THE TIN FROM NAPOLEONIC TIMES
TO THE PRESENT

Nicolas Appert (France 1750 - 1841), two centuries ago (in 1803 the first plant at Massy using glass containers) discovered heat processing as a way to preserve perishable food by sterilizing it in air-tigh containers, hermetically closed metal can. In 1811 the English Donkin and Hall made use of metal cans.

Starting at the end of 1920s, three-piece steel cans composed of a bottom, body and lid came into use as beverage containers in the United States.

The success was immediate and this new kind of beverage container spread rapidly in the 1930s. To drink the beverage in the can, the consumer normally used an opener to make two holes in the lid a large one which the beverage was poured from and a smaller one diametrically opposed to it which made pouring quicker.

In the 1950s Christopher Buckley revolutioned the concept of tin can
manufacture:
- steel was replaced with aluminum.
- the container was made of only two pieces ( the bottom and body of the
tin were die cast and produced as a single piece).
- there was no change in lid design and an opener still had to be used.

In 1962 the easy-open lid was introduced in the U.S.A. This was the tear-off system, invented by Ernie Frace, in which the tab was completely detached from the lid. It was a winning idea but needed to be perfected: the rims of the lid were sharp and the piece that had to be pulled was difficult to handle.

In 1963 the piece that the consumer needed to pull off to open the can was modified to a U-shape.

In 1966 a ring-shaped piece, destined to last for several decades, made its first appearance.

The drawback of the pull-off type of opening was that the tab and ring were completely detached from the container and could be thrown away separately, becoming a source of litter in city and country.

To overcame this drawback, the stay-on tab was introduced (1976).
This is the system still in use today, in wich pulling on a lever creates a hole in the lid along pre-defined lines so that the tab is folded back inside the tin, without becoming detached from the lid.
The system became widespread in the early 1990s. During the second half of the decade, further improvements were introduced:

-	the rims of the lid were rounded to reduce the risk of consumers cutting themselves while drinking from the tin
-	far less strength was needed to manage the lever wich functioned to make a hole in the lid

And so we find the system crrently in use in normal and family-sized versions.

With the introduction of easy-open devices, first the tear-off method, then the stay-on method which followed, tin lids became easy to use and environmentally friendly.
What now remains to be done is to make them hygienically safe in consunption .

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