ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER

Abelman, Frayne, &Schwab

On July 19, 1870 the U. S. Patent Office issued U.S. Patent No. 105583 to William Lyman of West Meriden, Connecticut entitled, "Can Opener."

Although there were other can openers around before his, Lyman is credited with inventing the first rotating wheel can opener.

Lyman was born in 1821 in Middlefield, Connecticut. At the age of 15 he was apprenticed to the local company Griswold & Couch, located in Meriden, Connecticut, to learn pewtersmithery (if that's a word), and worked there until 1844. After that, he continued working as a pewtersmith with various local companies until 1880.

Rotary can opener of 1870 by William Lyman.
A side view is added below the handle

Lyman was a dedicated inventor, and was awarded several US patents. The most famous is his rotating wheel can opener disclosed in the '583 Patent. Whereas previous can openers were basically variations of a knife, Lyman's design was the first attempt to facilitate the procedure shown above (see picture). The can was to be pierced in its center with the sharp metal rod of the opener. Then the length of the lever had to be adjusted to fit the can size, and the lever fixed with the wingnut. The top of the can was cut by pressing the cutting wheel into the can near the edge and rotating it along the can's rim. The need to pierce the can first was a nuisance, and this can opener design did not survived. In 1925, a modern-style opener, equipped with an additional serrated wheel, was invented to substitute for Lyman's design.

Lyman had several other patents dedicated to improvements to various household food utensils such as a refrigerating pitcher (1858), fruit can lids (1862), tea and coffee pots and a butter-dish. As an example illustrating the nature of those improvements, Lyman's fruit can lid relied on the physical principle that hot food placed in a jar and then allowed to cool would suck down the lid, provided with an elastic rim inside, thereby sealing the can.

Also on July 19, 1969, Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon, after their lunar module separated from the command module and landed on the lunar surface at 09:18 GMT/4:18 EDT on the Sea of Tranquility. Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin establish Tranquility Base while Michael Collins orbited above. Armstrong stepped on the lunar surface at 10:56 ET and proclaimed, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Internationally, nearly 700 million television viewers witnessed the event live as it happened.