Invention of crown cork by William Painter

William Painter, an American of British descent who lived in Baltimore, Maryland founded Crown Cork & Seal after inventing the ‘crown cork’ in 1891.

Carbonated beverages were all the rage in the 1880s, but painter recognized a serious shortcoming: the lack of a reliable bottle cap – nothing on the market properly sealed in all those tasty bubbles.

Painter’s cap revolutionized bottling, lined as it was with a thin cork disc. Crown cork was simple, economical to produce and retained gas in the bottle. Though simple in concept, the crown cork provides a friction-fit sufficient to seal pressurized beverages.

His single-use, cork line metallic cap eliminated problems that had plagued the bottling industry for centuries, including leakage and contamination.

The idea moved rapidly, as Crown opened plants in Brazil, France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. by the time of Painter’s death in 1906.
Invention of crown cork by William Painter