24 August: Can Opener Day

Can Opener Day celebrates the first known use of a can opener. 10 things you didn't know about can openers:

1. They're also known as tin openers.
2. Can openers weren't invented for 48 years after food was first put in cans.
3. So did people really have to wait nearly 50 years to get at the food in the cans? No – they opened them using a hammer and chisel. In fact, that was the manufacturers recommended instruction. Cans in those days were so thick a can opener wouldn't have worked on them anyway. They were made of wrought Iron and lined with Tin.
4. The first can opener was invented by one Ezra J. Warner in the USA in the 1850s. At this point, cans had ceased to be a novelty or purely for military use, transporting supplies for armies. Not only that but they'd started making them out of thinner metals, like steel. His invention was a claw shaped blade which the opener used to saw around the lid. It wasn't a great hit with the general public as it was actually quite dangerous to use. Often the staff at the grocery store would open cans for people before they took them home. British surgical instrument maker Robert Yeates invented a slightly more user friendly version at around the same time, with a hand operated tool to move the blade around the lid.
5. The twist-key can-opener was patented by J. Osterhoudt in 1866. That's the type you still find on tins of sardines and corned beef. Each can came with its own opener.
6. The more familiar design of a can opener with a rotating wheel was invented in 1870 by William Lyman from Connecticut.
7. The electric can opener was invented in 1931 but didn't catch on until about 1956 when they were re-designed.
8. Soldiers still used pretty basic can openers called P-38 and P-51. They were known as "John Waynes" because the actor appeared in a training video using one.
9. Can openers could well become museum pieces in the future as most cans now have a ring pull so the lid can just be peeled off. However, it's worth having a can opener in the house in case the ring pull breaks off.
10. "Assume a can opener" is a phrase used to mock economists and theorists who base their conclusions on assumptions. It started as a joke in a bout 1970: A physicist, a chemist, and an economist are stranded on a desert island a can of food but no tools with which to open it. The physicist and the chemist devised ingenious mechanisms for opening the can, but the economist merely said, "Assume we have a can opener".

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