First Aluminum Test Can??

[keithker]

I'm not sure if getting the exact dates down for the very first aluminum can are determined but this Continental aluminum test can sure helps understand it some. I was lucky enough to get this can. When I first unpacked it from the box I noticed how heavy the can seemed. Then peering down inside the can it was obvious that it wasn't your typical aluminum can. It had a hard feeling almost like drawn steel. I don't have a Primo can handy but believe it has much of the same thickness as the bottom of the Primo can but maybe a little thicker. Then there was the date 1-5-56 on the bottom. Obviously from the canning company. So now the question is when was aluminum first discussed. I'm not the expert and hope some that are can pile on or add to the topic. Well it seems Coors first discussed it back in 1955 (see the article The_Corpus_Christi_Caller_Times_Fri__Jul_8_1955). We then know that Primo was the first aluminum beer can in 1958 (see the articles Honolulu_Star_Bulletin_Fri__Oct_10_1958). Thing is that Kaiser Aluminum was used to make the Primo beer can and not Continental. So the question is was the Continental test aluminum can ever used? Hope to hear more from others.

The_Corpus_Christi_Caller_Times_Fri__Jul_8__1955_.jpg (60.94 KiB) Viewed 1825 times

Honolulu_Star_Bulletin_Fri__Oct_10__1958_ (1).jpg (67.08 KiB) Viewed 1825 times

Honolulu_Star_Bulletin_Fri__Oct_10__1958_.jpg (76.88 KiB) Viewed 1825 times

[Mark (expired)]

There are French, German, Swiss, Danish and other aluminum cans that predate Primo and Coors including concave flat tops and two-piece aluminum cone tops. The articles show casing Primo's release in the local Hawaiian newspapers reference that Primo had looked at the European aluminum cans and improved the production process to can faster. Most of the articles talk about how Primo was "America's first" aluminum can - not quite that America was where the first aluminum production beer can was filled and marketed. The newspaper page below and in your post from October 1958 in the middle top article comments about "German Technology"...

[willssoda]

Not a test can but thought it would be fitting to post here. This can, so we were told by a Kaiser Sr Exec is the first can to be produced at the Kaiser Union City plant. The Can has the number 1 listed in different languages and was given to employees of that plant although I have never verified this it seems legit. Maybe someone here can verify or correct me.

[Ziphippie]

checking out dem cans. Ziphippie

[willssoda]

Idk that dudes eyes appear to be a little further up

[Ziphippie]

Heck yeah, I wasn’t talking about the Primos’ - Ziphippie

[willssoda]

[Mark (expired)]

July 21st of 1958 in the Honolulu Star Bulletin a Hawaiian and national first with the caveat ".. ready for production in the U.S."

17 months later, more pressing is finding the answer to this zesty question-

December 16th of 1960 in the Honolulu Star Bulletin...

[Longopener]

The article in the BCCA Magazine ( with Coors president on the cover) said something about Coors investing a $ million developing the aluminum beer can. Also leads us to believe Coors invented the aluminum can. Why would Coors spend that kind of money when the aluminum beer can had already been invented in Europe and was being marketed?

[Mark (expired)]

The story may be a series of steps and facets. First, while the Germans had developed a stable production process for aluminum cans, it was not on the scale of a major US brewer's operation - in an article at the time of the first production runs (Honolulu Advertiser 10 Oct. 1958 page B2 far right column), it was stated that that the German systems was "semi-automatic" whereas the Hawaii Brewing Co. had developed a single fully automatic process. The Hawaii Brewing Co was owned at the time by the Beatrice Foods conglomerate. The President of the Hawaii Brewing Co. was a fellow named Aaron G. Marcus who was a "one time native of" Denver (and also happened to be an alum of the University I work for). The article states Marcus first noticed the German seamless beer cans in Hong Kong while on a trip.

A page 12 article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin from the same day states: "Officials of the Adolph Coors Company, pioneer Colorado brewery, and Primo have worked together in improving on an earlier German process of making beer containers from aluminum slugs". There was a fellow (drawing a blank on his name) who consulted(?) with both breweries, and it may be that Coors wanted to see how well it all worked in Hawaii before committing their primary product to the new container? Again - Primo was a smaller asset of Beatrice whereas Coors Banquet was the primary product for Coors at the time. If that was the strategy, it worked well as Primo had problems with the heat of pasteurization melting some of the wax coating creating a bad taste - Coors was/is not pasteurized. Additionally, Primo is thought to have over filled their cans with the initial runs (the overfilling was because they made the concave lid shape deeper - possibly due to needing the lids to be stronger to withstand the higher speed process?). The overfilling caused a beer shower for their customers when opening the cans. Both issues Coors avoided when they released their 7oz cans. Coors marketing folks at least enjoying celebrating that they were the first to successfully deploy aluminum beer cans on a large scale in the U.S., and, it seems that over time since the Primo and German parts of the story are not remembered - nor highlighted.

[Mark (expired)]

https://www.aluminum.org/product-markets/aluminum-cans

The above link demonstrates that even one of the industry associations gets the story wrong.

and at least when I did a search on first aluminum beer can - this was at the top of the results.

[keithker]

@Mark (expired) I find it interesting that although Continental Canning Company obviously developed an obvious test can but never seemed to have gotten an actual production can off the ground until much much later.

Also, based on the dates on the bottom of my can and @foreigncanman Tom's can I thought this was interesting:

In 1956 Continental Can acquired Hazel-Atlas Glass Co., third-largest U.S. manufacturer of glass containers, and thus became the first company with a full line of containers in metal, paper, and glass. It also bought Robert Gair Co., a leading producer of paperboard products. In the same year it purchased Cochrane Foil Co. to manufacture and distribute aluminum plates and rigid foil packages for the frozen-food industry and other food suppliers.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/poli ... can-co-inc

By 1973 investment analysts deemed the metal can industry to be in a state of crisis because of oversupply and tough competition. Both Continental Can and American Can were said to have made the wrong decision in the 1960s by adding capacity for both tin plate and tin-free steel production while the aluminum can was rapidly gaining ground (although Continental Can converted its four Florida plants to aluminum in 1960 for fruit juice concentrates.)

Between 1983 and 1986 Continental Can invested heavily in the two-piece can-manufacturing process, spending nearly $500 million to meet the growing demand for aluminum containers. With Alumax Inc., the company built an aluminum plant in Texarkana, Texas, which began recycling used cans provided by Continental Resource Recovery, a subsidiary.

[Mark (expired)]

Wonder --- it may be one of the reasons Coors released the first aluminum cans in a 7oz size to help handle the stresses on a high speed production line? The smaller diameter of the can body help to reduce the asymmetrical pressures on the tp and bottom, right? Round portion of the seamless cylinder is able to handle lateral pressure well, the integral base also can too ( and the early 7oz cans have a rib around the base for reinforcement). It is the lid and its rim seam that are therefore the most likely to fail?