page_title: Can opener
section_title: Rotating wheel can openers
hierarchical_section_title: Can opener / Rotating wheel can openers
caption_attribution_description: English: Rotating wheel can opener US patent 105,346
context_page_description: A can opener or tin opener is a mechanical device used to open tin cans. Although preservation of food using tin cans had been practiced since at least 1772 in the Netherlands, the first can openers were not patented until 1855 in England and 1858 in the United States. These early openers were basically variations of a knife, though the 1855 design continues to be produced. The first can opener, consisting of the now familiar sharp rotating cutting wheel that runs round the can's rim to cut open the lid, was invented in 1870, but was considered very difficult to operate for the ordinary consumer. A successful design came out in 1925 when a second, serrated wheel was added to hold the cutting wheel on the rim of the can. This easy-to-use design has become one of the most popular can opener models.
  Around the time of World War II, several can openers were developed for military use, such as the American P-38 and P-51. These featured a robust and compact design with a pull cutting blade hinged to a corrugated handle with a pivot. Electric can openers were introduced in the late 1950s and met with success.
context_section_description: The first rotating wheel can opener was patented in July 1870 by William Lyman of Meriden, Connecticut and produced by the firm Baumgarten in the 1890s. 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 necessity to pierce the can first was a nuisance, and this can opener design did not survive. In 1920, Edwin Anderson patented a can opener with pivoted handles with which to hold the can in one hand while a key-type handle geared to a cutting wheel is turned with the other cutting the outside of the lip, a Side can opener, unlike the "grammaphone-like" orientation of most contemporary can openers, in effect a hand-held pliers version of the Swanson Can-Opener. In 1925, the Star Can Opener Company of San Francisco, California had improved Lyman's design by adding a second, serrated wheel, called a "feed wheel", which allowed a firm grip of the can edge. This addition was so efficient that the design is still in use today.
  Whereas all previous openers required using one hand or other means to hold the can, can-holding openers simultaneously grip the can and open it. The first such opener was patented in 1931 by the Bunker Clancey Company of Kansas City, Missouri and was, therefore, called the "Bunker". It featured the now standard pliers-type handles, when squeezed would tightly grip the can rim, while turning the key would rotate the cutting wheel, progressively cutting the lid along the rim.  The cutting wheel is coupled to a serrated feed wheel as in the Star design and rotated in the opposite direction by interlocking cogwheels reducing friction. The Bunker company was absorbed by the Rival Manufacturing Company, also of Kansas City, in 1938.
caption: 1870 William Lyman can opener
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