Iron City, the Pittsburgh-based brewery, became the first producer of beer to use new pull-tab technology. In 1962, they introduced the can you see above. Created by an engineer who, legend has it, found himself at a picnic with beer but no church key, the pull tab was a flat piece of metal riveted to the top of the can that you pulled off to reveal the graduated flask-shaped hole from which you drank. Schlitz soon followed suit, incorporating the pull tab into cans before the year was out. By June, 1963, 40 breweries were using pull-tabs.

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