TaZa Pop-the-Top Beer Bottle Opener (Black): Automatic Bottle Opener, No Damage to Cap | Fun Bartender Tool | Push Down Decapitator Bottle Cap Opener by

Product Information

Thanks to the ingenuity of Ermal “Ernie” C. Fraze, we now find ourselves, ice-cold can in hand, listening to the sound of summer: “Pshhh!” “Tsssk!” “Fwshawww!” As the commodity caught on in the mid-19th century, American inventor Ezra J. Warner, spotting a need, designed the first can opener: a blade that sawed a circle around the lid’s rim, leaving a sharp metal edge in its wake. Patented on January 5, 1858, Warner’s invention aided Yankee troops during the Civil War. Sixty-eight years later, on May 20, 1926, Charles A. Bunker patented the modern can opener. It’s important to keep your bottle opener clean and free from dirt, dust and grime. To do so, simply wipe down your opener with a damp cloth after each use. If the opener is especially dirty, you can also use some mild soap and water to clean it thoroughly.

There are a few different types of bottle openers, each designed for its own specific purpose. The most common is the classic “church key” opener, which has a flat end that can be used to pry off metal caps from bottles and cans.

Beneno Wing Corkscrew Wine Bottle Opener

In 1795, during the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte, troubled by his troops’ spoiling rations, offered a 12,000-franc prize to anyone who might advance food preservation. Fifteen years later, French chef Nicolas Appert finally won Napoleon’s prize by inventing the first hermetically sealed glass container; that same year, 1810, English inventor Peter Durand patented the first tin-coated iron cans. When using a winged opener, firmly grip the bottle and slide the serrated portion under the lip of the cap. Then, press down on one side of the opener until you hear a “pop” sound as it releases from the bottle. From the early 1960s to the early ’70s, the zip-top was the world’s go-to tab. “Fraze was riding the wave of aluminum,” says Liebhold. “Cans were historically made of steel. But steelworkers, these big, bruising people, were more focused on railroads and bridges, not lightweight cans. This allowed the aluminum industry to compete, to take over the can industry. And, curiously, it’s easier to make a pop-top out of aluminum than steel. It was a bizarre alignment of forces.” Early cans, a niche item, were opened with a chisel and hammer. “Glass jars were more popular because consumers could see through the container,” says Amy Bentley, a food historian at New York University. “In the beginning, there was a lot of distrust over canning because, at the time, there was so much food adulteration. Being able to see the product boosted consumer confidence.”

In 1974, the New York Times reported, “The accidental swallowing of tabs and rings from beer and soft drink cans is becoming a serious medical problem. … Beverage consumers have swallowed the aluminum pull tabs and rings, which lodged in the esophagus, or gullet, and required emergency surgery for their removal.” These accidents happened because many people would pull the tab off and immediately drop the metal ring down into the can before drinking its contents, the article goes on to explain. “This is the procedure that many environmentalists have advised the public to do as a means of reducing the litter problem and protecting wildlife.” Tab trials A church key is a small, double-edged metal tool found in many kitchen drawers—one side is triangular-tipped for piercing metal cans, the other rounded for opening bottles. (The bottle-opener side resembles the handle of an old-fashioned church key; hence, the name.) In the 1950s, when opening a beer, drinkers punctured a triangular hole in either side of the top of the can—one hole for drinking, the other for airflow. Be sure to dry the tool off with a soft cloth afterwards so that any moisture doesn’t cause it to rust or corrode. Unless the manufacturer specifically says otherwise, you shouldn’t put the opener in the dishwasher. I personally did not invent the easy-open can end,” Fraze told the New York Times in July 1963. “People have been working on that since 1800. What I did was develop a method of attaching a tab on the can top.”

Our Picks For The Top Bottle Openers

Using a bottle opener is simple and straightforward. For church key types, simply place the flat end underneath the bottle cap and press down to pull it off. Still, the pull-off zip-top left consumers holding a razor-sharp piece of detached aluminum, wondering where to trash it. Those who lived during its heyday may remember the zip-top and the havoc it wreaked well. Zip-top cons Had Fraze remembered his church key at that 1959 picnic—had he never been forced to wield his car fin as a can opener—we might not have the modern pop-top. But the owner of Dayton Reliable Tool Company, a machine tool business, did forget his church key, and while the episode maddened him at the time, it had him uttering that age-old inventors’ creed: “There must be a better way.”

The pop-top may seem like a simple invention. But by the time Fraze came around, the gadget was 150 years in the making. On cans and can openers

On cans and can openers

Multi-tool openers will vary slightly depending on model, but the basic premise is to insert the end of the opener into the container and twist until you hear a “pop” or feel it give way.