Historical archaeologists and others trying to date historical sites by means of the artifacts found on them are increasingly interested in common items manufactured during the lifetimes of people still living. This dating guide is intended to provide a simple source for the most common artifacts found in archaeological or historic contexts.
Cathy Spude compiled the following dating information for use by the public and professionals.
Closures, Bottle
1857-1912: Hutchison stopper (Kaplan 1982: 128).
1892: Patent for the crown cap was awarded to William Painter (Kaplan 1982: 123).
1909: Introduction of crown-like closure with no corrugations in the skirt (Everette 1982: 168).
1909: Invention of composition cork for use as liner in crown caps (Lief 1965:25).
1912: Widespread adoption of the crown cap (Kaplan 1982).
1927: Charles E. McManus developed a way to granulate cork, for use in crown cap (Kaplan 1982: 124).
1930: Spot crowns (plastic lined) (Kaplan 1982: 125).
1933: Pilferproof roll-on closure for use on alcohol bottles (Everette 1982: 185).
1955: Introduction of solid, molded polyvinyl chloride lined crown. 0.235″ I.007″ skirt (Everette 1982: 168, 174; Ward et al. 1977: 239).
1956: Short-skirted crown cap (7/32″) introduced (Ward et al. 1977: 239).
1957: Plastic liners in crown caps instead of cork were first used (Kaplan 1982: 124).
1965: Twist-off crown cap (Kaplan 1982: 131).
1965: Roll-on closure (Kaplan 1982: 131).
Ca. 1965: Elimination of cork-lined crown cap (Everette 1982: 168).
1966: Introduction of the “turn-off” crown cap, 4-threaded finish (Everette 1982: 168).
1966: Aluminum roll-on closure for beer bottles. 28 mm only size used for beer (Everette 1982: 182).
1977: Plastic bottle cap introduced (Kaplan 1982: 131).
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