficiently pressed onto the bottles, he came up with a foot-powered crowner device by 1898 – a perfect way for him to turn 60.
This device ensured that force was applied in the right way. Not only was the sealing perfect, but chances of the glass bottles breaking down due to inappropriate force also went down. Add to it the fact that bottles could be capped both quickly and easily, and Painter had a winner in his hands.
Still in vogue
The turn of the century saw Painter’s inventions being adopted worldwide as the advantages were apparent to anyone who saw them in use. By 1906, the year in which Painter died, his company had manufacturing plants in Europe, Asia, and South America.
Painter had more than 80 patents in his lifetime. The company that he set up continued to grow even after his death, producing nearly half the world’s bottle caps by the 1930s. Now operating as Crown Holdings, they’ve continued to ideate and innovate in the packaging industry for food and beverages. Painter not only created a fortune for himself, but invented a simple device that has allowed his business to be a Fortune 500 company.
Play this game
While there’s a specific purpose for which crown bottle caps are built for, there are quite a lot of other uses to which it is put to as well. We are talking about recreation here and how these caps can come in handy when you might feel bored.
Here’s two versions of a single game that can be played by two players.
Collect all the crown bottle crowns that you have at your disposal. Split it into two equal halves. If you have an odd number of crowns, leave one behind. Give one set to your opponent and retain the other set.
Collect all the crown bottle crowns that you have at your disposal.
| Photo Credit:
Ohene okai / Wikimedia Commons
The objective of the game is to flip your crown in such a way that it goes on top of your opponent’s crown cap. The winner in each round is the one who manages this.
Flip the crowns like how we play carrom.
| Photo Credit:
Ohene okai / Wikimedia Commons
One way of playing the game is using your fingers to flip the crown, the same way you would use your fingers on a striker in a carrom board.
Or blow air…
| Photo Credit:
Ohene okai / Wikimedia Commons
The second way of playing this game is by blowing air with your mouth.
You can either allow the winning crown to retain its place on the table (the one who hasn’t played all crowns will be the winner at the end), or replace both crowns and keep a scoreboard as to who wins each round.
Published – February 02, 2025 12:57 am IST
