Today it’s easy to take for granted the experience of grabbing an ice-cold cola out of the cooler at the beach or at a picnic and popping it open instantly to drink when you wish. But before Ermal Cleon Fraze came up with his 1959 invention of the pop-top aluminum can, this was impossible. Canning foods and beverages were popular by then, of course, but openers or keys were necessary to get into the containers’ contents. Fraze changed that by coming up with a way to include an opening tool directly on the can itself.
Fraze’s first version used a lever that pierced a hole in the can but resulted in sharp, sometimes dangerous edges. Later he created the familiar pull-tab version, which had a ring attached at the rivet for pulling, and which would come off completely to be tossed aside. He received U.S. patent No. 3,349,949 for his pull-top can design in 1963 and sold his invention to Alcoa.
To see the patent for Fraze\'s ring-pull can, go to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office\'s Web site, at www.uspto.gov/ index.html, and click on \"Search\" under \"atents\" on the left side of the page. Click on \"atent Number Search\" on the left side of the next page, and put in: 3,349,949. Hit \"Search.\" Next, click on \"Images.\" You\'ll need QuickTime to see the drawings and pages.
atents\" on the left side of the page. Click on \"
