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Ohio inventions and firsts · Invention · 1959

Easy-open pull-tab can end

Ermal Fraze (Dayton Reliable Tool & Manufacturing, founded 1949) invented the pull-tab can opener in 1959 after opening beer cans on a car bumper at a picnic; Pittsburgh Brewing's Iron City was the first user (sources give 1962 or 1963).

At a glance

Year
1959
By
Ermal Cleon 'Ernie' Fraze
Company
Dayton Reliable Tool
Place
Kettering (Dayton area), Montgomery County ZIP 45429 · Kettering · Montgomery County
Patent
US 3,255,917 US 3,255,917 (Fraze, 'Container opening device', granted 1966)

The story

Until around 1960, a beer or soda can needed a separate opener. If you did not have one, you had a problem. Ermal Fraze, a Dayton engineer, ran into exactly that at a picnic in 1959, when he forgot his opener and used a car bumper to open the cans.

Fraze had moved to Dayton and founded the Dayton Reliable Tool and Manufacturing Company in 1949. His first lever design left sharp edges, so he reworked it into the pull-tab. Pittsburgh Brewing's Iron City beer was the first user, in 1962 or 1963 depending on the source.

Fraze sold the invention to Alcoa. His patent, number 3,255,917, is listed as 1963 by Wikipedia and 1966 by Google Patents. By 1965 about 75 percent of U.S. breweries had adopted the pull-tab.

Pull-tabs had a cost. They came off the can and became litter, and in the mid-1970s stay-tabs that stay attached replaced them. Fraze's company supplied can-opening machinery worldwide and was bringing in more than $500 million a year by 1980. He died in 1989, and the Fraze Pavilion in Kettering carries his name.

Timeline

  • 1949: Fraze founds the Dayton Reliable Tool & Manufacturing Company. (Dayton, OH) source
  • 1959: After a picnic without an opener, Fraze begins work on the pull-tab. (Dayton, OH) source
  • 1962: Iron City beer is first to use the pull-tab (some sources say 1963). (Pittsburgh, PA) source
  • 1965: About 75 percent of U.S. breweries use the technology. (United States) source
  • 1975: Stay-tabs that remain attached are introduced after litter concerns (mid-1970s). (United States) source
  • 1989: Fraze dies. (Ohio) source

What it changed

  • About 75 percent of U.S. breweries used pull-tabs by 1965.
  • Fraze's company sold can-opening machinery worldwide and reached over $500 million in yearly revenue by 1980.

Why it matters

Eliminated the need for can openers.

Worth knowing

Wikipedia dates Ermal Fraze's invention to 1963, while Google Patents shows his patent granted in 1966. A patent sometimes cited for the pull tab, US 3,349,949, is actually Brown and Peters' ring-shaped tab of 1967.

Places in Ohio to see

Further reading

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.