William_Painter_(inventor)

William Painter (inventor)

William Painter (inventor)

American mechanical engineer and inventor

William Painter (November 20, 1838 – July 15, 1906) was an American mechanical engineer, inventor and the founder of Crown Holdings, Inc., a Fortune 500 company. He most notably invented the crown cork bottle cap and bottle opener.

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Early life and career

Painter was born in 1838 in Triadelphia, then a mill town in Montgomery County, Maryland to Dr. Edward Painter and Louisa Gilpin Painter.[2] He moved to Baltimore, Maryland in 1865 to begin a career as a foreman at the Murrill & Keizer's machine shop. He worked with manufacturers to develop a universal neck for all glass bottles and started the Crown Cork & Seal Company of Baltimore in 1892 to manufacture caps that could be used to seal the universal necks.[3]

Patents

Painter patented 85 inventions, including the common bottle cap, the bottle opener, a machine for crowning bottles, a paper-folding machine, a safety ejection seat for passenger trains, and also a machine for detecting counterfeit currency.

He was inducted to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006.[4]

References

  1. [1]
    "MoCo's Lost City: Triadelphia". The MoCo Show. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  2. [2]
    Painter, Orrin Chalfant (1914). William Painter and his father, Dr. Edward Painter: sketches and reminiscences. Baltimore: Arundel Press. p. 41. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  3. [3]
    "History and Timeline". Crown Holdings, Inc. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  4. [4]
    "Inductees: William Painter". National Inventors Hall of Fame. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
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