William Painter of Crown Cork & Seal Co.

William Painter was a machinist who became an inventor during the 1880s. By at least1885, Painter had turned his hand to bottles – specifically bottle seals. William Painter (November 20, 1838 – July 15, 1906) was born in Ireland to Dr. Edward Painter and Louisa Gilpin Painter.

William Painter had moved his wife and son to Baltimore in March of 1865 to market two of his inventions, a blacking box and a riveting machine. William Painter and some associates formed the Bottle Seal Co. in1885 to market the new seal, and the firm remained in business until the formation of the Crown Cork & Seal Co.

William Painter ’s crown cork was used to cap beer and soda bottles. It was a tin cap covered with cork, used to form a tight seal over a bottle. Soda and beer companies could use a crown cork only once and needed a steady supply.

William Painter founded the Crown Cork and Seal Company in 1892. Its primary business was the manufacture of crowns (pop off bottle caps) and closures (screw off bottle caps). William Painter’s cap revolutionized bottling, line as it was with a thin cork disc.

The idea move rapidly, as Crown opened plants in Brazil, France, Germany, Japan and the UK by the time of William Painter’s death in 1906.

In 1927, Crown was merged with a firm owned by Charles McManus Sr. Crown flourished under McManus’s direction, expanding internationally and eventually producing half the bottle caps sold worldwide.
William Painter of Crown Cork & Seal Co.