William Painter (inventor)
American mechanical engineer and inventor
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William Painter (November 20, 1838 – July 15, 1906) was an American mechanical engineer, inventor and the founder of Crown Cork & Seal Company in Baltimore (since evolved to Crown Holdings, Inc., a Fortune 500 company). He most notably invented the crown cork bottle cap, also known as the metal bottle cap.
William Painter | |
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| Born | November 20, 1838 Triadelphia, Montgomery County, Maryland, United States[1] |
| Died | July 15, 1906 (aged 67) Baltimore, Maryland, United States |
Burial place | Druid Ridge Cemetery, Pikesville, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States |
| Occupations | Inventor, engineer |
| Spouse | Harriet Deacon Painter (m. 1861) |
| Parent(s) | Dr. Edward Painter Louisa Gilpin Painter |
Early life and career
Painter was born in 1838 in Triadelphia, then a mill town in Montgomery County, Maryland to Quakers 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. He died in July 1906 at 67. [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]