Matt Vestengen-CoxPOV: Travelling outside of Europe
Source: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZCfUCzhHPR/ #video #reel #europe
s10n@matt
So bottle caps are still an issue?
And am I now supposed to be for or against it? Also: Why?
Aral Balkan
Charlie Stross@aral @s10n @matt I suspect a more ergonomic solution to the bottle-top problem hasn't happened because it would cost more than this minor irritant. Not necessarily in materials but in the cost of re-tooling production lines to use it.
Compare drink cans of today with those of 50 years ago and there's a night-and-day improvement in ergonomics *but* it needs whole different production lines to fill the cans that didn't require a "church key", and later a ring-pull, to open them.
@aral @s10n @matt I will add that I've *seen* a church key gadget but am too young to have ever used one—and I was born at the Boomer/Gen-X cut-over. So, like slide rules, these days they're a diagnostic for geezerdom (but a useful reminder that even something as obvious as "how to open a can of Coke" has changed frequently since the 1950s).
M Schommer GPN24
DrYak@musevg @cstross @aral @s10n @matt was wondering the same, and managed to keyword-search a source [link deleted, @denisbloodnok 's reply bellow is better] Yes, it looks like a nornal bottle opener. The key part here is not the bottle opener end, but the pointy bit at the opposite end: you can use it to stab cans open (I would guess in a similar fashion as the sharp hook on a swiss knife can opener when you start?)
Major Denis Bloodnok@denisbloodnok
Ah, thanks for the WP link! There's this picture at the end, titled "Opening a beer can with a "church key", 1963" and now it seems to me like before the "Ring Pull" cans, no tool-less opening mechanism did exist. People needed to bring their own tooling even for opening beer or soda cans. I wasn't aware of that… my beverage career started with Ring Pull and single-purpose, can-opener-less bottle openers :)
#RingPull #ChurchKey #TIL
Eric Likness@musevg @denisbloodnok @dryak @cstross @aral @s10n @matt
I remember as kid growing up the big cans of Hi-C that used to be shelf stable. And those always needed to be opened with the church key. And they would sit open in the fridge for weeks on end until we finished it. Thankfully the galvanized metal could take it.
There's an example here at the :19 second mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX7a5Bp77EM
Hi-C Peach Drink Commercial (1977)
Jeff Grigg@carpetbomberz @musevg @denisbloodnok @dryak @cstross @aral @s10n @matt
Oh, we used these frequently in the 1960s and 1970s, for a lot more than beer. Many canned goods, like tomato sauce, were opened with that left part.
@carpetbomberz @musevg @denisbloodnok @dryak @cstross @aral @s10n @matt
And bottle openers, like that right part?
I have two of them on my desk right next to me right now.
I'm not running a museum. I've used both of them within the past few years.
@JeffGrigg @musevg @denisbloodnok @dryak @cstross @aral @s10n @matt
And if anyone bought quarts of oil from an automotive dept. Of a dept store, they all had that same flat metal top. Design to have to triangular holes ripped into them.
@carpetbomberz @musevg @denisbloodnok @dryak @cstross @aral @s10n @matt
Old school oil cans.
Image from
https://www.goantiques.com/3-one-quart-collectible-168652
(It comes in plastic bottles now.
… with the problematic separate caps, of course!)
@JeffGrigg @musevg @denisbloodnok @dryak @cstross @aral @s10n @matt
And they came in flat cases (not boxes). Same as cases of 24 beer cans.
@carpetbomberz
I have very faint memories of these things (pics from ebay). The beige one comes close to the OG "Church Key" concept I just learned about, but the small yellow one were more common in Germany (smaller churches?)
@JeffGrigg @denisbloodnok @dryak @cstross @aral @s10n @matt
I have very faint memories of these things (pics from ebay). The beige one comes close to the OG "Church Key" concept I just learned about, but the small yellow one were more common in Germany (smaller churches?)
@JeffGrigg @denisbloodnok @dryak @cstross @aral @s10n @matt
@musevg @carpetbomberz @denisbloodnok @dryak @cstross @aral @s10n @matt
"Blanco BBQ," a local place I often bicycle to on weekends, has several of these, with small buckets underneith, to catch the caps.
@JeffGrigg @musevg @denisbloodnok @dryak @cstross @aral @s10n @matt
And there is yet another can opener to rule them all. In the era prior to the hinged devices with a metal rolling disk. You could use this monstrosity to poke an initial hole near the rim, and slowly nip/fold your around the edge until you girdled the can lid. We had one at home. I never saw anyone use it. And yet no one EVER threw it away.
Feel like this is the thing U.S. Civil War troops might have used to open Tinned Meat
mathew