1920s Perfection Can Opener

1920s Perfection Can Opener

Approximately 8"

I believe this can opener dates to around the 1920s? Bought this today in a lot of hand picked items.

It's going to hang out with my other bottle openers. I'm not sure what is covering it. I thought it was paint, but paint thinner didn't do anything. I was trying to clean it up to read the name more clearly. But you can barely make it out under the patina.

WATCH YOUR DIGITS
These early can openers worked on a simple principle: point, stab, and pull. Many people cut their fingers up on the sharp edges these openers left behind.

A STAR IS BORN
It wasn't until 1925 that the Star Can Opener Company of San Francisco created what our modern can openers are based on. Instead of using a blade to pry open a metal can, buyers could clamp the edge of the can between two wheels and twist the handle of one of the wheels to move the blade around the lip.

FIRST ALWAYS
January 5, 1858, Waterbury native Ezra J. Warner invented the first US can opener.

CAN YOU SAY... Durand & Appert
Peter Durand, a British merchant, received the first patent for the idea of preserving food using tin cans. The patent was granted on August 25, 1810 by King George III of England.

But before Durand a Parisian named Nicholas Appert was bottling foods in bottles with cork tops. He had spent 15 years perfecting this.

"Appert successfully preserved food by partially cooking it, sealing it in bottles with cork stoppers and immersing the bottles in boiling water. His theory of canning was all his own—Pasteur's discoveries regarding bacteria were still almost a half-century away. But Appert assumed that, as with wine, exposure to air spoiled food."

"Samples of Appert's preserved food were sent to sea with Napoleon's troops for a little over four months. Partridges, vegetables, and gravy were among 18 different items sealed in glass containers. All retained their freshness. "Not a single substance had undergone the least change at sea," Appert wrote of the trial. He was awarded the prize in 1810 by the Emperor himself.

Peter Durand was granted a patent from King George III for the idea of preserving food in "vessels of glass, pottery, tin or other metals or fit materials." Durand intended to surpass Appert and fashion containers out of tinplate. Made of iron coated with tin to prevent rusting and corrosion, tinplate could be sealed and made airtight but was not breakable like glass. A cylindrical canister and soldered lid would be much easier to handle than a fragile bottle with an unreliable cork."