The device came to Quebec on May 10, 1965. Prior to that you needed a can opener to get at your canned brew.
Ontario didn't even have canned beer of any kind until May 3, 1965.
Of course the pull tops were also used in soda pop cans as well and became a nuisance as they polluted the environment with their sharp nasty edges.
The riveted stay tab type that we use today was developed in 1975 by an engineer who accidentally swallowed a pull top.
There also used to be those "pop top" type cans where you'd press in a small tab to release the initial bicarbonate fizz and then push in the adjacent larger one to drink from directly or pour. See:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.angelfire.com/wi/beercans/images30/spa9-19a.jpg
These didn't last long, however, presumably because they could burst open when they fell during shipping and handling and it was too easy for over-curious children to press them open on supermarket shelves.
Some foreign beverage makers currently produce some oddball bottle caps which, to the novice, can be frustrating to open and even dangerous if one isn't careful. The sharp edges can rip your finger! See:
http://rootbeercontinuum.blogspot.ca/2013/02/bundaberg-root-beer-australia.html
I also remember those huge, heavy 1970s era "family size" glass coke bottles which would sometimes crash to the floor and explode. Thankfully, plastic has replaced those hazardous containers, although I believe some shampoo bottles still exist which can break if dropped in the bathroom!
Very few beer producers use plastic bottles. The reason? See:
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/08/isnt-beer-sold-plastic-bottles/
Certainly older readers and Mr. U.L. will remember back, ( C. 1968 ) when a similar pull tab was used on the large glass bottles of soft drinks such as Cott which relieved the purchaser the need of having a bottle opener to get at the product inside.
ReplyDeleteMany bottle openers were give-aways and had the name of a Brewery stamped in their handles, the opposite end intended for punching triangular holes in juice cans like V-8 and motor oil for cars.
Remember, later on, when motor oil came in a cardboard tin, with metal ends and soggied-up and leaked and bust when you tried to punch the triangular hole?? Damn things which helped spill more oil than the "Torrey Canyon".
Some said thats where all the Tax Dollars went in Ottawa. Hmmmm.
Other bottle openers were screwed to the wall or counter to quickly open bottle beer or small soft drinks, a V-8 can, top removed to collect the bottle caps, which kids would collect.
( 'Member the big water filled soft drink coolers with two rubber edged lids which circulated chilled water around the bottles? an old towel on the side of the cooler to dry the bottles.You paid at the cash. Other coolers suspended the drinks by their necks in long slots, a maze with a coin-operated door at the end to get the drink. )
Most soft drinks came in wooden crates stencilled with the name on the outside, the crates now being a collectible in their own right.
The problem with the pull tabs on the bollles was that the tabs would catch on each other in the crate as the bottles were being pulled out in a hurry to stock a cooler, opening the ones still in the crate, runining the 'Fizz' and the sale.
Blah, Blah, Blah.
Have to go!
Happy May Day, which used to be Moving Day in Montreal as I recall, keeping BTCo's green trucks and the Installers and the Framemen real busy.
Thank You.
Before they moved to Ville St. Laurent, the Pepsi-Cola bottling works was located at 4900 Jean Talon--that section of the street actually named de Namur before being later amalgamated into the rest of Jean Talon proper.
ReplyDeleteThe building still exists: the western end of which is currently occupied by the Village des Valeurs discount store.
Through Pepsi's front windows you could see the bottles on their assembly-line being filled, capped, and stacked before shipment. Back then, passers-by on the street could just walk inside to watch the loud, clanking procedings up close. Sometimes a bottle would break or fall off the fast-moving conveyor.
We also discovered that by walking just inside the service entrance on the west side of the building, there was one of those aforementioned coolers where you inserted your dime and slid the dripping wet, cold Pepsi along and out, however in that particular in-house cooler you only had to insert a nickel! It was really placed there for the employees' use, but they never stopped us from taking advantage of it! Yippee!
Coca-Cola was located back then (circa 1950-60s) at 7295 Upper Lachine Road; Seven-Up at 160 Graham in TMR; Canada Dry at 8700 Decarie; Cott at 7325-35 Decarie; and Allan's at 5130 Western Avenue.
In those days, you only received 2 cents deposit when you returned the empties back to the store. Despite that, we kids would eagerly collect them (as well as beer bottles from our parents and elsewhere), bring them in, and buy comic books, chocolate bars, bags of chips, ice cream cones, etc., which cost only a dime.
Small change went much further back in the day. Nowadays, most people don't even bother to pick up coins from the street or floor.
One of the hazards to the detachible tabs was that certain birds would poke their bills thru the finger hole whilst feeding, where it would get stuck.
ReplyDeleteThe mouth was then held closed and they could no longer feed.
Similar to those videos of bears, skunks, squirrels etc. with their heads stuck in jam jars.
Those six-pack beer rings for tins are lethal, also.
Litter everywhere, sadly.
Thank You, Again.